Have you ever asked yourself this question, does an exercise bike tone your stomach?
If you did, we could only assume that you have stubborn belly fat that you desperately want to get rid of.
And yes, we know the feeling: unsightly belly fat is anything but cute! Fortunately, riding your exercise bike is one of the most effective ways to lose belly fat and get a toned, flat stomach.
Sit tight as we take you through the whole process of toning your stomach muscles. At the end of this guide, you’ll know how to perform your cycling workouts properly, so your belly will no longer be sticking out.
Contents
How Does An Exercise Bike Tone Your Stomach?
Generally, fat is useful in the human body as it functions as a source of energy. But excess body fat can cause serious health consequences, like clogged arteries that can lead to more serious conditions.
If you have excess fat around your belly, you’ll be relieved to know that it can be easily dealt with regular indoor cycling sessions. Owning an exercise bike brings comfort to anyone wanting to create a leaner and well-sculpted muscular appearance. As much as it burns belly fat and tones that area, it also tones the legs, thighs, and bum.
Does an exercise bike tone your stomach? And how does cycling affect your stomach muscles exactly?
It will make you sweat. As you may know, sweating is required for toning your stomach, including other fat issues.
Assuming you weigh 200 lbs, you can reduce 190 calories by riding your exercise bike for 30 minutes, whereas if you’re around 180 lbs, you can burn up to 280 calories within the same time. Hence, an exercise bike helps a lot in burning extra fat, which, in turn, leads to a toned stomach.
Another excellent way that proves cycling tones your stomach is that it works your abdominal muscles. Because you’re leaning forward when you ride your bike, you are prompted to suck in these muscles.
Steps For Toning Your Stomach
Now that we answered the burning question – does an exercise bike tone your stomach – here are some tips to help you tone your stomach using an exercise bike:
- Don’t forget to warm up. Before you start your cycling workout, always do a warm-up to increase flexibility. Being flexible can make it easier to pedal the bike. A 3-5 minute workout session should be enough to prepare your body for aerobic activity.
- Next, hit the intervals. Pedal for 3 minutes with higher resistance and very intense pedal stroke effort.
- Lift one arm off the handlebars and place it behind you. Then switch arms after 2 minutes. Do the switching of hands while keeping your stomach contracted.
- Try bumping up your workout to the next level: complete intervals of lifting your bum from the seat then sitting back down.
- Take time to recover. Take it down a bit by returning to low resistance for 1-2 minutes. This slows your heart rate and allows you to catch your breath.
- Then, alternate intensities. Take turns performing steps 2 and 3 to help burn belly fat and tone that region.
- Don’t forget to cool down after you have reached your target workout.
Additional Muscle Groups That An Exercise Bike Tones
Does an exercise bike tone your stomach? We’ve already explained that it does. But, here’s also how it can affect other muscles as well and help you get in great shape!
Bum
Besides your stomach, your bum also gets toned if you consistently ride your bike. Some people would argue that the bum makes the least movement during a cycling workout, so you can’t really expect an improved muscle tone in this area.
However, your bum muscles play a very significant role – helping to extend your hips as you pedal. Since the act of pedalling activates your bum muscles, they get more toned with time.
Arms
Riding an exercise bike also contributes greatly to toning your arms. While riding, your arms help your upper body stay stable on the bike. Keeping your body weight upright like this for a series of pedalling sessions can help tone your arms.
If you want to tone your arms faster, it helps to lean forward while pedalling on your exercise bike. But make sure that this positioning doesn’t make you uncomfortable to avoid injury and pain.
Calves
Your calves also get toned due to the hard pedalling action.
The pedals bring the resistance that you need to get your calves to work out to the point of burning out. If you want to tone your calves faster, make the pedalling harder by increasing the resistance.
Core Muscles
Does an exercise bike tone your stomach? Yes it does. But, it also tones your core muscles.
The core muscles include your stomach, but since we have already talked about that, we will discuss other muscles that are attached to your trunk.
Cycling also works out your lower back muscles. In fact, they get a good workout every time you ride your bike. But in order to provide your back muscles an effective workout, you need to adopt the right posture (lean forward) on your exercise bike.
Some people make the mistake of sitting in an upright position when trying to tone their lower back muscles. Don’t let this be you, as this doesn’t really give your back muscles the workout they deserve.
Conclusion
Does an exercise bike tone your stomach? As a matter of fact, riding an exercise bike is one of the most effective ways to get rid of that excess flesh in your stomach. If you throw in some strength exercises too, you are likely to get that beach-ready stomach in no time.
And if you can get more benefits from cycling, why not go ahead and do it? Keep the tips mentioned in this guide and focus on toning other muscle groups as well.
Finally, make a habit of adopting the proper form throughout your workout to ensure maximum safety.
