Folding exercise bikes can be a great way to get exercise into your life and they have a number of advantages over going to the gym.
Here are just 10 reasons why it’s a wise choice to avoid the gym and get exercising at home on a folding exercise bike.
1. Germs. A recent study (Daily Mail) found that gym exercise bikes can have over 400 times more germs than found on a toilet seat (it was just behind the treadmill as a source of germs). Over 70% of the bacteria found on the equipment was harmful to humans. The advice at the gym is carry your own antibacterial gel. With your own bike you can make sure you don’t have this issue with keeping it clean and disinfected.
2. Sweat. Similar to germs as people don’t wipe down the machines properly. It’s got to be one of the grossest things when you come across an exercise bike that is dripping from someone else’s sweat. Wiping it down doesn’t quite get rid of the feeling too. Here again with your own bike, you can make sure it’s cleaned after use – at worst you’ll know who sweat it is I guess.
3. Time. Who has time to get to the gym with everything else there is to do. Your bike means you save time because there is no travel involved. Plus, you don’t have to prepare you gym bag, decide what to wear or any other of those considerations. Then despite your best laid plans, when you get there, you find all the bikes are taken and you’ve got to wait around
4. Schedule. Whenever you want to exercise you can. You decide whether it is late at night, first thing in the morning, middle of the day during lunch or when you are working or playing video games (see FitDesk 2.0 that comes with a desktop for a real timesaver). You do it when you want and can do it while doing other things. You’re not restricted to when the gym is open or when there is class or when you know you can get on the exercise bike you want to use.
5. TV.You can watch the TV programs you want to watch. You’re not being dictated to by the gym or others. Some of the folding exercise bikes come with a TV remote holder to keep close at hand when you want to change the channel. As the bikes are quiet there are no problems with hearing the TV.
6. Wearing. You can wear what you want. There is no need to be concerned as to how you look before or after you exercise. You’re not going to be judged! There are no dress codes to be concerned with – you can even pedal in bare feet if you want.
7. Showering. You can just go to your own bathroom to have a shower or a soak in the bath. There is no sharing of facilities and another possible place for germs to hide – don’t forget to take your flip flops so you don’t catch anything off the floor. Also you need to make sure you wash your clothes to get rid of any nasty bacteria you’ve picked up when you’ve been to the gym.
8. Cost. You do need to pay for the bike upfront but there is no ongoing costs. A good folding exercise bike can be bought from $150 – $200. It is possible to find deals at gyms at $20 per month per person if you get lucky by joining at right time or there is one near you. Otherwise it’s going to cost you at least $30 per month, per person (there might be deals for family memberships). So, in about 5 – 7 months or so (if you get lucky with a membership) of use you are then ahead and that is if there is only one person using it.
9. More Than One Person Can Use it. Unlike a gym membership only one person can use it unless you pay more. You can quickly adjust a folding exercise bike so it can be used by more than one person properly giving you more value.
10.Not Use It Or Lose It. A bike is there whether you use it or not, it can still be used. With a gym membership you don’t use it you’ve lost it – the time has gone and gym has banked that money and says thank you very much. With the big chain gyms that’s there model is to get you signed up and hope you don’t use it – so they can sell more memberships to people who don’t use it.
To be fair gyms aren’t all bad. You can get spin bikes, fan bikes and other bikes that can give you tougher workout than you can get with folding exercise bikes. There can be a good community at the better ones where you can make friends, socialize and motivate each other. You can also in classes run by the gym have a coach or trainer that can help you get the most out of your training.
But for me training at home is easier to do and more likely to happen because it is on your time. There isn’t the hassle of getting to the gym and so on.
Folding exercise bikes are a great way that you can do this affordably and they don’t take up a lot of room. Of course, the important thing is that they get used.