Stationary Bike

The stationary bike is a seated cardio machine that uses a flywheel and pedals to train your legs and heart. You work the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves in a circular motion while your cardiovascular system handles the bigger demand.

Sit on the seat and place the balls of your feet on the pedals. Adjust the seat height so your knee keeps a slight bend at the bottom of each pedal stroke. Grip the handlebars lightly, sit evenly on both hips, and keep your chest up.

Start pedaling in a smooth circle. Push down through the front of your foot, then scrape back slightly through the bottom of the stroke. Keep your upper body relaxed and your hips stable on the seat. Hold that rhythm for the full session.

Breathe through your nose and mouth at a pace that matches the effort. For steady low-intensity work, keep a conversational pace. For harder work, keep sessions short and use them sparingly so your leg training recovery stays intact. Make it easier by lowering the resistance; make it harder by adding resistance or doing short intervals.

Fault: You grip the handlebars tightly and tense your shoulders, turning a leg workout into upper-body strain. Fix: Rest your hands lightly on the bars, relax your shoulders, and let your legs do the work.

Fault: You stomp straight down and ignore the back half of the pedal circle. Fix: Think about scraping your foot back through the bottom of each stroke so the motion stays smooth.

Fault: You do intense bike intervals too often and your leg training starts to drag. Fix: Treat high-intensity sessions as a small dose, keep most rides conversational, and cap the total frequency.

Fault: You push through chest pain, dizziness, or unusual breathlessness. Fix: Stop the bike immediately and alert your coach or a medical professional to what happened.