Cycling is becoming increasingly popular nowadays, and there’s a good reason for that. Not only is it an eco-friendly means of transportation, but it also provides the body with an effortless and efficient dose of exercise that promotes an overall state of well-being. And the best part is that you can take it inside if the weather in your area turns cold and unpleasant.
Everyone knows that pedaling is a great way to tone your body and stay in shape. But does it help you slim down too? Even though spin classes are as popular as ever, more and more people have begun arguing that this particular activity might not be the best option when it comes to weight loss.
Fortunately, that’s not necessarily the case. You can achieve visible results with indoor cycling if you have the correct approach. Reading more on how to lose weight spinning at home is a straightforward way to help you kickstart the process. For motivation, here are three actionable tips on how to slim down using a stationary bike.
Keoni Hudoba, one of New York City’s top fitness instructors, recommends approaching the training in high-intensity intervals. Although doing low-resistance sprints is essential for building endurance and promoting proper cardiovascular health, they simply won’t do the trick if weight loss is your endgame.
Instead, fluctuate between high and low resistance as much as possible during the session. According to Hudoba, this provides the body with a Tabata-style training that stimulates the metabolism and burns fat at a faster rate. Therefore, instead of focusing on pedaling faster, you should be more concerned with making the experience more challenging.
Warm up for 2 to 5 minutes on the bike pedaling at low resistance to get into it. Follow this by one minute on high, then one minute on low to catch your breath and allow your body to recover. By repeating this process for 20 intervals, you will start seeing improvements without wasting too much time on workouts.
It’s no secret that the calves, hamstrings, quads, and glutes are most in demand when you’re cycling, both indoors and outdoors. Nevertheless, most of the action happens at the level of the legs. But when you exercise on a bike, you can still get fit all over and achieve a killer body. All you need to do is engage every muscle as correctly as possible.
Many people mistakenly believe that, in order to engage the core while cycling, one has to keep the abdominals tight and flexed throughout the session. In reality, the opposite is true. To allow your abs to naturally participate in the process, you need to relax your belly. In this way, the area can respond to the changes in resistance and speed and get a proper workout.
Your arms also get a bit of action provided that your bike is adjusted to fit your body. And combined with the aforementioned high-intensity interval training, visible results are bound to appear in no time at all. However, there is one important condition to it: you need to maintain the proper position throughout the session.
If you don’t feel comfortable during your training and your feet aren’t pushing the pedals smoothly, you might be doing something wrong. Checking your form every now and then and making sure that it’s the correct one for the activity is an essential part of getting in shape. If you have an improper posture on the bike, you won’t achieve any positive results.
In fact, it might even lead to complications such as backaches later in life. According to Cydney Lebovitz, a Canadian spinning instructor, maintaining balance by engaging your core, glutes,and quads is key to weight loss. You want to sit in such a way that, on the off chance that someone comes and pokes you, you won’t fall off the machine.
The perfect spinning posture involves positioning your sit bones evenly on the saddle so that your body hovers over the middle when you sit on the pedals. And speaking of pedals, your feet must lay flat on them. Finally, your elbows should ideally be slightly bent to offer a light grip on the handlebars.
Regardless of whether it happens indoors or outdoors, cycling has many great benefits. It’s a versatile activity that builds muscle, promotes weight loss and shapes the body beautifully if pursued coherently and continuously. Nevertheless, a few voices of dissent have argued that spinning might not be as effective as riding a bike outside.
The concept itself isn’t to blame for it, but rather people not approaching it correctly. To see some visible changes, you will need to focus on high-intensity interval training using resistance while engaging all the muscle groups in your body. Furthermore, keeping an eye on posture is recommended because it’s the key to slimming down. Pay attention to these, and you’re set.