The recumbent exercise bike is a stationary exercise bike with a normal looking chair rather than a more traditional bicycle saddle to sit on. A traditional style exercise bike (or upright as they are usually referred to) is styled very much like a normal riding bicycle where you sit upright, leaning slightly forward to reach the handlebars, and your legs extending downwards to the pedals. On a recumbant exercise bike you sit down like you would in your favorite armchair, with your legs extended forwards to reach the pedals, which are in front of the seat rather than below it. This style of exercise bike is often best suited to people who have back problems, as the chair offers better back support than an upright bike.
A recumbent exercise bike is fast becoming synonymous with most aspects of serious fitness and weight training regimes and programs. Working out with a recumbent exercise bike is itself a great cardio exercise as it is aerobic in nature (which means it helps increase your heart rate and burn oxygen). All aerobic exercises are also great for helping your body burn of excess fat reserves.
A lot of doctors, physios and personal trainers favor the recumbent style of exercise bike because they offer good support for your back, hips and shoulders, while still providing a very good workout. The fact they also offer decent levels of comfort while working out means you’re far more likely to continue with a training program than you would be with potentially less comfortable upright or dual action bikes, or even elliptical trainers.
Another advantage with this style of bike is that it’s much better for people who are more seriously overweight, simply due to the bigger seat. This will offer much more support and mean you are better able to concentrate on your workout rather than the searing pain of a bike saddle digging in where you’d least like it to!
What I also like about recumbent bikes is that you can’t cheat when you’re getting tired. On a traditional upright bike, you can stand up out of the saddle when your legs get tired, as this makes it easier and takes some of the strain off your thigh muscles. On a recumbent bike you simply can’t do that – meaning you get a much more intense workout.
The better quality recumbent exercise bikes come fitted with fitness monitors that will measure your heart rate, pulse and approximate calories burned during your workout. You also get a readout of elapsed time, current, average and maximum speed and total distance covered.
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