How to Mix Treadmill & Exercise Bike Workouts

Using just one piece of exercise equipment consistently not only can become boring but can give your body an imbalanced workout. Exercise bikes, for example, are good for the lower body and can help strengthen legs and work your thighs and gluteus, while tread mills don't strengthen legs quite as much, but are better for a full-body workout. So why not use both? Mixing treadmill and exercise bike workouts can help break the monotony and provide a more thorough workout program. It is also beneficial to supplement these cardio-based workouts with strength training. Strengthening muscles will help the body to burn more calories.

Things You'll Need

• Exercise bike
• Treadmill
• Dumbbells

Instructions

1. Alternate days between the treadmill and the exercise bike. Allow your body to rest at least one day a week.

2. Stretch out before beginning a workout. Warm up by walking or biking slowly for five minutes.

3. Choose a pace that gets you breathing hard, but doesn't make you lose your breath. Beginners should start by working out for 25 to 30 minutes. Intermediates can go 30 to 35 minutes, and more advanced people can go 35 to 40 minutes.

4. Begin to add in interval training at intermediate and advanced levels. Interval training has been shown to burn more fat than regular training. For the treadmill, switch back and forth between 1- to 3-minute intensive intervals and 5-minute moderate intervals. For the bike, switch back and forth between 10-second intensive biking and 10-second moderate (recovery) biking. Try 30- to 45-second incline intervals (for treadmills) and/or tension intervals (for bikes) for increased resistance training. Switch back and forth from high to low settings.

5. Add dumbbell exercises on the days you do the treadmill for supplemental strength training. Get off the treadmill two to three times during the workout and do 20 reps of dumbbell exercises. Do not rest in between in order to keep your heart rate up. You can do arm curls, shoulder presses, lateral raises, upright rows and shrugs. Dumbbells can also be held while walking on the treadmill.

6. Warm down by walking slowly for five minutes.

References

• Twelve-Week Treadmill Workout
• Interval Exercise Bike Workouts
• Over 20 Dumbbell Exercises Complete with Animated Diagrams