School me on cardio machines - Airbikes?

And??? How ya like it compared to other cardio routines?

 

I can relate. I'm always looking to add/change things up.

 

If that question was posed to me, I have been a spin bike cardio guy for quite some time. I recently added the rowing machine, battle ropes and the sand bag to rejuvenate my home gum routine. I don't think you'll catch my in a membership ever again. The time spent commuting to & from the gym is precious time that could be spent working out and it seems that since my kids have been born, time is a precious commodity now. I usually perform at least 30 minutes of cardio.

The different cardio options certainly prevent, at least my body, from getting used to one particular cardio function. I can feel the difference working on the spin bike one day then working more muscles on the rowing machine or the sand bag routine.

 

Probably the best overall workout you can get on any piece of equipment in the gym. https://www.livestrong.com/article/258087-rowing-machines-in-comparison-to-other-cardio/

 

Come to my house. I've been cleaning up after a recent tornado and the damn bugs that have killed all the ash trees. Cut, load, move, dump, split, stack many tons of firewood and will give you a work out! That plus I'll have all my winter heating wood done. Sounds like a win win to me.

 

Give it a go and report back. Try not to die.

 

WTF is with this "A 125lb person will burn x calories in 30 minutes"? What about us fat bastards?

 

Speak for yourself fatty!

 

Okay princess. I haven't weighed 125lbs since elementary school (I'm not really fat, but it's funnier that way). One thing about fat people, they've always got amazing calves from hauling around all that weight 24/7.

 

There's so many things you can do at home with very little equipment. Jumping robe, kettle bells, and tabata workouts are three of the hardest full body cardio workouts I've ever done. Throw in hill sprints or stairs every now and then and you'll be a beast with no gym membership or commute time.

 

I have an old Air Dyne that I bought off CL for like 120 bucks (the sweet gold one!). One of the crank arms was loose, had to replace the tapered pin that holds it on. Terrible design means they'll wear out over time but they're like $6 a piece at some online store. Other than that the bike's been rock solid for me and I use it 2-3 times per week.

 

I think it was mentioned before, but if you want to go the bike route, get the Assault Bike, not the AirDyne. The Assault Bike is not only cheaper, but its built better for hard gym use. I would still go the Concept2 route first, but if you want to do a bike, go Assault Bike. https://www.performbetter.com/Assault-Air-Bike

Notes on rowers- get one that has flat plane seat travel. Some rise up, adding body weight resistance. I found though that with those that have a slight rise with seat rearward travel, the constant up and down motion makes some people sick.

 

Try one out. If you’re using it correctly it will kick your ass very quickly. I remember almost falling of my Concept 2 because my legs were jello and I was gasping for air. This was when I first started using it, that was prob under 5 minutes of hard core rowing.
Technique is very important. It’s a great cardio tool but it also works the majority of muscles in your body if your technique is good.



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Other than freak things like elliptical cycles on the street, there are only a few sports where you use all four limbs to propel you: cross country skiing, rowing and swimming.

 

Back when I actually worked out in my early 20's a rowing machine was my favourite cardio by far. Running and ellipticals killed my knees (I'm duckfooted), and bikes were boring. If they didn't take up so much damn room I'd have one at home. My favourite rowing program involved a tinner, and a fishing pole though. The natural cadence of trolling while rowing produced a lot of fish. It also has the benefit of producing a nice post workout snack .

 

Buy a sandbag. I'm partial to the 80lb offering from my good friends over at SOFLETE. You can do a 30 minute sandbag workout with 4 different weight amounts with that one bag. And almost die while crushing your whole body. Seriously.

When I'm on the road in hotels I bring an elastic band w handles. Body weight, stretches and band work keeps me limber. When I'm on the road at ranges or on locations for training, I take an empty sandbag (above) with. I fill it with media on site (there's always sand and rocks, ammo). We'll use it and other devices to increase heart rates, but more importantly guys will stick around after and we'll put together a bit of a circuit course of sorts with obstacles, agility drills and weight movements incorporating whatever is available.

Whenever I've trained at a facility that has a rower in the available gym and we do a group workout, all the bigger guys cringe at the rower and luckily most of them are liquid resistant. The "antelopes" all relish it and fear the weighted deadlift bar.

 

This sounds like my speed. I love bodyweight exercises. I love mixing it up and doing everything. I'll check out the sandbags thanks.

 

Update-
I found a cheap Schwinn Airdyne close to my house so I added it to my gym. Man that thing is awesome, I love it! I never heard of the tabata workouts some of you were saying so I checked it out and I'm adding those into the mix, they are efficient as heck. Thanks for the tip! So far I've done them on the air bike but I'm going to add in weights for variety.

I like to mix it up when doing cardio so this was a great addition. Building my home gym has been one of the greatest decisions ever. My motivation is back and I'm going to keep adding variety. Next up I'm going to get some sandbags, hang my heavy bag, and build some plyo boxes.

Do any of you guys doing tabata know where I can find any good music? I haven't done much searching but so far it's all terrible. I like the idea of not looking at a timer but why does all the music have to suck so bad lol.

 

I have an app called Interval Timer that runs in the background and will play a tone to let you know when to change intensity.

 

Thanks I found one after I posted that, it works great and I just play my regular workout music.