Treadmill, exercise bike, rowing machine: what’s one of the best option for cardio at home?

Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, refers to any type of rhythmic physical activity that increases your heart rate and respiratory so the center and lungs can deliver oxygen to the working muscles. Essentially, it’s the variety of exercise that gets you huffing and puffing – and fills many individuals with dread.

People often do cardio to drop poundsbut it surely’s related to quite a lot of health advantages including reducing the chance of heart disease, stroke and falls. Research shows cardio also improves cognitive function and mental health.

The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity cardio per week.

There are some ways to do cardio, from playing a team sport, to riding your bike to work, to going for a jog. If you’re willing and able to take a position in a bit of kit, you may also do cardio at home.

The treadmill, stationary bike and rowing machine are the preferred pieces of cardio equipment you’ll find in a typical gym, and you’ll be able to buy any of those for your own home too. Here’s methods to know which one is best for you.

The treadmill

In terms of effectiveness of exercise, it’s hard to look past the treadmill. Running uses most of your major muscle groups and subsequently results in greater increases in heart rate and energy expenditure in comparison with other activities, corresponding to cycling.

As a bonus, since running on a treadmill requires you to support your personal body weight, it also helps to construct and maintain your boneskeeping them strong. This becomes much more vital as you become older as the chance of developing medical conditions corresponding to osteopenia and osteoporosis – where the density of your bones is reduced – increases.

But the treadmill will not be for everybody. The weight-bearing nature of running may exacerbate pain and cause swelling in individuals with common joint conditions corresponding to osteoarthritis.

Also, a treadmill is more likely to require greater maintenance (since most treadmills are motorised), and might take up a number of space.

Stationary bike

The stationary bike provides one other convenient means to hit your cardio goals. Setting the bike up appropriately is crucial to make sure you are comfortable and to scale back the chance of injury. A general rule of thumb is that you simply desire a slight bend in your knee, as in the image below, when your leg is at the underside of the pedal stroke.

While cycling has significant advantages for cardiovascular and metabolic health, because it’s non-weight-bearing it doesn’t profit your bones to the identical extent as walking and running. On the flipside, it offers an ideal cardio workout without stressing your joints.

Rowing machine

If you’re trying to the get one of the best cardio workout within the least period of time, the rowing machine is perhaps for you. Because rowing requires you to make use of all your major muscle groups including the upper body, your heart and lungs must work even harder than they do when running and cycling to deliver oxygen to those working muscles. This means the energy expended while rowing is comparable to running and greater than cycling.

But before you rush off to purchase a brand new rower, there are two issues to contemplate. First, the technical challenge of rowing is arguably greater than that of running or cycling, because the skill of rowing is commonly less familiar to the common person. While a coach or trainer will help with this, just remember a superb rowing technique ought to be felt primarily in your legs, not your arms and back.

Second, the non-weight-bearing nature of rowing means it misses out on the identical bone health advantages offered by the treadmill – although there may be some evidence it still can increase bone density to a smaller degree. Nevertheless, like cycling, this drawback of rowing could also be negated by offering a more joint-friendly option, providing an ideal alternative for those with joint pain who still wish to keep their heart and lungs healthy.

So, what’s one of the best option?

It relies on your goals, what your current health status is, and, most significantly, what you enjoy probably the most. The best exercise is the one which gets done. So, select whichever piece of kit you discover probably the most enjoyable, as this can increase the likelihood you’ll persist with it in the long run.