Walking is a basic human activity. Cycling-with a little bit of training- isn’t rocket science either. Moreover, they are both excellent forms of aerobic workouts. Thus, cycling and walking from time to time can have many health benefits. However, when put into comparison, which is better? Thus, if you’re looking for an answer to the ‘exercise bike vs walking’ debate, continue reading.
Walking and using an exercise bike both have unique features that your body benefits from. For example, you can enjoy a longer life by regularly walking for about 15-30 minutes in the morning. At the same time, you can strengthen your muscles and reduce stress joints by cycling on an exercise bike.
Exercise Bike Vs. Walking
Walking and cycling on exercise bikes both have a separate fandom. However, the first move in meeting your fitness goals is deciding whether to go with an exercise bike or sticking to walking.
On the other hand, both forms of training serve the same purpose: improving your physique. Yet, we suggest reading on to know about the pros and cons of each type.
Walking
Walking is an activity that you require in your daily life. Whether you’re walking outside or on a fitness machine like a treadmill, it is going to have the same effect on your fitness, which is increasing your endurance and improving your muscles. At the same time, it also improves your stamina.
Different Sorts Of Texture And Surfaces:
You face various sorts of surfaces when walking. These will affect the legs in both positive and negative ways. Walking on different types of roads causes the muscles controlling the body’s balance to improve. The groups of muscles controlling your balance are the hamstrings and the quads. Hence, you can flex your knees better by strengthening them.
Walking outdoors means the texture varies regularly. There may be certain surfaces that are too rough or too smooth. Therefore, by walking on them, you put a great amount of tension on your knees. The fact that your knees always serve as shock absorbers worsens this. Thus, any time you walk, they have to endure the impact.
Barriers In Your Path:
At the same time, walking on roads and pavements means you come across different obstacles. These may include rocks, stones, damps, speed breakers, etc. Moving past these sorts of obstacles can place your joints under unwanted stress. This can eventually lead to joint aches and injury.
Walking On A Treadmill:
In contrast, you can eliminate these risks if you go with an indoor method of walking, such as using a treadmill. A treadmill is a fitness device consisting of a rotating rubber belt. This creates a surface that is smooth for walking. Therefore, your feet will not feel a lot of pressure when walking on a treadmill. You can also set a preset distance to travel by using the console that comes with the machine.
Walking can also help you in your weight loss journey. Research shows that you can burn around 300 calories in an hour, given that your walking speed is 5km/h. Furthermore, you can increase your calorie count by walking indoors on a treadmill. These machines have features that allow you to alter their speed. So, walking vs treadmill which one is better for you !
Raising the treadmill’s pace when walking on it is going to lead to a greater loss of calories. However, It may seriously harm and damage your knees. This is because increasing the speed will cause the feet to hit down on the belt with a high amount of energy. Your knees will withstand this shock.
Breathing Rate:
Lastly, walking helps improve your breathing. This is because your breathing rate increases when you’re walking, leading to a greater transport of oxygen. Thus, your body cells will use up the oxygen to produce energy that is going to drive you during the activity. In addition, it also helps remove waste products from your body.
Using An Exercise Bike
People have been using exercise bikes for half a century now. In addition, among cardio machines, it is one of the most popular and oldest. Exercise bikes are, simply, regular bikes without tires. Furthermore, the device comes with an adjustable seat that is wide enough for easy seating.
Weight Loss:
Previously, we said that losing weight is never an easy job to do. Moreover, it takes a lot of time and hard work for you to burn belly fat. However, using an exercise bike would undoubtedly support you on your journey to weight loss. Besides, an exercise bike is a wonderful method to improve the calorie-burning rate. Furthermore, a study reveals that from a 30-minute exercise, you will burn about 200-300 calories.
Works Different Groups Of Muscles:
Cycling on an exercise bike can work for several different muscle groups. These include your quads, thighs, hamstrings, and glutes. Moreover, the lower-body muscles are continuously working hard during the activity. Thus, it causes the muscles to become more powerful than before. In addition, you use two big strokes to strengthen them.
The push and the pull are two separate strokes. Your quads start to contract when you’re pushing down on the pedals, strengthening them. In addition, the hamstrings improve as you pull the pedals up. In addition, as you’re cycling on flat ground, the exercise doesn’t stress your knees much.
It’s Boring:
From the data given above, you can certainly say that using an exercise bike is beneficial for your body. However, there is a slew of issues that come with it. You can quickly lose motivation and get bored while exercising on the exercise bike daily. This is due to the fact that you will be repeating the same routine.
Furthermore, this can make you miss out on the refreshing experience of biking outdoors. At the same time, an exercise bike enables you to cycle without having to face any hurdles in your path. Therefore, this can be a huge problem the next time you go out cycling outside through different surfaces.
You’re Putting In Less Effort:
In addition, you are going to lose less amount of weight than you’d expect. This is because you’re using a lesser amount of muscles when you’re cycling on an exercise bike indoors. Moreover, our brain and body recognize using the machine as a simpler form of workout. Therefore, we put in less effort when using an exercise bike.
Exercise bikes have settings that can alter their resistance and speed. Therefore, the device has the ability to mimic the resistance of different areas such as hills and mountains. Thus, increasing the resistance will definitely make the workout more intense. However, no matter how accurate a machine is, it can never really recreate a natural scene.
When you’re cycling outdoors, there are many factors other than the resistance you need to consider. These include kinetic severity, the impact of terrains, and of course, gravity. Thus, it is safe to say that you’re not going to put your maximum effort when using an exercise bike.
Frequently Asked Question
Our article provides you with an in-depth summary of the exercise bike vs walking debate and which one comes out on top. However, it doesn’t respond to any of the concerns that we receive through emails and comments. Thus, we have decided to respond to some of them below-
Is walking or exercise bike better?
-Study shows that cycling on an exercise bike burns more calories than walking. Our average speed of walking is 5km/h. Thus, you are going to burn 371 calories for walking 10,000 steps. However, when cycling at 20km/h, you’ll burn 563 calories/hour.
What is the equivalent of biking to walking?
-The thumb rule is to perform a medium-level intensity cycling for an hour which should be equal to 10,000 steps. Doing this causes you to burn the same amount of calories as walking when using the exercise bike.
Is walking or riding a bike better for the knees?
-Your knees are the shock absorbers of your body. Therefore, your knees are going to absorb the shock every time you land your feet. However, cycling is a non-weight-bearing task. Thus, you won’t stress your knees using a bike.
Is walking or riding a bike better for losing weight?
-Keeping personal opinions aside, cycling is a much better option for losing weight. Walking does help maintain a healthy BMI and lose belly but. However, it doesn’t cause any significant change like cycling does. Moreover, cycling can cause you to burn more calories than walking.
How long should I ride a bike to lose belly fat?
-A medium-level cycling workout can burn up to 300 calories in 60 minutes. However, you can increase the calorie-burn by setting the workout’s intensity to a higher level. Furthermore, we would suggest that you increase the session’s time by 15 minutes as you proceed.
A Word From Us
Every day, we are constantly trying our best to provide you the answers that you seek on the web. Therefore, we are thrilled that you were able to know about the ‘exercise bike vs walking’ debate from our site. Moreover, we are hopeful that the next time someone asks you about this topic, you’ll be utterly knowledgeable by then. Happy shopping!