Recumbent exercise bike question

[kelownagirl]

I bought a pretty good quality recumbent exercise bike last year for an at-home cardio workout, before I started "real" biking. I really enjoyed it last winter. But now I'm in a quandry. When I ride it, it feels like it works different muscles than I use when I ride my road bike on the trainer (which is now broken). I really want to keep up my level of cycling fitness this witer so I'm not starting from scratch again. Obviously I will still get a great cardio workout from the exercise bike and of course, a leg workout of sorts. I guess I am just afraid that I'll get back on my real bike in March and find I have lost some of regular biking leg muscles that I worked so hard to develop last summer.

Anyone ridden a recumbent in the winter only?

I have been considering buying a new trainer (the one I had so briefly was cheap at a garage sale and turned out to be a bust.) Should I spend the $300+ and have the practically brand new exercise bike sit in the basement unused? I can afford it but not sure it's really necessary.

Thanks yet again for your advice.

barb

[Wahine]

Hi kelownagirl,

The biomechanics on a recumbent are different. The muscle recruitment patterns are definitely different. It's been a while since I've thought about it and I haven't used one in years so my personal memory is a little foggy.

Things I know for sure:

- You work your glutes and hams in a different part of the range of motion through the pedal stroke that on a reg bike

- It's generally easier on your back

Things that seem right but I'm only about 90% sure:

- You bias the quads more and hams and glutes less

- You have to use more resistence to get the same HR changes, this has to do with muscle recruitment

What does that mean functionally:

You won't get the same neuromuscular training on the recumbent but if you have cycling experience, that's not a big deal, it's come back in 1 to 2 rides on the reg bike. If you're a newbie it'll take a little longer because the cadence and movement pattern hardwiring in your nervous system was not completely there to begin with.

You'll work your quads more and glutes and hams may suffer a bit, but it's better than doing nothing and if you combine it with some resistance training in functional movement patterns, (walking lunges, squats, one legged squats without weights), with light weight and high reps - 3 to 5 sets of 30 - you won't likely lose anything at all.

So it's way better than doing nothing, but it's not the same. Get a new trainer or get one fixed. BTW, the same issues are true for most of the standard upright stationary bikes at a gym but to a lesser degree.

Happy winter training. A friend of mine in Vernon says you've got tons of snow. Maybe you should cross country ski instead?

[LBTC]

Can you trade your recumbant exercise bike in for a new trainer? (I thought Kelowna had a Play it again Sports if those still exist)

I'm not sure about the technicalities of it all, but I think any and all exercise is good through the winter; that it's important to work more than just your cycling leg muscles at any time of the year; that trainer time that I've had before still meant adjustment time on the bike out in the real world (even though it was the same bike); and your base fitness doesn't disappear and your muscles remember and rebuild at an amazing rate when you get back to the familiar routine.

But what I keep thinking most is: good for you for keeping at it in the winter! I need more motivation!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~