Cardiovascular exercise is a good way to promote heart health and your overall well-being. It is the safest natural way of losing those extra pounds of fat that accumulated because of unmindful eating, unhealthy habits and lack of exercise. Cardiovascular exercises can be done in a lot of ways: you can go hiking, biking, walking, jogging and even jump roping.
However, there are times that we do not have the liberty of going out. In this kind of situation, having home workout equipment like recumbent exercise bike comes in handy.
A Revolutionary Way of Doing Cardio
Smoothly-working, efficient and effective – those are basically the main attributes of a recumbent exercise bike. This type of exercise bike offers medium to high intensity of resistance in a safe and gentle manner. Unlike running, an exercise bike puts minimal impact to your joints. This will prove useful for people who have a lower back injury, joint problems like arthritis and anyone undergoing a post-injury rehabilitation program.
Tips for Working Out Using a Recumbent Exercise Bike
Tip #1: Just like any certified trainer will tell you, consult your physician before doing any exercise program. By doing this, you will be aware of your limitations therefore overexerting and injuries are less likely to happen.
Tip #2: Unlike a regular bike, a recumbent exercise bike does not engage the abdominal muscles during exercises. Therefore it is important that you should be mindful about your posture during the workout to prevent spine injuries.
Tip #3: To make your workouts effective, determine the appropriate exercise frequency and resistance for you. To determine the right resistance, you should exercise within 60 – 80% of your maximum heart rate. You can determine your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age to 220. Having a heart monitor will definitely help you in monitoring your heart rate during the whole duration of the workout.
Tip #4: Using the heart rate that you computed from the steps in number 3, do a workout session that will last for 20 minutes. It is advised that you should go slowly at first while building up the speed as you go along. This workout should be repeated with a minimum of three sessions per week.
Tip #5: Drink water. Water is lost when you sweat so therefore make sure that you are properly hydrated when doing the exercise. See to it that you are hydrated; drink a glass of water before doing the workout.
Tip#6: Do a warm up session before exercising on a recumbent exercise bike. This will ensure that your joints are well lubricated before the exercise. Do not stop immediately after the workout. It is vital that you should do a cool down after it. You can do this by gradually reducing your speed in 5 minutes until you stop.
Tip #7: Recumbent exercise bike is still a machine. Make sure that you check that everything is working fine before exercising. It is also important that you call a professional every once in a while to conduct necessary maintenance.
