tweet

Guide – Spin Bike workouts

Indoor cycling workouts is a great way of maintaining your shape and strengthening your lower extremities. But, only when you do it right that you can get these desired results. Indoor cycling instructors emphasize the correct way of using spin bikes. If you use the bike in a wrong way you will be exhausted easily, or worse you might get injured.

Here are important things to remember of spin bike workouts at home. This will guide you on how to handle the spin bike correctly so that you can avoid any injury and get the good condition you wanted after the exercise.

1. Arriving on time in your cycling session: When you arrive on time in your cycling session you will have no time to check the condition and settings of the spin bike that you will use. To avoid this scenario always make the habit of arriving in your cycling class in advance. This way you can have sufficient time to adjust and tighten all the adjustable features of the spin bike that you will be using.
2. Tight-gripping the handlebars: Do not grip the handlebars tightly. If you do this you will be weighing down your upper body weight towards the handle bar. This is not good because you are putting unnecessary tension in your back and shoulders. Instead, put your back and shoulder’s weight on the seat so that you will feel comfortable. So lean back and hold the handlebars gently to keep your balance.
3. Wrong seat height: A good seat height adjustment must be parallel to your hip bone. To do this, you must stand next to your spin bike. Then open your palm in parallel to ground and level it at your hip none. Now see if your palm is in line with the bike’s height. If it is in line, then do not adjust the seat height. If it does not, then you have to adjust the seat height accordingly.
4. The seat is lower than the handlebars: The seat and the handlebars must be adjusted parallel from each other. This way you can keep your balance very well and you can avoid unnecessary pressure to both your shoulders and back.
5. Knees grazing the bike while pedaling out of the saddle: you will likely get the momentum of pedaling and you will get off the bike’s seat. But if you are already grazing your knees to the front of the bike, then it means you are not in the correct body posture anymore. If you notice that this is happening, then you should lean back toward the seat to avoid any bruises to your knees and to maintain abs pressure.
6. Bending the elbow when doing the “tap back”: the “tap back” exercise is the workout for your glutes. You will have to stretch your arms and hold the top of the handle. Then you will have to pedal while moving your glute and upper body back and forth over the saddle. Avoid bending your arms while doing the “tap back” because the pressure must be on the glute not on the arms.
7. Swaying while pedaling: do not sway side to side when pedaling. If you will do this you will injure your groin and you will put unnecessary weight on your shoulder. Instead, keep your hips resting on the seat and keep the pacing of your pedal in rhythm.
8. Pushing down the pedal but not pulling up: all indoor bikes have a pedal strap so that you can fully push the pedal and up efficiently. This motion strengthens your quad and keeps them in good condition. If you just push the pedal, but you don’t pull it up with strength then you are not training your quads fully.
9. Keeping with unbearable resistance: when your biking class instructor calls out for resistance that you cannot bear then it will be your decision to adjust a little less resistance. You have to do this to avoid possible injury to your back and lower extremities.
10. Cheating the resistance. When the instructor said that you must adjust the resistance high then you must do it exactly and not less. Cheating the resistance will probably keep you out of control, especially when you accidentally unclip your pedal straps.
11. Neglecting core exercise: Developing the core strength is one of the purposes of stationary biking. It is not just for your extremities, but also for your abs. So when you position yourself on the bike curl your back a bit to feel the pressure on your abs.
12. Heavy lifting in strengthening upper extremities: One of the exercises before doing the cycling class is weight lifting. Only lift 1 to 3-pound weight to condition your upper muscles.
13. Opening elbows out to the sides during triceps exercise: if you don’t keep elbows close to head and wrists behind the elbow during triceps exercise the back muscles of the arm will not be involved in the strengthening.
14. Stopping the breath during upper body exercise: During upper body, exercise your muscles will need sufficient oxygen so you must take the proper way of breathing in and breathing out.
15. Not pedaling while doing upper body exercise: Keep strengthening your lower extremities by pedaling with resistance and while doing upper exercise on the spinning bike. This way you can also keep in burning out your body fats.
16. Pedaling with no resistance while doing upper body exercise: When you are doing upper body exercise, make sure that your pedaling must be with resistance so that it can help your balance and also avoid holding off the handlebars when you are biking with no resistance. Doing so is really dangerous since you will deprive yourself of sufficient balance to be on the seat.
17. Wearing loose pants: Definitely, you must not wear loose pants when you are having stationary biking exercise. Any loose part of your pants might accidentally mess up with any part of the bike. When this happens, you will not focus well on your indoor cycling workouts.
18. Wearing loose and unstable bra: This is a precaution for girls. When you are spinning the bike, especially when the instructor told you to do the” tap back” you will surely bounce. So for women using a flimsy bra, this will not be good.
19. Unclipping the shoes while pedaling: Unclipping your pedal straps from your shoes will not help in strengthening your hips. If you are uncomfortable with straps you must do the right way of pedaling so that you maintain the exercise for your hips.
20. Missing the post stretching exercise: It is always indoor cycling routines for biking class to have post stretching exercise. This is like calming your strained muscles and keeping them back in shape after strenuous exercise. Anyone will experience the good feeling after gently exercising your hips, backs and every muscle that was severely involved in the cycling exercise.

Final Verdict

So, before engaging in any kinds of exercise, like the indoor cycling, there are important things that you must consider. You must learn the basics of safety and the right ways to do it, in order to get the desired result. Dong an exercise in a wrong way could sometimes compromise your safety and probably you will not get the result that you wanted.