Cycled for the first time in years - HRM

LMRoses
LMRoses Posts: 148 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey there all, yet another clueless question from a gym newbie :) I've mainly been running for the last 3 weeks for my cardio, however for the last week or so, my right shin has been giving me trouble so it was suggested that I should spent a few weeks doing lower impact cardio work.

So this evening after work I went to the gym and decided to ive the stationary bike a go after it was recommended by my boss who is an avid road and mountain cycler. Now usually in my 30 minute walk/runs I burn 220-250 calories, according to my Polar FT4 HRM. The cycling though felt so much less intense, and in a 40 minute ride I burnt about 300 calories. I was very happy with that, but also sort of feel like I'm cheating. However, after searching through the forums, this seems consistent with the calorie burns reported by others.

So I suppose my question is, does this carlorie burn make sense to others who also use stationary bikes, and can I defintely trust the calorie burn reported by HRM? Many thanks :)

Replies

  • jobster
    jobster Posts: 11 Member
    I prefer Cycling for that very reason :) Your figures are around where mine are .... I do 290 in 40 mins on the bike indoors, and 340 outdoors on my mountain bike. Running gets me 220 in 30 mins. I just prefer cycling because I can sustain it for longer and can now cycle for a few hours outside and love it! But then I`m not a "natural" runner, and don`t really enjoy it, so am a huge advocate of getting those pedals going!
  • Masterdo
    Masterdo Posts: 331 Member
    Hi!

    I'm not a trainer, but I asked a similar question earlier at the gym and got an answer from my trainer, so I'll share it with you. He basically explained that while the calorie burn might be similar, the advantage of running over cycling lies in the weight transfer you execute when you run.

    Your heart rate will elevate and you will burn calories on a stationary bike, but this activity is really isolated, since you are seated and fix on top of the bike. When you use an elliptical, more stabilizing muscles are used already. Then the treadmill is another step up, and there you start to actually move your "mass center" (not sure if that is the correct translation) up and down, but not forward yet. The the real deal, truly running, will use all those stability muscles to move your "mass center" over your feet at each stride.

    So basically the calorie burn is there, and it's nice to use the bike to give your joints a break, but it doesn't replace running if you want to become better at running. But as a cardio source, to elevate heart rate, do intervals, increase VO2Max, etc, he said they were both good sources of cardio, so I would trust your HRM :p

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