Exercise bike question

Elsiebeane

My gym has three different types of exercise bikes. Spin bikes, recumbent and regular upright bikes. Is any better than the others as far as workout and calories burned?

NorthCascades

The # of calories you burn on any bike depends on how much energy you put into it. You can put out 200 watts on an upright or recumbent or "spin" bike. Or, better yet, an outdoor one.

Recumbent bikes tend to make people grow long beards and hide granola in them. A lot of them require Birkenstock sandals. They're surprisingly fast because of the aero profile.

Elsiebeane

I would love to go outdoors but it is almost 110 degrees! I'm not sure I want a beard or granola so I may stick to the other ones.

BrianSharpe

Of the three I'd pick riding outside, seriously though a spinning bike is probably going to emulate real riding more closely and, depending on the make (my tri club uses Lemond Revmasters) you can fine tune the fit better than most stationary bikes.

I's pretty hot & humid here too in the summer and I still like getting outside - you have built in a/c & the scenery is better!

CincyNeid

What are you saying the difference is between Spinning and Regular bike?

Personally the Spinning/UpRight Bikes would emulate the best style of riding. And if you're leaning over the bars you're going to use a little of the core to lift yourself so you're going to be working the core as well, slightly.

As far as calories burned. That depends on you. You can do the recumbent on a high resistance and burn more that the upright/spinning on a low resistance setting. At the same Cadence.

As far as going outdoors. Early in the morning will help that.

Machka9

Elsiebeane wrote: »

My gym has three different types of exercise bikes. Spin bikes, recumbent and regular upright bikes. Is any better than the others as far as workout and calories burned?

By regular upright bikes do you mean an actual bicycle on a trainer?

If so, then I'd order those three like this:

1) actual bicycle on trainer (aka regular upright bike)

2) spin bike

3) recumbent

All will depend on how much you're putting into it, but (I hate to say it), I've yet to see someone put a big effort into riding a recumbent stationary bike. I'm sure people have done it, but what I've seen are the people who are leaning back reading fashion magazines and barely moving their legs.