A good workout usually lasts half an hour to an hour. A moderately paced workout for an hour will squeeze out a lot of sweat from you and give you that workout high. However, many of us don’t have the luxury of time. Some of us won’t even be able to allot that hour dedicated to a workout.
Now, how would you stay in shape? The good thing is, there is a mode of training that would not suck up one hour of your life. Hight intensity interval training or HIIT is the answer that busy people are looking for (or avoiding!). Another fantastic thing about HIIT is it does not require specific tools or equipment to do!
Any workout machine (or no workout machine at all!) will work with HIIT. Now, if you want to know how to do a HIIT on an exercise bike, you found the right place! Let’s go over the mechanics of HIIT and how you could use it on an exercise bike. This low-impact exercise blows up your knee pain excuse!
How to do a HIIT on an Exercise Bike
There are two key things you should always remember when doing a HIIT workout. Intensity and interval. The principle is to do an explosive workout for N-seconds and rest for N-seconds. For beginners, the ratio of workout and rest favors more on rest as you build your endurance and stamina.
Naturally, through consistent training, the body adapts and is able to do more work with decreasing rest periods. I can’t emphasize enough the simplicity of HIIT. You don’t need any customized equipment to do it. Any workout can be done in HIIT as long as you have a device to time yourself.
Here are some intervals you could follow. Let’s start with an easy one. Don’t forget to stretch before riding your exercise bike!
For beginners, you might not be able to do the “all-out” yet. And to be quite honest, it’s little dangerous to go all out on your first time. So, start with a five-minute relaxed pace. Watch your posture and your stance while riding your exercise bike.
Now, go fast for fifteen (15) seconds then go back to a relaxed pace for thirty seconds. Do this five times. You may not break a sweat easily for this first part. Now, for another 5 cycles, go fast for 30 seconds and then switch to a relaxed pace for thirty seconds. You are probably catching your breath by this time.
Now, for another 5 cycles, go moderately for 45 seconds and then to a relaxed pace for 30 seconds. You might be surprised at how much you can sweat for this type of workout. Lastly, ride for around 5 more minutes to cool down.
So to recap,
| Workout Phase | Rest Phase | No. of Cycles | Total | |
| Warm-up | 5 minutes | 1 | 5 minutes | |
| Easy | 15 seconds | 30 seconds | 5 | 3.75 minutes |
| Moderate | 30 seconds | 30 seconds | 5 | 5 minutes |
| Hard | 45 seconds | 30 seconds | 5 | 6.25 minutes |
| Cooldown | 5 minutes | 1 | 5 minutes | |
| Total | 25 minutes |
So, basically, it only takes less than 30 minutes of your time to begin a HIIT on an exercise bike, and it can be a great way to use exercise bikes to lose stomach fats. If you are quite busy, you just have to wake up half an hour than usual to compensate for this.
Now, after doing this for a few weeks, you can challenge yourself to spice things up by increasing the difficulty of the workout.
Begin with a 5-minute warm-up, then pedal fast for 30 seconds and switch to an easy pace for 30 seconds. Do this three times then increase your cycling intensity. Next, pedal as fast as you can for 30 seconds then go easy for 30 seconds. Repeat this for 3 more cycles for a total of four.
Now, for the hard part, go all out for 30 seconds and switch to easy for 30 seconds. Do this for 2 cycles total. Lastly, before cooling down, pedal moderately for 45 seconds and go easy for 30 seconds. Cool down for five minutes. This workout is three minutes less than the first one.
To recap, here’s what the workout scheme looks like on a table.
| Workout Phase | Rest Phase | No. of Cycles | Total | |
| Warm-up | 5 minutes | 1 | 5 minutes | |
| Easy | 30 seconds | 30 seconds | 3 | 3 minutes |
| Moderate | 30 seconds | 30 seconds | 4 | 4 minutes |
| All out | 30 seconds | 30 seconds | 2 | 2 minutes |
| Hard | 45 seconds | 30 seconds | 3 | 3.75 minutes |
| Cooldown | 5 minutes | 1 | 5 minutes | |
| Total | 22.75 minutes |
For another option on how to do HIIT on exercise bike, please watch this workout video:
Final Words
We have a lot of reasons not to go for a workout. We often abuse the “I don’t have time for that” excuse. But hey, if you want to stay fit, give it at least 25 minutes! When you take how to do a HIIT on an exercise bike seriously, it only requires you to get up half an hour earlier than your usual routine and ride the bike. Take a shower and get ready for work.