Simple Technique to Boost My Stationary Bike Work Out

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have Type II Diabetes. And believe me, I am doing the best I can. My A1C is 7ish, down from over 8 before. My doctor said that we want it around 6ish. I suspect that we may need some pharmacological intervention. I digress.

Anyway, I exercise on my stationary bike for about twenty minutes a day. And I think that I may have found a way to boost my work out. I put my hands on my legs so my arms get a workout too. I must not be the first person to think of this. Because if you recall, they used to have workout bikes with moving handlebars. We had one when I was in HS, now long gone, not surprisingly.

I asked my doctor, when I saw him last. And the medical student he was with, said it’s all about resistance. Is it? So now I move my hands more towards my kneecaps, and I do feel resistance (or mild discomfort, IAE).

BTW for the present moment, there is a reason why I do it for about twenty minutes. That’s how long I let my glaucoma eye drops set. It seems to work for the present. And I have heard some people say, 20 minutes is better than none.

IAE my question is, does the extra resistance boost my workout. Well :slightly_smiling_face: ?

2

Unless you increase the resistance, you’re just moving some of the effort to the arms.
A good check is your heart rate.
You could just increase the resistance and/or pedal faster rather than using the arms.

3

Don’t try to to extra stuff on the bike. Just get off of it after ten minutes and then do ten minutes of other stuff.

Honestly, twenty minutes on a stationary bike is better than nothing but twenty minutes of squats, lunges, and push-ups would be a lot better. Get a light kettlebell, watch some videos, and be careful about your form so as to not injure yourself. Take it slow.

4

You can move your arms in the air as if you were running or walking fast, while you ride. If you have a fitsy-bitsy or smart watch, it will count it as steps. The action of moving your arms back and forth is genuine work, even without resistance.