Hello all!

I wanted to get some advice for some new workouts/machines. I am a running girl so I usually just go on the treadmill for about 45 minutes at 6.8 speed about 5 days a week but would like to change it up every once and a while. I am about 5'2'' and weight about 120 lbs.

How long should I start out on the bike and at what resistance? How often should I do it?

Any tips I would be grateful for.

Thanks!

Do you have a goal in mind?

Depending on your goal there are a couple of things you can try.

If they are available you might want to take a spinning class, I've started those recently and they are fantastic workouts.

If you are using a normal stationary bike though similar to how you are using the treadmill, start off at about 33% resistance and work up from there. Try and always keep your cadence up in the 85+ range and steady. You can adjust the resistance to meet your cadence as you find that you are consistently in the 100rpm range over a longer ride.

The bikes in the gym I go to go from 1 - 25 resistance. at a 14 resistance and 95rpm I hit 15 miles in 30 minutes. Your mileage may vary though if your bike does resistance from 1-10 or 1-15, both of which I've seen.

If you have a goal of improving your bike speed for out on the road, the spinning and/or high cadence riding is VERY effective.

My race speed went from about 20mph up to 25mph after a very short period of time. Not fast by race standards, but fast for me :)

I really like spinning classes! They are great and burn a ton of calories. The class I took really alternated the speed and resistance back and forth and made it pretty challenging. I recommend them if you have access to them.

Wow Canucklehead that is a good amount of miles compared to other workouts! I don't know if the elliptical machine I used was accurate or not, but it would say only 1 mile after half an hour and I would go about 85 rpm! That can't be right.

Heya tUrRrRa,

I was worried that the machines were a bit off but a short bit of time on my bike sitting on the trainer confirms the numbers.

If you are doing 30 minutes on an elliptical and only registering 1 mile (1.6km) then something is off. If you go for a walk you'll cover 1 mile in under 20 minutes on average based on a regular walking pace. Assuming that you are putting in effort, you should be covering more.

That being said, elliptical machines are closer to walking/running than biking. The stationary bikes I'm sitting on replicate a bicycle and there is no speed you could do for 30 minutes that would leave you at 1 mile :)

Regardless of the machine though, spinning is a great way to burn out calories and be really involved in the exercise. With a good instructor it's an entertaining way of spending an hour.

I've only done a few spin classes and have found them VERY challenging even though I expected to be able to do them easily. My goal right now is 3 classes per week with an increased intensity each class. So far I'm on track and I can tell that it's improving my fitness and cardio :)

Oh yes spinning classes are very challening! They are not boring at all and really make you work! I love it and like the challenge. I felt great afterwards. I need to find those classes again. Right now I just use my fitness center at my apartments, so I'll look forward to joining a larger gym later on.

Yes... I believe that machine I used was very off, because I would go at a fast pace with a lower resistance. I've switched to the treadmill and cover much more of a distance in a way shorter time. I don't even go very fast and jog at a pace of 6.5 mph. It works for me for now! My legs have gotten better since switching from the elliptical... they are slim yet muscular and my thighs are hard, not soft.

I'll definitely have to try out exrecise bikes too! Oddly enough the ones where you sit with your back against the chair make me get a rash (very itchy one) on my back I guess from sweating. It's been a while, so I'll have to give it another try.

I've heard that the seated ones can cause back rash, it's from sweating and then rubbing it around against the material.

Personally I only use the ones that are closer to a real bike position, but that's just because I want to keep as close to bike position as possible so that when I hit the road I'm not having to rework my positioning a ton.

If you do use a gym bike though, you can easily imitate a spin class, I have heard that they have tapes that walk you through the changes. Not as good as having an instructor yell at you, but what the heck :)

Sounds great! Yes that definitely sounds like what goes on with my back. My gym has spinning bikes there, so I can always use those or the regular bikes where my back isn't against it.