You’ve decided you want to exercise
at home. There are hundreds of pieces of home cardio equipment
available. The most popular are treadmills and exercise bikes.
In deciding between the two, you should compare long-term
sustainability, the effectiveness of the workouts, and safety.
Overcoming Boredom
The biggest obstacle to a home exercise routine
is sticking with it. You don’t have to drive to a gym,
so your home fitness equipment is more convenient. The problem
is that other distractions are just as convenient at home.
The key is to make your routine fun. You want to look forward
to your daily workout. You have to be realistic. Playing with
the heart rate monitor or watching the calorie counter go
up will only be fun the first couple of times you exercise.
Treadmill vs. Boredom
On a treadmill, you walk. Walking isn’t
that fun. You can walk at different speeds, but that isn’t
really much more fun. If you get a treadmill that offers an
incline, that keeps it a bit more interesting. Walking uphill
isn’t exactly fun, but it’s different. It presents
a challenge.
You can’t really read on a treadmill
because you are bouncing up and down. You can’t keep
your eyes on the same sentence, and you usually end up with
a headache. Basically, the only thing fun to do on a treadmill
is watch television or movies. If you are really into TV or
movies and are able to put your treadmill in front of a television,
you can probably keep your treadmill workout from becoming
too boring. Problems consist of commercials, the noise coming
from the machine, and again, the bouncing.
Exercise Bikes vs. Boredom
Exercise bikes are unique in that many of
them come programmed with various biking routines. You simulate
different courses that require you to sprint, pedal uphill,
and perform at different levels within one workout without
having to keep pressing buttons and changing everything. You
can even select random programs so you don’t know what’s
coming, which really keeps you on your toes. Some exercise
bikes can even be plugged into televisions and video games
to let you interactively pedal through visual courses.
On upright exercise bikes, you run into some
of the same problems as treadmills as far as reading is concerned.
Recumbent bikes, however, allow your hands to be free to hold
a book or magazine, video game controller, or phone. Multi-tasking
during an exercise bike workout keeps it from becoming boring
and allows your workout to more easily fit into a busy schedule.
Defeating boredom to successfully keep up
a long-term exercise routine is much easier with an exercise
bike than a treadmill.
The Calorie Factor
In a study conducted by Nordic Track, young,
healthy people used various exercise machines and did cardio
workouts. Although they felt they used the same intensity
on all machines, they burned the most calories on treadmills
and ski machines.
On average, most people burn about 750 calories
per hour on a treadmill. The same people are likely to burn
about 550 calories per hour on an exercise bike. So it’s
a no-brainer, right? You should get a treadmill because they
burn more calories.
Well, not exactly. You can’t get so
caught up in which machine burns the most calories. You have
to take a lot of other factors into consideration. How likely
are you to sustain a treadmill routine as opposed to an exercise
bike routine?
Because exercise bikes are usually more fun
than treadmills, you are much more likely to stick with it
long-term. This means that even though you can burn more calories
on a treadmill, you are also more likely to stop using it
altogether.
You might also find it difficult to use it
long enough per workout session to get the full benefits.
Most people find it easier to workout for 20 minutes on an
exercise bike than 20 minutes on a treadmill. You have to
think about that. If you are likely to only do 10 minutes
on a treadmill but can easily do 20 minutes on an exercise
bike, you will burn more calories per session on an exercise
bike.
So just going strictly by the numbers, treadmills
burn more calories. If you easily get bored or have tried
and failed to stick with exercise routines in the past, you
might want to consider burning less calories per hour in favor
of a sustainable long-term exercise bike regimen.
Your Safety
The biggest difference between exercise bikes
and treadmills is overall safety to your body.
The first case of safety is the most basic.
You can fall off of a treadmill. It’s very difficult,
however, to fall off of an exercise bike. In fact, you would
probably have to try to fall when riding an exercise bike.
While you might be thinking you’d have to be pretty
clumsy to fall while walking, it happens more than you’d
think. People get involved with watching television or the
beat of music. One wrong step and you can seriously injure
yourself. It’s also possible to spill water or sweat
on the treadmill track, causing a safety hazard you might
not notice until after you’ve slipped.
Another safety hazard is injury from the
activity itself. A treadmill puts quite a bit of stress on
your joints, especially your knees and ankles. Even if you
invest in a treadmill with some degree of shock absorption,
when you eventually get to a jogging or running point, you
can put severe orthopedic stress on your body, even up to
three times your body weight. People with existing conditions
such as arthritis will find a treadmill painful at times due
to this stress. Otherwise healthy individuals can sustain
injury and possible long-term damage over time.
Exercise bikes put much less stress on your
joints. A properly positioned exercise bike supports your
weight and still allows you to receive the benefits of a higher
impact cardio workout. Upright bikes can sometimes stress
your back in the way you have to bend to reach the handlebars.
Recumbent exercise bikes, however, can actually improve existing
back pain by forcing proper posture and giving support as
you exercise. On any exercise bike properly used, your knees
and ankles are not stressed as they are on a treadmill.
The less you stress joints, the less likely
you are to sustain an injury during your workout. You are
also less likely to be sore afterwards. Most importantly,
a non-workout injury doesn’t always have to halt your
exercise routine on an exercise bike. If you hurt your back
or neck, you will find the support of a recumbent exercise
bike will keep you from having to stop your exercise regimen
altogether. Let’s face it – if you have to stop,
you are less likely to start again.
An Exercise Bike is Better for Your Health
than a Treadmill
As you can see, both pieces of home fitness
equipment have advantages. While the treadmill continues to
be the most popular piece of home gym equipment, most people
are more likely to faithfully use an exercise bike. This means
you’re more likely to have to dust a treadmill until
it gets the garage sale sticker.
