Is a Recumbent Bike a Good Workout?


In recent years, recumbent bikes have become staple pieces of equipment at just about any gym. More and more companies are starting to introduce recumbent bikes that can be used in the comfort of your own home too. On this page, we are going to be answering the question is a recumbent bike a good workout.

As we do, we are going to be going into depth on the type of people that will benefit the most from using a recumbent bike.

Is a Recumbent Bike Actually a Good Workout?

In order to answer this question, we are going to look at the various recumbent exercise bike benefits.

1. Works as a Cardiovascular Exercise

A recumbent exercise bike is a form of cardiovascular exercise. Basically, this form of exercise is all about getting oxygen and blood flowing throughout your body. This has a number of benefits.

Firstly, your heart and lungs are going to be getting a good workout. Both your heart and lungs are muscles and, like all muscles, the more they work out, the stronger they become. This can lead to a lower risk of heart disease. Strengthened heart and lungs also result in you becoming fitter.

This means that the more you do cardiovascular exercise like riding a recumbent bike, the longer you will be able to work out in the future. Basically, you will feel as if you have a lot more energy.

Cardiovascular exercise can also lead to lower blood pressure. It can strengthen your immune system, which means that your body will have a better time fighting off certain infections and diseases.

Those that regularly exercise on their recumbent bike also report:

  • Being able to sleep better
  • Better mood
  • Lower stress levels

All it takes is 30 minutes per day working out on your recumbent bike to experience all of these benefits.

Although we encourage you to go up to 1 hour per day. That way you can be sure that you’re getting the best workout possible.

2. It’s a Low Impact Workout

For those that may not be able to put too much pressure on their joints, particularly those that are suffering from an injury or arthritis, a recumbent bike may be an excellent workout. 

One of the major benefits of a recumbent bike over other forms of exercise is how little pressure is placed upon your joints.

For example, if you’re running, your joints and muscles are constantly dealing with that ‘shock’ pressure each time your feet strike the ground. If you’re suffering from joint problems in your knees, hips, or ankles then this can cause an astonishing amount of pain. It may even make your injury a lot worse.

With a recumbent bike, you don’t have to deal with that. The bike will support you well while you’re sitting on it. The smooth movement of the pedals and the fact that you don’t have to move your feet off of them helps to reduce pressure on your joints.

Basically, if you find other forms of exercise (including running, walking, and cycling) tough, then a recumbent bike may be just the exercise that you need.

3. Helps with Weight Loss

When most people are wondering if a recumbent bike is a good workout, they are wondering whether it can help them to lose weight. The answer is yes, it can. In fact, it can burn a pretty high number of calories despite it being a relatively low-impact workout.

If you carry out a high-intensity workout, perhaps by doing intervals, then you should be able to burn between 200 and 400 calories per hour.

Sure, there are faster ways to burn off calories. However, there are few ways faster if you want to burn off those calories while putting minimal pressure on your joints and muscles. 

Coupled with a good diet, an hour per day working out on a recumbent bike should help you to shed those excess pounds rather quickly.

4. Strengthens Muscles

A lot of people work out to strengthen their muscles. So, is a recumbent bike a good workout for that? The answer is yes.

Working out on a recumbent bike will increase the strength of the muscles in your legs. Over time, you’ll start to notice them becoming more toned.

You’ll also likely notice that your stomach starts to flatten out too. This is down to both the weight that you’ll be shedding, as well as the fact that the muscles around your stomach area will also be used while you’re cycling.

5. Easy to Use

One of the major recumbent bike benefits is that they are easy to use.

Whenever you want to use your recumbent bike, just pull it out, sit down, and start pedaling away. It, honestly, couldn’t get any simpler. You may need to adjust the pedal resistance ever so slightly if you want a more intense workout, but this is going to take seconds to do.

So, for somebody that’s looking for something that’s easy to use while, at the same time, provides a good workout then a recumbent bike is the route to go down.

6. Can be Used at Home

Many recumbent bikes have been designed to be used at home. This means that they can easily be stored.

Most of them will boast the same sort of features that you would get in a recumbent bike at the gym too, although the home versions may be less robustly built.

For somebody that wants to work out in the comfort of their own home (i.e. doesn’t want to spend huge sums of cash on an expensive gym membership), then there are few workouts better than a recumbent bike. 

Conclusion

So, is a recumbent bike a good workout? The answer is yes. If you’re looking to burn off some extra weight, or strengthen your leg muscles, then a recumbent bike is going to be perfect for you.

The low-impact nature of the exercise also means that it’s going to be fantastic for those that may be suffering from certain injuries.

Shailen Vandeyar

A proud Indian origin Kiwi who loves to plant trees and play with my pet bunny when not out cycling through the best routes, reviewing the latest gear, and sharing tips on everything biking.

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