How To Liven Up Your Exercise Bike Workouts

!±8± How To Liven Up Your Exercise Bike Workouts

If you have ever been on an exercise bike, you will know how excruciatingly boring it is. There is absolutely nothing to do except pedal away for 20 or 30 minutes, or however long your workout session lasts. So is there anything you can do to alleviate this mind-numbing boredom?

Well if you are using an exercise bike at your local gym, you will often find that it is not always that boring. They may have a TV screen on the wall or music playing in the background if you're lucky. However the gym I used to use didn't play any music and had a small TV in the corner with the sound turned low so you couldn't hear it.

So if you are a regular gym member, the only thing you can do is to bring your own music and listen to it through earphones. You could also listen to the radio this way, or bring a book or magazine to read, although I always find it quite hard to read and pedal at the same time because I usually end up pedalling slightly slower as a result.

If you are using an exercise bike at home, it is slightly easier to make your workouts more exciting. You obviously have easy access to all of the books in your house, and you can also watch television and listen to music at the same time. This will alleviate the boredom and make the time pass a little faster.

Another thing you can do is to set yourself mini-targets throughout your workout. For example you can set yourself time limits that you want to be under after mile 1, mile 2, etc or kilometre 1, kilometre 2, etc.

This is something I do a lot when I use my own exercise bike at home. I not only have a time that I have to beat at the end of the workout, but I also have times that I have to be under after each kilometre. This keeps me focused, ensures that I don't drop my pace in the middle of the workout, and ensures that I maintain a good pace towards the end of the workout (when I start to increase the tension). Plus of course it makes the whole thing a lot less boring.

Overall I quite enjoy my exercise bike session nowadays because I not only have targets that I have to beat, but I always have music playing loudly in the background as well. The music seems to lift my endorphin levels even further, and as a result I always end up feeling really great at the end of the workout, particularly when I have clocked a decent time and beat all my targets.