stationary bike

[musculArgirl2]

my gym it sounds like does have a recumbant bike. is a recumbant bike or upright stationary bike just as good as biking outdoors you think?? i think it will be better for me right now. I would rather bike outdoors but not this summer. will i work the same muscles as outdoors?

[Boss Man]

The upright bike is obviously the most similar to a normal bike, due to the positioning of the body.

You would probably find it a bit different to the normal bike, because you're not cycling in conact with the surface below, which you will discover the first 2-3 times you use one, but the recumbent might offer more support for you, because it has a seat not a saddle, so you might find it a more comfortable experience, but you'd need to use both types to compare, however you can obviously alter the resistence on a recumbent bike as well as an upright, so that will have some effect on the way it feels.

Just try what you feel is best and take it from there and then just the experience(s), for yourself .

[Athene]

Yes, they're both great, so use them both, vary the programming (distance one day, hills another, sprints another, a good one on the recumbent is 2000 m for time), and stretch your quads afterward ; )

[SelfHelpFitGuy]

I would add that exercising on an indoor bike (whether upright or recumbent) is probably a better workout. Reason being when you are outdoors your workout is often interrupted by pedestrians or cars and/or intersections etc plus when you go down hill it is hard to keep up the same level of exertion as on the flat or uphill. So I think the popular opinion is that 20mins on an indoor bike is the equivalent of 30mins on an outdoor bike. Of course if you are riding in a beautiful area you might be inclined to ride for longer outdoors and worry less about timing so may actually do more but either way it does come down to what suits you best.

[Boss Man]

An indoor bike will allow for different settings, but outdoors allows for differing levels of terrain firmness, based on the route taken and also you don't have a machine dictating at what cadence and resistance you shold be cycling at for a fixed time period, so you can cycle outdoors and choose when to speed up or slow down and for how long.

So outdoor cycling would allow for flexibiltiy of terrain and more flexibility of cycling technique, but indoor cycling does come with less risk, as it's not as easy to have accidents indoor cycling and nigh on impossible to suffer traffic related accidents.