To Bike or To Stride:
Which One Can Truly Provide Good Exercise?

Wanting to lose weight or become fit has never been a question for many; the answer is simply a resounding yes. The problem lies, on the other hand, on the how of it. Should they use jumping ropes, sweat on the treadmill, bike around Central Park or carry dumbbells around the house? In this article, however, we'll be concentrating more on the two most popular pieces of equipment used to provide good exercise: the treadmill and the recumbent bike.

First, we tackle the treadmills:

• Treadmills: Good Exercise Brownie Point #1 - Good exercise in a safe environment.
  Treadmills, besides providing good exercise, are safer because they allow you to avoid the risks one takes outdoors. Treadmills are also much more preferable for senior citizens since they are liable to get tired easily and having a glass of water and maybe a bed to lie on nearby would be handy when they're struck by exhaustion or attacked by a sudden bout of rheumatism.
   
• Treadmills: Good Exercise Brownie Point #2 - Good exercise.but informative too!
  Technology has also improved the quality of exercise provided by treadmills. Treadmills now include a wide variety of features besides letting you walk, sweat and lose weight in one place; they also offer heart rate monitoring and let you know about how many calories you've burned.
   
• Treadmills: Good Exercise Brownie Point #3 - Good exercise.and yet entertaining, too!
  Besides the usual features that make operating treadmills easier, they also offer personalized exercise programs, and more recently, In World Inc. has also thought it fit to bestow upon us exercise equipment with virtual reality programs.

Next on our list is the staid looking recumbent bike.

• Recumbent Bike: Good Exercise Brownie Point #1 - Good exercise without having to read the manual.
  No fancy stuff here but don't let its appearance fool you into thinking that it couldn't provide you with good exercise as well as the more technologically advanced exercise equipment. In fact, the recumbent bike is still a first choice for many in their quest to lose weight because it's simpler to use.
   
• Recumbent Bike: Good Exercise Brownie Point #2 - Good exercise plus multi-tasking.
  You can read a book or watch TV while you lose weight pound by pound. You can rarely do that on treadmills. So in this count, you get good exercise along with the opportunity to practice your multi-tasking skills.
   
• Recumbent Bike: Good Exercise Brownie Point #3 - Good exercise with fall-proof protection.
  The recumbent bike is the safer choice as indoor exercise equipment compared to the treadmill. When you're gunning to lose weight, there's always the risk of speed junkies falling and injuring their already aching joints when using the treadmill. But when it's the recumbent bike, it's more probable that only the suicidal ones could fall from it.

And so now, we must decide. Which one could be the best choice? Shall it be the recumbent bike or the treadmill for our daily dose of good old exercise? If one's to base it on numbers, sales show that although treadmill is the most popular activity in the United States in the race to possessing trim figures, treadmill users number only half of recumbent bikers. When it comes down to burning and burying calories, however, treadmills gain the upper hand.

If you're disciplined, it would do you good to choose the treadmill. But if you're easily bored, the recumbent bike would likely be better proof against idleness. The final choice, however, depends entirely on you. Choose well, then, folks and shape up and get some good --- and I mean gooooooood - exercise.

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