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The best exercise bikes you can buy for home workouts

Steven John   

The best exercise bikes you can buy for home workouts
Thelife3 min read

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the best exercise bikes

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  • An exercise bike is a great way to keep your heart healthy and muscles toned, and it could help you lose weight or maintain it at where you want it.
  • When you have a stationary bike in the home, you are able to work out at any time, without having to travel to the gym.
  • The Exerputic 4000 Magnetic Recumbent Bike is our top pick because it's well made and fairly affordable.

Exercise bicycles, also known as stationary bikes or spinning bikes (although the latter is a different beast entirely), have a surprisingly long history, dating back to the 16th century. Francis Lowndes invented a device approximating the function of an exercise bike in the late 1790s. His creation, the Gymnasticon, predated even the earliest riding bicycles by several decades. By the end of the 19th century, as bicycles took their modern form, stationary bikes used for exercise became a more common sight in homes and gymnasiums.

For much of the 20th century, the exercise bike and the treadmill were essentially the only stationary devices suitable for cardiovascular exercise. Then, in the late 1900s, equipment such as the NordicTrack, the elliptical trainer, and stair machines gained in popularity. For a while, exercise bikes seemed almost passé, used more for hanging laundry than for fitness in the home and relegated to the back corner or many fitness centers. Then the spinning craze hit a few years back and exercise bikes surged into style once again.

And why shouldn't the exercise bike be popular? On those days when it's too cold for a run or too rainy for a walk, or when there's no time for a trip to the gym, a home exercise bike is a great way to get your heart rate up and your leg muscles pumping. When you use the various seated and standing positions and the interval training approach of a spin class, you can even get what amounts to a total body workout right there on a stationary bike. And compared to an elliptical trainer, many exercise bikes are relatively affordable and compact. Some even fold away to stash in a closet or under the bed.

Our guide includes exercise bikes to fit every budget and every home. Some are small enough to tuck under a desk, while others will require a few square feet of real estate. But all of the stationary cycles included will help you hit those cardio fitness and weight management goals.

Here are the best exercise bikes you can buy:

Updated on 06/06/2019 by Les Shu: Updated prices, links, and formatting.

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