Finding the right exercise bike for you
Whatever you are looking for in an exercise bike, chances are you can find something suitable in the wide range of models and costs available. Whatever the model or price range you're shopping in, exercise bikes come in three basic styles:
1. Upright exercise bikes. Upright bikes are pretty obvious by definition. They sit upright and YOU sit upright to use them. They were the earliest and for a long time the best exercise bike around.
2. Semi-recumbent exercise bikes. The semi-recumbent exercise bike might be thought of as the "sort of comfort bike" of the exercise bike category of fitness equipment. It generally leans at a comfortable backward angle, but doesn't put you in a fully horizontal position. It's easier for some older or less flexible people to mount and dismount than an upright, and seems to offer some benefits to the back and shoulders over an upright machine.
3. Recumbent exercise bikes. Yup, you guessed it. This style of fitness machine has you fully lying down as you pedal. Well, actually, most recumbent exercise bikes never put you fully horizontal any more than their road counterparts do. If you were lying flat on your back in either case, you aren't going to see traffic, the path you're traveling on the road -- or the statistics and monitoring display console in the case of the recumbent exercise bike.
Whichever style you choose, fitness bikes offer the convenience of indoor workouts during bad weather, although they might bring about the same sense of boredom many athletes find on treadmills or indoor tracks: Doing motion/aerobic exercise, most folks find it tedious remaining in one spot. Setting the tedium factor aside, exercise bikes work the specific sets of muscles that regular cycling does. Which makes them ideal as an alternative to putting in actual miles on your bicycle.
