We all know that regular exercise is good for us. However, it does pay to think about how long you exercise for every time, especially when you have an exercise bike at your disposal.
The main thing to remember with an exercise bike is that it exercises one specific area of your body. This is namely the lower section. If you think about how you move your body when you get on your exercise bike you will see this is true. Your leg muscles will receive a good workout, as will the muscles in your buttocks. Everything above this receives little attention. This is why planning a stint on the exercise bike should be just one part of your overall exercise routine.
It also pays to give yourself longer periods of time on your exercise bike as well. If you spend just five or ten minutes cycling on it you won’t get the same amount of benefit that you would from a half hour stint. Of course you do have to build up to doing that amount of exercise on it first. It’s no good starting off with a half hour stint if you have never used an exercise bike before. In this case a ten minute pedal would be ideal for starters, and then you can gradually build up to the half hour stint.
This does bring to mind one very important fact though. If you are going to be spending a while pedalling away on your bike you need to be sure it will be comfortable for you. If you buy a cheap exercise bike you may find the saddle is a little uncomfortable and you struggle to remain comfortable over the space of half an hour.
This is where it can pay to spend that little bit more money on something that is designed for more frequent use. For instance you could even go to the top end of the scale and buy an exercise bike that has a built in screen. If you have seen these you will know they are not cheap. But they do provide you with a built in route to cycle along, which certainly makes a longer stint on the bike more interesting than it would be otherwise!
So yes, longer periods spent cycling on your stationary bike will be more beneficial. But you need to be sure you have the right bike for the situation.