Home Exercise Equipment Adviser

Ok, so you have come to the conclusion you need an exercise bike for home use. Maybe you need to loose a little weight, perhaps your under doctors orders or maybe you just fancy toning up and improving your well being with a little extra exercise. You google for an exercise bike and wham, a millions different choices. Recumbent, upright stationary, mini exercise cycle so many choices where do you start? Mini exercise bikes are something completely different to what most need so lets have a look at which you should choose, a recumbent vs upright exercise bike.

Basically, and I apologise to those who know already, but for the complete beginner the major difference between recumbent and an upright exercise bike is that a recumbent is an exercise bike where the pedals are generally level with or near the same plane as the saddle and an upright is a traditional exercise bike with the same stance as a normal road going bike but without the full set of wheels. Surprisingly, each type has various pros and cons and we’ll run through them so you can identify whether to opt for a recumbent versus an upright exercise bike.

Recumbent Exercise Cycle Benefits:

Reduced back stress – due to the reclining posture used whilst exercising and the support offered by saddles on these machines a lot of back stress is reduced so if you have a bad back or a suspect back you are less likely to injure or provoke a reaction from your back with this type of exercise bike.

Lower blood pressure whilst exercising – a theory circulates that because of the relaxed state of the upper body and more open hips and upper legs whilst exercising with a recumbent your blood pressure shouldn’t rise as much as it might using an upright exercise bike. This has obvious beneficial effects.

Hands free for other activities – Perhaps the singular most important benefit of the recumbent exercise bike is that it allows for hands free exercise. You can use this opportunity to carry out upper body exercises at the same time as cycling or you can simply read a book or read a paper to reduce the boredom of exercise.

Comfortable saddle and posture – Recumbents are often fitted with a full seat that offers lumbar support, so no more saddle sores. A comfortable seating arrangement can lead to longer exercise periods with fewer long term distractions that some small upright seats can give you.

Recumbent Exercise Bike Cons:

Doesn’t Improve Body Balance – Because of the easy relaxed, fully extended and supported posture it could be argued that your general body balance won’t be exercised as it might on an upright where you have to control your body position.

Not As Fold Away/Portable – Many recumbent exercise bikes for sale online are heavier and chunkier than many uprights. The frames for the recumbent are often larger, this means the combination of weight and structural design are such that recumbents often won’t fold down as well as uprigghts and can be harder to relocate because of weight and size.

Price – Extra size and weight automatically mean higher construction costs which lead to a higher price at the shop. There is a wide range of prices for recumbents but if budget is the prime concern the cheapest option will be an upright exercise bike for home use.

Upright Exercise Bike Benefits

Cheap – Upright exercise bikes have been around for a long time, essentially a bike frame without wheels, the light weight design is usually cheaper than a recumbent by a significant amount, think at least $100 for comparable levels of machine.

Wider Choice – Due to the popularity of these cheap upright exercise bikes there is a market place with lots of choice from lots of different manufacturers. Recumbents on the other hand seem to be produced by a couple of leading brands such as Schwinn and Nautilus. Wider choice means you can buy an upright with more features and for cheap than any similar recumbent. The best upright exercise bike on the market at the moment is the Schwinn 140 upright exercise bike.

Foldaway/Portable – Perhaps the main consideration when buying a home exercise cycle is the ability to store the bike away, lets face it, not many people consider exercise machines to be a thing of decorative beauty and functionality, more a necessary evil that needs tucking away when finished with. Due to the lighter frame and simple efficient support structure uprights take up less space and can often be folded done far more easily. In this day and age of small apartments this is a huge selling point. Check out the best folding upright exercise bike here.

Promotes Body Balance – Whilst you can’t easily do dumb bell exercises on an upright like you could on a recumbent, you do have to keep your eye on your balance, and this involves some degree of brain work and general all round strength. This unconconsious process is reported to be beneficial to maintaining and promoting healthy body balance.

So in conclusion to the recumbent exercise bike vs upright exercise bike debate, it would appear that from a health perspective a recumbent exercise bike is probably better whereas from a storage and budget perspective an upright is the best solution. Whichever you go for you will find most offer similar levels of functions whilst providing a great low impact cardio workout that will tone you up and improve fitness if used regularily over time. If you are interested in a low cost or discount recumbent exercise bike check out our reviews. For a more expensive but top rated model we recommend you read our Schwinn 230 recumbent bike review.