| Re: Better workout on spin bike or road bike?
>I have a Schwinn Spin Bike and several regular bikes. My typical
>routine is to do 20 minutes on the stationary bike 4-5 days a week. I
>increase the resistance at intervals and by the time I am done I am
>sweating profusely. I was wondering if anyone has any dependable info
>on the caloric burn differences between a spin bike and a regular
>bike. If I rode the regular bike for 35-40 minutes would I get as
>good a work out as doing the spin bike for 20 minutes? This is FL so
>there are no hills but I would be going over several long high
>bridges.
>
> Of course after I ride the regular bike I am not sweating nearly as
>much as after the spin bike but I think that may have to do with the
>air that is blowing over me and evaporating the sweat...
>
>I am 53 and in very good shape, if that makes a difference
Calories burned will be governed by the resistance (speed) you ride for
those time intervals. Without this data it is impossible to answer your
question.
Your spin bike workout is too short to be of much benefit for cardio
conditioning. I believe 30 minutes is the *minimum* recommended length for
cardio workouts.
A couple of years ago I did a cycle camp in Italy. Among the campers were a
group of guys from Florida. Like you, their only hill training was from
riding the local bridges.
It was easy to tell on the Italian hills how long those bridges were as the
Floridians would detonate simultaneously and be dropped.
Chris Neary
diabloridr@comcast.net
"Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could
you ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I
loved" - Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh
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