Discover the Secret to Losing Weight with a Recumbent Exercise Bike

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A recumbent bike provides a comfortable workout than any other cardio equipment like an upright bike and treadmill. On a recumbent bike, you sit in a semi-reclined posture so some users find that this bike can’t provide an effective and intense workout. In fact, you can get an efficient workout on this bike with the use of an interval training.

As compared to ellipticals and treadmills, these bikes are great for multitasking during workouts. While doing exercise, you can listen to your favorite music and watch shows.

The sitting position of the recumbent bike for weight loss makes recovery faster between workouts. It allows you to burn your calories and increase your heart rate. Your tendons and joints will not pay the cost of this workout.

So, you finally decided to stretch a bit. Then this thought overcame, how about cycling? Now that you have figured it out, you know the right way for you is a recumbent bike. However, what we will add here is just to be careful while using your bike.

For more than often, we have noticed people not being able to use it properly and getting hurt in the process. Then you ask, How to use recumbent exercise bike and we say, we have answered it in this post. Make sure that you read until the end to comprehend it.

how to use recumbent bike Properly?

How to use recumbent exercise bike
How to use a recumbent exercise bike

For numerous people, weight loss through paddling is a tedious activity because you will sit down on the recumbent bike for weight loss and start cycling.

You know what research shows that recumbent bikes can offer you cardio just like any other upright bike. In fact, you will be able to get better lower body action with a recumbent bike. You may feel super-comfy on these bikes, but they can be deceiving, as they can make you work out and burn more calories!

Apart from this, we have will like to focus on the exact point of discussion of how can you use a recumbent bike. We have learned a few things on our own and have jotted them down in this post.

It is not true because you can make exercise on recumbent bike interesting with the help of the following tips.

Warm Up

We have found this to be a good way to wake up our system. No, this is true and you will find light warm up exercise can actually help your body kick up the core temperature and loosen up those muscles. Oh, it does wonders for those connective tissues as well.

Care To Stretch A Bit

If you are doing it in a gym, then you must have a trainer, but if you are doing it at home without a trainer, then you must try dynamic stretching a bit. Do you know walking lunges, knee highs, jumping jacks, and side bending? This will loosen up the muscles in your body and will also prevent you from getting injured.

Adjust That Seat Please

Heck yeah! Before you even start exercising, we advise you to check your comfortable position. That is correct, first, try pedaling a bit and see if you can extend your feet while doing so.

In addition to this, your knees should bend a little while pedaling. If that is fine for you, then you are good to go. Otherwise, crank the seat forward or backward according to your needs.

Mind That Form

This is an important part of working out on any machine and the recumbent bike is no exception to that. What you do is keep your back aligned to the seat for better posture. Never lean forward while working out as this only makes things worse.

Did you know that maintaining the right posture can keep you safe from getting hurt? This one time, we had a guest in our club, and she just got curious or what, we have no ideas, but leaned to look at something, immediately hit the handlebar, and chipped a tooth. You don’t want that for sure!

Adjust The Resistance

Yes, this the only time that you will hear anyone talk about adjusting the resistance, instead of crushing it. Okay, bad joke, we agree, let us go ahead with this one. So, you may have been working out for quite some time now. Your body may get used to the existing resistance.

What you do is simply start increasing the resistance levels to get more out of your workout. That is right because each time you do so, you go a level up and challenge your body to push harder. This means you are making progress in your regime. Isn’t that great to know?

Start Slowly

In the first step, you have to start slowly because you are a beginner. Slow start proves helpful to condition your legs and body. By starting slow, you can prepare your body for an intense workout. Start pedaling at a comfortable and slow speed for slow cardio.

Adjust Speed and Intensity for Variations

With the passage of time and practice, you will be able to make your cardio intense and speed up your pedaling motions. Feel free to do this variation with a particular interval of time to avoid sudden and quick transition for the body. It is essential for better results.

Without making variations, you may have a propensity to experience plateaus in the journey of weight loss. Your body may naturally incline to acclimatize to a constant cycling motion. By varying your movements, you may definitely and inevitably lose extra weight.

Workout 3 to 4 Times Per Week

It is essential to do workout almost 3 to 4 times a week. You should do your workout for nearly 30 minutes in a day. With the passage of time, you can gradually increase the duration of exercise to almost one hour.

Heavy Flywheels

Use heavy flywheels that need more efforts and allow you burn an excessive calorie. It is recommended to cycle and train at a particular heart rate zone. It is a percentage of the maximum rate of exercise and maximum heart rate. It will help you burn maximum calories and lose weight.

is a recumbent bike good for weight loss? recumbent bike allows you to do a cardiovascular workout. The setup of this cardiovascular machine comes with a comfortable seat with a backrest. The horizontal position and outward pedals will enable you to prevent slouching. This aerobic equipment allows you to work on multiple muscles.

Glutes

These are significant muscles of your butt and exercise on a recumbent bike will help you to work on your bult muscles. Your position on the bike will keep your thighs near your body. This movement is an extension because legs extend and glutes engage in pushing down on each pedal.

Quads

The large muscles of quadriceps are located on the front of thighs. They work as flexors on the knee. They may work on a recumbent bike for the assistance of glutes while you push the pedals of the bike and draw back up of leg again at pedaling motion. Small muscles are located on the internal sides of quad “the adductors” and engaged with movements.

Calves

These are located on the lower back of legs under knees. These are gastrocnemius that may be an upper part and soleus that is a smaller part. As each foot goes around, the toes point downward, and you are working on calf muscles. It is known as plantar flexion.

Hamstrings

Hamstrings are located on the rear of upper thighs. These are the opposing group of muscles to quads, and their primary function is the knee flex. You can notice this action as your lower limb goes from straight positions to bending positions while pedaling. They may stimulate along with quads to pull the back of the foot to the top of pedaling cycle.

Abs

The abs or abdominal muscles act as stabilizers while pedaling. These prove helpful to the upper body and increase your strength while cranking.

Follow a Plan for Exercise on Recumbent Bike

image credit womenshealthmag.com

If you want to get a satisfying result, you can follow an exercise plan for your recumbent bike. It will be good to decrease your weight. See the following plan for exercise on the recumbent bike:

  • Stretch and warm-up: In the first step, you have to perform stretches and warm-up exercises before riding a recumbent bike. It will assist you to condition your body by gradually loosening your tight muscles and joints.
  • Start and Ride a Bike: After stretching, you have to ride your recumbent bike and press a start button. Start with slow pedaling to warm up a cycling exercise. Pedal gradually and keep your speed faster. You must do this for almost 5 to 10 minutes to regulate the temperature of your body.
  • Increase Cycling Speed and Intensity: You have to do this until you reach a comfortable speed. The intensity rate should not be severe but challenging to burn maximum calories.
  • Workout at a Decent Form: You have to consider your advantage and comfort. Adjust your backrest and seat to increase your comfort level. You must have a firm grip on handlebars and put a maximum of body weight on these bars while your legs must work on pedals.
  • Avoid Over-exercise: The duration of your exercise must be 30 minutes, or you can increase it as per your comfort level. You should not exceed it over 90 minutes to achieve satisfying and desired results.

Some recumbent exercise bikes for seniors, short and commercial bikes come with pre-set programs.

These programs prove helpful to burn calories and allow you to follow your heart rate. You can consider a bike within your budget. If you are interested in increasing the speed of weight loss, you must find a bike that allows you to work on your lower body and upper body.

Make sure to choose a bike with hand pedals on front support.

For improved results, trainers recommend fluctuating intensity and speed of cycling motion during your workout. The budding athletes initiate off with 30 minutes and 1, 3 to 4 times each week and gradually increase the duration to almost one hour.

You must go for heavy flywheels to increase the engagement and efforts of all muscle groups of the human body during a workout. Burning maximum calories in each training session is essential.

Along with weight loss, the recumbent exercise bike will help you to improve your lung and cardiovascular capacities while increasing your metabolism. It proves helpful to burn your fat even after finishing your workout.

How About Some Interval Training

In simple terms, this is about blending two techniques. Now, you may ask how you can do so. To put it simply, all you need is to increase the resistance level or speed up a bit. You may try to do both while enjoying your exercising routine. In short, this will add that intensity to your regime that will help you lose weight.

The Duration

The big debate is about how long should it last? Well, as per the American College of Sports Medicine, for health benefits you must continue your cardio workouts for 30 minutes and 60 to 90 minutes for losing weight for five days a week. This should answer that burning question forever.

Know The Machine You Are Working Out On

Right said because this is an absolute necessity for you to know the machine you will be spending some quality time on. We say, act like a horse owner, pet your ride, and then see how easily it lets you ride. Show the machine some love (may not literally). This is how you can try to be acquainted with it.

What About The Handlebars?

Just don’t go straight for the kill. If you are in a gym or using your home, then also we will ask you to know your machine first before you start using it. This indicates you must check on the handlebars to see if you can adjust.

Look you may be short or tall, you may need to adjust it a little. Why not, you will be on it for the next 30 to 90 minutes. What say?

Fine-tune The Pedal Straps

Yes, why not try to make some amends to this section. Remember the pedals help in circulating blood, so this part is equally significant. You must be able to comfortable while pedaling and are a must as they make your spinning highly efficient.

Have A Look At The Display Panel

This will help you keep a track of your training, as you will get to know how much you have pedaled, for how long, and revolutions completed per minute. Some bikes also have advanced details of levels, cadence, and more. Just get familiar with them as this will make your workout effective.

Interval Training

A short and intense form of cardio is interval training. You can use alternative penetrating sessions of activities with less intense sequences. For instance, it is possible to sprint for a particular duration and substitute it with walking or jogging.

You may adapt cardio activities, such as recumbent cycling and interval workout. Increase the speed of pedal for intense segments and decline variable for recovery.

Time Intervals

fat burning cycling workouts
fat burning cycling workouts

Particular time for every interval may vary. You may select one-to-one intervals, and a beginner can try 2 to 1 ratio. The recovery period should be longer as per the intensity of your workout. A beginner must do intense training for almost 30 seconds and recovery period should be one minute.

With the passage of time, you will become advanced and capable of increasing intense segments to nearly 1 minute, but the recovery period should be same as well.

Workout on Recumbent Exercise Bike

Workout on Recumbent Exercise Bike
Workout on Recumbent Exercise Bike

If you want to start a workout on a recumbent exercise bike, you must begin with a warm-up for five-minute.

Gradually increase the pedal speed and resistance and work out at almost 95% of maximum intensity for nearly 30 seconds. Decrease your speed and pedal resistance for recovery interval of 30 seconds. Substitute between two intensities for nearly 20 minutes.

Finish your workout with a cool-down of five minutes. You can experiment with variable interval times to give a particular variety to your workout. Some bikes come with built-in interval programs for a workout to automatically adjust the resistance of pedal and speed of pedaling.

Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ]

Can you lose weight on a recumbent exercise bike?

yes !! you can lose your weight by doing exercise by recumbent exercise bikes. it’s an easy way to burn your calories at home by safe exercise. many people go to the gym to lose weight but by the recumbent bike can do at home.

Can you get a good workout on a recumbent bike?

yes !!! of course, you can get a good workout by recumbent exercise bikes because the recumbent bike is the safest exercise bike. it’s also time-consuming we can do exercise whenever you want, no need to go outside from home.

Are Recumbent Bike Workouts Effective?

Alright, this is a question that is more often asked and we reply this by saying a recumbent bike can help you burn fat. Yes, it may be slow and if you have the patience then you must go for it.

In case, you are recuperating from an injury or have pain in the joints, then a recumbent bike is the best way to keep exercising. That is true, as recumbent bike training usually assists you to recover faster. Yes, but you have to watch your diet for that and also ensure that you sleep well while following a regime.

How long should you exercise on a recumbent bike?

We have already answered this query, but no worries, we can repeat what we have said in short. You must warm-up for 5 minutes at the least and work out for 30 minutes if you are doing it to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Nonetheless, as far as cardio is concerned you can continue it for 60 to 90 minutes. If truth be told, your requirement decides it all.

What is the best way to work out on a recumbent bike?

This whole post is dedicated to exercising on a recumbent bike. We hope you have got a fair idea as to how to:
• Warm-up
• Stretch
• Mix and match your training levels
We have explained all this and more in this column anticipating it proves to be of help for you. All you need is to pay attention and read this article to understand how a recumbent bike works.

Can you lose weight on a recumbent exercise bike?

If you want to lose weight, then you have to burn at least 3500 calories per day. Now, you do the math as you know your life and body best. You can achieve this by increasing resistance that will give a boost to your heart rate. This, in turn, will help you burn more calories.

Are recumbent bikes bad for your knees?

On the contrary, recumbent bikes are way more convenient as you sit in a comfortable position while working out on them. These bikes do not put pressure on your knees, like an upright bike.
So, these are good to go as you may not feel the weight on your knees and joints. It has a congenial seating arrangement that takes off the heaviness. This is why you don’t feel tired and can work out without a problem.

Conclusion

People often ask me how to use a recumbent exercise bike for weight loss. I hope this article will answer their questions. Recumbent bicycles are specifically designed to sit lower to the ground with legs in your front instead of sitting up with legs below you. Working on this bike helps you to enjoy some health benefits of a recumbent bike.

This cardiovascular equipment helps you to increase your strength and decrease your weight. It is essential to combine your workout with a healthy diet for desired benefits. Recumbents will offer your maximum comfort and safety while decrease stress on hips and knees.

One thing we will like to add here is that you must keep yourself busy when working out on a recumbent bike. This helps you from getting bored and feeling tired quickly. All you need is to grab a book, play on your phone, or listen to music. This will help pass you the time without getting weary.

We hope to have provided all the possible resolves here about How to use recumbent exercise bike. It is up to find your comfort zone and keep working out. It will ultimately help you get in shape. What say?

Hi! My name is Dario Lemut and I am the Founder of Bikepurusits.com. Cycling fanatic with over two decades of experience on all types of terrain. From long-distance races to rugged mountains. Sharing my experiences and knowledge on my popular cycling website, I'm helping fellow riders to discover new routes and adventures.

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