Global Sports: Exercise Bikes vs. Treadmills

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Exercise Bikes vs. Treadmills

By Norman Tuker


If you plan to get the most out of your mountain biking, you want to make sure that you invest in a high quality pair of mountain bicycling shoes. Regardless of how experienced you may be with mountain biking, having the right set of shoes can help not only improve your overall ride in terms of comfort but also add a level of safety as well for your feet.

Overcoming Boredom The biggest obstacle to a home exercise routine is sticking with it. You don't have to drive to a gym, so your home fitness equipment is more convenient. The problem is that other distractions are just as convenient at home. The key is to make your routine fun. You want to look forward to your daily workout. You have to be realistic. Playing with the heart rate monitor or watching the calorie counter go up will only be fun the first couple of times you exercise.

o Treadmill vs. Boredom On a treadmill, you walk. Walking isn't that fun. You can walk at different speeds, but that isn't really much more fun. If you get a treadmill that offers an incline, that keeps it a bit more interesting. Walking uphill isn't exactly fun, but it's different. It presents a challenge. You can't really read on a treadmill because you are bouncing up and down. You can't keep your eyes on the same sentence, and you usually end up with a headache. Basically, the only thing fun to do on a treadmill is watch television or movies. If you are really into TV or movies and are able to put your treadmill in front of a television, you can probably keep your treadmill workout from becoming too boring. Problems consist of commercials, the noise coming from the machine, and again, the bouncing.

o Exercise Bikes vs. Boredom Exercise bikes are unique in that many of them come programmed with various biking routines. You simulate different courses that require you to sprint, pedal uphill, and perform at different levels within one workout without having to keep pressing buttons and changing everything. You can even select random programs so you don't know what's coming, which really keeps you on your toes. Some exercise bikes can even be plugged into televisions and video games to let you interactively pedal through visual courses. On upright exercise bikes, you run into some of the same problems as treadmills as far as reading is concerned. Recumbent bikes, however, allow your hands to be free to hold a book or magazine, video game controller, or phone. Multi-tasking during an exercise bike workout keeps it from becoming boring and allows your workout to more easily fit into a busy schedule. Defeating boredom to successfully keep up a long-term exercise routine is much easier with an exercise bike than a treadmill.

Thankfully, most mountain bikes made today do not have these clips and riders are able to remove and insert their foot in and out of the pedal with ease, but nonetheless having proper shoes is important so that you can keep traction with the pedal itself.

They do cost a little more however the functionality in comparison, plus the fact that most of these devices can be worn as a normal everyday watch make it a good thing for most active mountain bikers.

There are many GPS watches available on the market however as a start off watch I would strongly urge you to look at something like the Garmin 305 GPS Receiver and the Garmin 305 Speed/ Cadence Bike Sensor which will give you up to the minute data during your ride.




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