How Can An Air Bike Provide Lifelong Cardio Benefits?

Cardio work may not quite have the glamour of building up your biceps or glutes, but it is the cornerstone of your fitness. By using the right home gym equipment to take care of this, you can enjoy the benefits of being fit for life.

The importance of cardiovascular health is often emphasised in the negative, when statistics emerge on heart attacks. This is indeed a significant health issue, primarily caused by poor fitness, but it is not the whole story when discussing cardiovascular fitness.

What Is The State Of Cardiovascular Health In Britain?

Nonetheless, the statistics make for sobering reading. According to the British Heart Foundation:

- Cardiovascular disease causes 170,000 deaths a year in the UK, which is the equivalent of one every three minutes.

- Eight million people in the UK are living with cardiovascular disease

- Every five minutes, someone is admitted to hospital with a heart attack

- 34,000 people die as a result of strokes every year

- People with coronary heart disease are more likely to develop vascular dementia

Some might think that such figures are simply a consequence of age, but that is simply not the case. If people did more to stay fit, eat better and take care of themselves more, the number of heart attacks, strokes and early deaths would be far lower.

Why Is Good Cardio Health About More Than Staying Alive?

However, even if you don’t have heart disease, there are still the basic benefits of doing cardio to enjoy as you feel fitter, are less likely to be out of breath, and, whether taking on a sporting challenge or simply going about your daily business, you will find it less of a strain.

The first thing to understand about heart health is that the heart is still a muscle. There are three types of muscle in the human body: skeletal, smooth and cardiac and this falls into the latter category. Myocardial muscle is only found in the heart.

It works in a different way from the muscles in your arms, legs or torso because it pumps the blood around the body, but, like other muscles, being worked hard makes it stronger. Therefore, while it is different in type, it still gets stronger when worked the right way.

To take this analogy further, think about how strengthening leg muscles makes you less likely to suffer pulls and strains, whereas a lack of exercise means that when you place them under physical stress, you are more likely to get an injury. The same is true for the heart.

How Can An Air Bike Help You Start Your Cardio Work?

For this reason, just as exercises to strengthen other muscles should start gradually, you should build up cardio exercises gradually. That way, your heart is not put under excessive strain and, instead, you can gradually build your fitness up.

There are various pieces of equipment you can use in a home gym for this purpose, but an assault fitness air bike can be very effective. This brings the following benefits:

- It gives you a full-body workout, so you gain other fitness benefits such as stronger leg and arm muscles while boosting your cardio.

- The level of resistance in the fan is adjustable, so you can set it according to your fitness level when you start and gradually build it up.

- It is a low-impact exercise, so the risk of injuries is very low and this is also useful if you are recovering from an injury.

- It takes up limited space, which is ideal for a home gym.

- It is more affordable than other equipment designed for cardio workouts, such as treadmills.

The key issue is to make sure that you do build up your cardio gradually, especially if you are a total beginner or come into it in a state of being very unfit.

Your aim should not be to become super fit overnight; rather, you should be aiming to end each session fitter than when you started.

What Techniques Do You Need For Using An Air Bike?

In addition, you will need to make sure you maintain your bike well so it is properly calibrated, and, while the risk of injury is low, it is important to learn the right techniques for using them.

Among the technical steps you should take for using any kind of exercise bike include:

- Making sure the saddle is neither too high nor too low, to prevent excessive straightening of your leg.

- Ensure the saddle is horizontal in line with your hips

- Keep your back straight and not hunched

- Keep your shoulders down and not pulled up, as this can cause headaches.

- Keep your wrists straight and not bent

When Should Youngsters Start Cardio Exercises?

For parents buying home gym equipment that their children might use, making sure the bike is set up correctly for the physical size of the user is very important. However, you might reasonably ask just when they should start doing cardio.

The standard NHS advice is that children should be active from a young age. Of course, when they are very little you might find they are running around like Duracell bunnies, but the key is to ensure that does not completely stop.

Amid all the temptations of screens and gadgets, they should still be active by doing things like walking to school, or playing games in the garden or a local park.

Once they reach their teens, that may be a good time for them to start working out. At this point they can start to take control of their own fitness regimes and set goals for the future.

Before then, you can set a great example as parents by staying fit and demonstrating the benefits of being in good shape. Even as adults, they may be inspired by seeing that their parents are in so much better shape and healthier than their friend’s parents.

The ultimate benefit of starting early is that it builds up good habits.

Youngsters who enjoy the benefits of feeling fit will hate it if they slacken off, which means if they do have a season of piling on the pounds and getting out of shape they will remember how much better it felt in the past. This can inspire them to start exercising again.

Whether you want to get yourself back in shape, have never been fit as an adult but want to do something about it, or want your kids to take up cardio so that they enter adulthood fit, an air bike can be one of the most effective pieces of equipment to help achieve this goal.