How Does an Exercise Bike Tone Your Hips & Stomach?

A popular piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment, exercise bikes not only improve your heart rate and circulation but also tone your core and lower body. Also referred to as an indoor cycle, an exercise bike mimics the movements of riding a bicycle indoors, allowing you to work out in any weather. It also let you burn about the equivalent number of calories as you would during a traditional bike ride, which is about 292 calories per hour for a 160-lb. person.

Indoor Cycling History

The first recorded invention of the exercise bike occurred in the 18th century. Francis Lowndes created a machine called the Gymnasticon, which resembled a bicycle in terms of mechanics and allowed a person to exercise. Exercise bikes were made more popular in the late 1980s by Jonathan Goldberg. Goldberg was a competitive cyclist who was seeking a way to train indoors in the winter. Shortly after his innovations, indoor cycling became increasingly popular with the creation of a group exercise format called indoor cycling. Today, both individual exercise bikes and group indoor cycling classes are available in nearly every neighborhood gym.

Hip Muscles

While the major hip muscles, your glutes, are not one of the primary muscles used for cycling, it does assist in the movement needed for cycling, which helps it to grow in terms of muscle tone. Your hips also become more toned when you cycle simply because you are burning fat as you pump your legs. In addition, the additional muscle growth in your other leg muscles will help to burn calories quicker when you eat, helping you to metabolize food as fuel for muscle instead of fat storage.

Hamstrings

When you cycle, the thigh muscles that work together to push the pedals are the hamstrings and quadriceps. The hamstrings, the muscles located on the back portion of your leg from your glutes to your knees, create the upward portion of the circular motion. By engaging the leg not only as you push down, but also as you pull up, you will develop better muscle tone and also reduce the pressure you would place on your knees from the repeated downward motion.

Quadriceps

The quadriceps muscles are located on the front side of your legs from your knees to your hips. Quadriceps, also called quads, are the opposing muscle group to the hamstrings. You use your quadriceps when you push down on the pedals while using an exercise bike. The repeated down motion will engage your quadriceps, leading to more muscle tone over time. Because the quadriceps are such a dominant muscle in cycling, the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America recommends regularly stretching the quads after any type of bicycle training.

Abdominals

The abdominals are the supporting muscle group during cycling. They are engaged isometrically during a cycling workout and not only aid in the circular motion of the legs but also protect the back from injury from repeated leaning forward. To ensure that you are correctly using your abdominals while cycling, pull your navel in toward your spine, and pull your stomach in tightly from your ribcage all the way down to your pubic bone. Retain this good form throughout the workout.

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How to Burn Calories on the Elliptical Machine with 6 Helpful Tips

You can make the most of calorie burning as well as fat loss while utilizing the elliptical machine. This equipment works by means of effortlessly putting into practice the following easy-to-follow measures throughout your subsequent elliptical machine exercises. Using the elliptical machine will help you considerably augment calorie burning as well as invigorate your metabolism and exercise. Learn to burn calories on the elliptical machine.

Tip #1: Do some raise incline.

If you want to burn a good number of calories and discharge large amounts of fat utilizing the elliptical trainer, you should elevate the slope as high as your body can put up with. The higher the slope, the more immense the physical effort required to intensify the elliptical. This then changes into a stronger exercise and result to extra calories burned.

Tip #2: Elevate strength level.

In intensifying calorie burning and enhancing fat deficit, you should set the elliptical machine strength level sufficiently high to make you work. Do not fritter away your time bopping during a gradual, simple exercise. Raise the strength and obtain tremendous heart speed pumping because the more you perspire, the more calories you will burn. You will gain great metabolic improvement as well.

Tip #3: Perform intervals.

You must include interval exercise into your elliptical workout if you want to burn extra calories and fat in just a brief period of time. Interval exercise blends brief, rapid spurts of action together with episodes of more gradual movement. You must move quick and tough for about 30-45 seconds, pull back and relax around 30-45 seconds as well then do the repetition. You can perform this about 5-10 times on top of the course of action to considerably intensify calorie burning and to enhance fat deficit.

Tip #4: Stay away from taking hold of bars/rails.

Taking hold of the elliptical machine guide rails reduces the strength of the workout, resulting to lessened calorie burn. If you really want to burn lots of calories throughout your elliptical machine exercise, you should do it by standing up in the right position and by keeping your hands away from the rails. Allow your legs and shoulder to put more weight on your body. Performing this type of workout will considerably intensify calorie burning.

Tip #5: Utilize a manually operated elliptical machine.

Utilizing a manually operated elliptical machine provides you a great deal of power and flexibility on top of your elliptical exercise, which lets you burn a large number of calories. The manually operated elliptical machine allows you to instantaneously regulate your strength levels and exercise outline. It is also considered as the most excellent elliptical machine setting that will guarantee utmost exercise strengths as well as calorie burning.

Tip #6: Try shadow boxing while using the elliptical machine.

If you are already using an elliptical machine, you can add up shadow boxing. It is excellently effortless to do shadow boxing. You can never go wrong performing it. Just perform alternate punches using the left and right hands. The more you throw punches, the greater amount of calories you will burn.
Take advantage of the fact that elliptical machines will help you in burning calories. You can always make a combination of workouts using the machine. If you want you can also device a workout plan with the use of the elliptical.

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4-Minute Tabata-Inspired Fat-Blasting Workout

If you are trying to get fit but don’t have a lot of time to devote to working out, the Tabata protocol might just be the workout for you. Tabata is a 4-minute high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout named after Izumi Tabata, Ph.D. In his 1996 study, Tabata analyzed the data of a group of athletes following a training protocol which involved a mix of 20 seconds of maximum effort followed by 10 seconds periods of rest for eight rounds. He compared their data with a similar group of athletes using steady state training, and he found that the first group of athletes had more measurable athletic gains, including anaerobic capacity benefits. But what are the benefits for us regular folks, you ask? A recent study found that Tabata burns an average of 13.5 calories per minute (several participants burned much more), making it one seriously efficient workout! “This particular style of interval training has profound effects even on short-term post-exercise metabolism," says study author Michele Olson, PhD., lead researcher at the Auburn University Montgomery Kinesiology laboratory. "It would take five times the amount of typical cardio exercise to shed the same number of calories you can in a 4-minute, all-out effort Tabata segment." Read on to see a 4-minute Tabata-inspired fat-blasting workout.

Maximize Your Training - First and foremost, according to study author Michele Olson Ph.D., you’ve got to go all out with Tabata. “In my study, subjects did jump squats as high and as fast as they could, crouching super low for every 20 second round,” she says. The results showed that participants pushed close to 95 percent max on average. “It's a tough training method if you do it correctly; but if you are doing eight rounds of the 20-10 formula and not truly pushing beyond max, you won't see the benefits of the authentic Tabata format.” Olson notes that getting to that max level every time may mean you need to stick with only five to six rounds in the beginning and build up to eight full rounds. It’s best to cut your rounds short and go all out; otherwise you are just doing a variation of circuit training.

EXERCISE 1: High Knees - 1 Round, Olson recommends a 5-minute warm-up. Jumping rope – real or imaginary – is a great way to break a pre-Tabata sweat. After you’ve warmed-up, you’ll be ready for your first interval: high knees. Start by running in place as fast as you can (remember to GO ALL OUT!), driving your knees up as high as you can lift them. Pump your arms back and forth to help propel your knees higher for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and then move right into the next interval.

EXERCISE 2: Squat Jumps - 2 Rounds, Lower into a squat position, pushing your hips back and knees tracking over (but not past) toes. Keep your chest lifted and arms bent with your elbows touching your knees. Quickly jump straight up, reaching your arms overhead. Land softly in squat position and then immediately repeat for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and then repeat once more.

EXERCISE 3: Dumbbell Snatches - 2 Rounds, One per Side Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Holding a dumbbell with your left hand, extend your right arm out straight to the side of your shoulder. Olson recommends using 8-10-pounds, depending on your level. Lower into a squat position, sitting back into your hips, pressing your thigh slightly outward to keep knees tracking straight over your toes. Next, explode through your hips, driving energy through the hip joint (as if you were about to vertically jump off the floor) and perform an upright row motion with your left arm, raising dumbbell to shoulder level, rotating your palm front. Immediately press dumbbell vigorously overhead as if you were going to punch your knuckles through the ceiling. Repeat as quickly as possible with good form for a total of 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and then repeat on the opposite side.

EXERCISE 4: Speed Skater - 1 Round, Stand with your feet together and your arms by your sides. Take a wide step out to the side with your left foot, lowering into a squat position, bending your right knee behind body, tapping right foot lightly on the floor and swinging arms to the left. Quickly push off your left leg, swinging your arms out to the sides of your shoulders, jumping out and over to the right, landing on right leg with left leg crossed back, arms swinging to right side. Repeat as quickly as possible for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and then move right into the next interval.

EXERCISE 5: Lunge Jumps - 2 Rounds, One per Side Step with your right leg back into a lunge, bending your elbows with your arms by your sides. Jump straight up, reaching your arms overhead and extending your legs in the air. Land softly in starting lunge position. Repeat as quickly as possible for 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds and then repeat on the opposite side.

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11 Ways to Measure Your Progress on Your Fitness Journey

How’s your fitness journey going for you? If you aren’t measuring your progress, how do you know that your workouts are really working for you? “The point of taking measurements is to come up with meaningful data that you can act on and know whether or not the steps you’ve taken are helping you reach your goals,” says Mark Nutting, CSCS, fitness director and master trainer with Saco Sport & Fitness, in Saco, Maine. “The assessments you choose should relate directly to your goals.” Here are 11 ways to track your progress. Some work better than others, so find one or two that work for you and get started.

1. Body Mass Index (BMI) - Body mass index measures body fat based on height and weight. Simply entering your weight and height into a BMI “computer” such as the one on the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute website places your results into one of four ranges: underweight (less than 18.5), normal weight (18.5 to 24.9), overweight (25 to 29.9) or obese (greater than 30). The drawbacks? “On average, older adults tend to have more body fat than younger adults with the same BMI, and women have more total body fat than men with the equivalent BMI,” says Nutting. “Muscular individuals also often show up with a high BMI due to increased muscle mass.” BMI works best for kids and overweight individuals.

2. The Bathroom Scale - The most obvious measuring tool may not be the best unless you pair it with another method. “The scale does not tell the whole story,” says Nutting. “Using other methods (skinfold calipers, ultrasound, underwater weighing, etc.) to measure body composition (fat versus lean) gives you a better idea of the changes you’re making in your body.” The scale best measures progress when it’s used alongside other tools.

3. Circumference Measurements - Measuring progress by tracking your waist, hips, abdominal girth and other body sites can substitute for body-fat measurements when used with bathroom-scale readouts, says Nutting. “It’s helpful, for example, if your weight hasn’t changed but you’ve dropped two pant sizes. It shows you’ve probably gained muscle and lost fat, so the scale shows a net loss of zero.” Good sites to measure include waist (circle around where you normally wear a belt), hips (at the widest part), thigh (at the widest part) and chest (at the fullest part).

4. Fitness Apps Apps that track are essentially journals, says Nutting. These create greater mindfulness about what you choose to track (food, exercise quantity, exercise frequency, etc.). “Tracking weight loss or having exercises available can make beginners successful if they utilize the tools in apps,” says Averill Kessee, certified trainer at At One Fitness in North Hollywood, California. “The only negative is not having your phone available due to a low battery or simply forgetting it. And you have to be very attentive if the app calls for you to input info.” Apps can also hold you accountable in between personal-training sessions, says Kessee. Popular ones for measuring progress include MyPlate (food and calorie tracker), MyFitnessPal (calorie tracker), MapMyRide (measures routes for cycling), and MapMyRun (tracks your run).

5. The Fit of Your Clothes - When you can’t button your favorite pair of pants, it’s easy to blame it on dryer shrinkage, but not if you’re being honest with yourself. “Personally, I like the clothing method,” says Irv Rubenstein, Ph.D., exercise physiologist and founder of STEPS Fitness, a science-based fitness facility in Nashville, Tennessee. “Find an item of clothing you’d like to fit into. If after a designated amount of time you find it easier to put on or it doesn’t look nearly as stretched out, then whatever you’re doing is working. “Clearly this does not calculate body fat, but as with the fancier so-called scientific tools available to the average fitness pro, it will give you a relative measure of success,” says Rubenstein.

6. Handheld Body-Fat Measurer - This device tracks body fat when an individual simply grips it with both hands. The device sends a gentle, electrical current through the body to register a reading. It may be simple to use, but it isn’t always very accurate, says Rubenstein. “Any bioelectric impedance tool is subject to a variety of sources of error. For one thing, they only send a current partially through the body and calculate, based on the rate of return of the signal and a bunch of formulae, how much fat got in the way of the current.” Rubenstein says their greatest value lies in measuring pre- and post-exercise or diet progress for any one person.

7. Body-Weight and Body-Fat Scales - Resembling a bathroom scale, body-fat-measuring scales you stand on have the same challenges as handheld models, says Rubenstein. Some claim to measure not only body fat and weight, but also hydration levels and bone by simply standing on them. Hydration levels and the timing of your last meal eaten can change the outcomes, but using the scale at the same time each day gives you a relative measure of your progress. “You must be hydrated -- water conducts a current better than fat -- and optimally you should not have eaten a large meal within a designated amount of time because the fluids in the foods and subsequently in the gut can distort the measurement of conductance,” says Rubenstein.

8. Body-Fat Calipers - Often used by personal trainers to measure a client’s body fat, it’s important to find someone skilled at operating it in order to get accurate measurements, says Rubenstein. “They’re costly -- around $200. The cheap, plastic ones will not give you good results from a scientific standpoint, but, again, if used consistently by the same measurement taker, you can get a relatively accurate idea of the success (or failure) of a program. “Body-fat measurements typically consist of “pinching” seven sites: chest, abdominal, thigh, triceps, subscapular (under scapula), suprailiac (near hipbone) and midaxillary (under armpit near rib). Measurements are then entered into an equation to determine body fat.

9. Pinching an Inch - Pinching your midsection to “measure” fatness is very subjective and a difficult way to determine progress, says Kessee. “It only shows where a client’s body is at that moment. Retaining water or tight skin on one versus loose skin on others.” Loose skin can vary with individuals who are obese, women who’ve recently given birth or those who’ve lost a lot of weight resulting in hanging skin. Using another measure to ascertain a growing “pinch” or loss of weight would likely provide better information.

10. Journaling - Putting pen to paper is shown to help keep a person focused and organized, whether they’re tracking eating habits or recording workout progress, says Kessee. Keep it simple. “When journaling your workouts, break them out by body part.” Make note of weaker body parts and focus on them in your next workout. If recording dietary intake, track not only the food, but also the amount, where you were when you ate it (the car, on the run), the time (are you always starving at 2:00?) and even your mood to see if you’re eating in reaction to hunger or emotions.

11. BEFORE and AFTER Photos - Your "Before" and "After" photos can be a strong way to really see your progress and accomplishments along the way toward reaching your fitness goal. Try to take your "Before" pictures the day or the first week or month you start your fitness program. Men should take the photos wearing shorts or a swimsuit without a shirt on, and women should take the photos in a bikini or tight gym shorts and a sports bra. It's important to see your stomach, and be sure not to suck that tummy in! You may see your most pronounced changes in the stomach area. Use a tripod or get a friend or family member to help you take the photos. Stand in front of a plain colored wall, with as little distraction or clutter behind you as possible. Take the photos again – wearing the same clothing -- in 30 days.

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