stationary bike

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NewTeena
NewTeena Posts: 154 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been using my stationary bike regularly for about 2 weeks now. I normally do 20 minute 4x a week. I'm thinking it's time to increase the workout on it but am unsure which would be the better move, increasing the tension or adding 5 or 10 minutes. Opinions?

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  • PamelaHenD
    PamelaHenD Posts: 42 Member
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    Here is a rule I follow for everything when I work out. If it becomes to easy you need to up what your doing. When I first start running again I will do 20 mins and as I exercise more I run more then I add tilt to tredmill. I work on distance and speed at different times. I was also told to go fast for a minute and slow and then fast again and slow again.. Just my 2 cents...lol
  • willwhite78
    willwhite78 Posts: 21
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    If you increase your time and keep yourself in a cardio heart rate zone, I'd think that would be more beneficial for weight loss/calorie burn. If you find you're not getting your heart rate up into a good zone, that's the time to increase the resistance (or your cadence). That's just my opinion though.

    Once you can do 45 to an hour a session, then I would think more along the lines of resistance over time, but that would be solely due to a lack of free time beyond that.

    Edit: and don't add more then 5 minutes at a time. 10 minutes would be 50% of your current workout on the increase. Shoot for 5 minutes. If it's still too easy, add another 5 next time, etc.
  • NewTeena
    NewTeena Posts: 154 Member
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    Sounds good, thanks guys. :)
  • Chagama
    Chagama Posts: 543 Member
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    I would try and use different workouts and do both. Maybe twice a week increase the time, and the other 2 times increase the tension. That will also put some variety into the week, which can help avoid getting bored doing the same workout over and over.
  • kruggsy
    kruggsy Posts: 23 Member
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    When I'm using the bike at the gym I use a programme called 'random' which is like travelling up and down hills, but not many stationary bikes at home have those programmes so, another thing you can do is peddle at a decent pace for about 1min 30secs and then increase the pace (fast pace) for 30 secs and keep repeating this for your 20 mins session. This type of training has got a name but I am a bit of a dummy at times and can't remember what they call it at the moment. It will come to me.lol.

    Ah I got it, silly me 'Interval Training'
  • NewTeena
    NewTeena Posts: 154 Member
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    More great ideas, thanks, I'll incorporate those. :)
  • PamelaHenD
    PamelaHenD Posts: 42 Member
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    I was told to do the fast slow fast slow by a personal trainer I went to at the gym. I would run as fast I could for 1 min and walk 1 min and bam go again.... 1 min was not long enough for me so I did 2 and 2...
  • angieleighbyrd
    angieleighbyrd Posts: 989 Member
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    When I first joined my gym, I started with a half hour on the tredmill at around 2mph and about 20 minutes on the bike at whatever 70 rpms are. I'm up to about an hour on the tredmill at between 3-4mph and I do at least 30 when I get on the bike at around 100 rpm. I don't like the bike as much as the tredmill, but the tredmill is taking a tole on my ankles. So I go back and forth between the two for my cardio. When I was on the bike yesterday at 100 rpm I felt like I was doing nothing, so I put it on uphill mode and peddled my big *kitten* off.

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