The bike!!

Has anyone had a successful or goal accomplished story with using a stationary bike for a majority of their workout?

 I just moved into a new place where we now have a stationary bike, I have never really thought about using it for the majority of my workout, but since I am able to pedal away while watching tv, it makes a run way less desireable....

Any advice?

no ones uses a stationary bike:(

i do not :( just a moving bicycle...

but it sounds like you have a great set-up and if it gives you motivation to work out, then that's great too!

I use one for weeknights.  I ride a real bike on weekends.  It can give you a good cardio workout.  You have to be careful when watching TV though, you get distracted and pedal slower, but it still beats sitting on the couch.  Listening to some hard rock is better on a stationary bike.  That keeps you moving.

 Varying pedalling tempo is useful, it's interval training without being as detail-obsessed about it as - well, me. Interval training with varying intensities and interval periods gives you a greater cardio benefit and ramps up fat burning a lot more than than steady-state workouts.

 TV lends itself well to intervals - pedal as hard as you can through commercial breaks, recover and pedal slower through the program itself :)

I have a road bike and a trainer (see http://trisports.com/kicywitr.html) so I can either ride indoors or out.  At one point I used this for 30 minutes everyday for two weeks and was able to lose 5 lbs.  I wouldn't bike in front of the TV though, instead put together a playlist or a CD or something of very upbeat fast tempo music and bike to that.  You can also have a timer so you can do like a minute off the sadle, 1 minute of sprinting etc.

Good luck! 

I have (in the past) gotten excellent results by using a stationary bike. However, I also pedaled at a relatively fast pace- with high resistance as well. Actually, this morning i was reading my Oxygen mag.. It had stationary bike as one of the most effective cardio workouts (as for burning calories). Now just casual pedaling- I dont think you'll see any drastic results. But it is nice change of pace :)

Good Luck!

Thanks everyone....gosh my legs are killing me right now from yesterday...maybe I was pedaling a little too fast for the first initial attempt? Anyway, I like the idea of pedaling fast during commercial breaks and then at a moderate level during a tv show. I find that when I use cds I just get bored and stop, plus my ipod is in need of a charge right now!

I will definitely look up the Oxygen mag thing too...thanks everyone!

I personally love my stationary bike. It makes watching tv feel less like a waste of time.

The only bad thing about the stationary bike is it seems to easy. I do the hardest predefined 30 min workout it comes with, and the tension gets high, but it just seems way to easy.

But that being said, I have lost a bit of weight doing it, but is it because of the bike or everything else I am doing, either way it beats sitting on the couch watching tv.

While on the topic anyone figured out how to chart calories burned from the bike?

The bike tells me I burn about 200 calories in 30 min, but the site tells me I burn about 600 in that time frame. I guess the only way to know for sure is to get a polar, but we will see.

Original Post by llogan10:

While on the topic anyone figured out how to chart calories burned from the bike?

The bike tells me I burn about 200 calories in 30 min, but the site tells me I burn about 600 in that time frame. I guess the only way to know for sure is to get a polar, but we will see.

I use a Polar to tell me how many calories I burn while biking.  I think this site's calculations are a bit off, but that could just be the discrepancy b/w my weight and personal cardio fitness versus what the "average" person for my weight would be (i.e., On the road, I have an average heart rate of 149 bpm while biking at an average 11 mph pace--this has me burning calories faster than the average bear at the same pace, so my Polar's total calories burned are higher than what CC calculates).

I got my monitor at Sports Authority a few weeks ago when they had Polars on a 40% off sale; you might try to search for other sales in your area??

POSITIVELINNY:  For a success story, my neighbor had knee replacement surgery a year ago--she was extremely overweight, but after the surgery she started doing 20 minutes every day on the bike w/o any resistance, and she lost 30 pounds (without any other changes).  I also lost 30 pounds a few years ago by using spin classes as my primary cardio.

I'm sure that if you take the recommendation of interval training, that will be a great workout!

Good luck!

I love the stationary bike! My apartment building has a small workout room with a few bikes in there as well as an elliptical and some other things. I find it really useful during the school year when I don't have time to do anything but study, I'll take my books down there and read on the bike. It's definitely not a very intense workout and I like to switch things up, but it's good to fill in those gaps when you can't do anything else or just to multitask. I'll also take some fun reading down to the exercise room or watch tv on it so I don't turn into a couch potato.

I enjoy riding my recumbent bike every day. My story is one just like many others in this world. "Life" got in the way of me taking care of myself and in December I realized (with great sadness) that I had let myself get up to 270 lbs. So, in January of this year I stumbled across CC+ and started counting calories. This is something I have never tried before. The stationary recumbent bike became my best friend. I now weigh in at 225 lbs. and I feel like a million bucks! I ride anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes at about 14 mph., 6 days a week and I haven't gotten bored with it. I also do the interval sessions that other posters have mentioned. I up the intensity for 1 - 2 minutes then back off for a few minutes, and keep repeating this. My bike is placed looking out a large window facing the woods.  I also use dumbells and I'm getting stronger everyday. Its just great to be back in control of my health again. The people on CC+ are the best for being so generous with helpful advice that has helped me in ways I could never imagine. Thanks everyone!

In short, yes, the stationary bike works wonders for me.   :)  

Thanks for your story alleyway and gibbit and everyone. I have been noticing a difference in my legs, and gosh my booty hurts too! I have only been doing around 20-30 minutes per day, but it is working I guess....and toning with strength sessions is also something that I am doing. But I have yet to give up my yoga....

The bike is great though!