Ow, Myra, Ow!

After reading your note about the differences in forward vs reverse armbike reps, I decided to give it a go. I found a whole lot o'muscles I haven't used since Ford was president! I like the idea of working on newly discovered muslces, though, so I will incorporate both forward and reverse armbike in my routine from now on. I guess I'd better keep track of how many I do in each direction -- I don't want to end up with arms like Popeye. Thanks, Kix

Hi Kix, Unless someone's told you to get in so many "miles" on the armbike, why don't you just do "minutes" ... like whatever it's been taking you to get through your present routine, divide that by half, and do 1/2 of the time in forward, and 1/2 in reverse. That way you're not actually doing more time at it, but you'd be getting both kinds of work out, and you wouldn't have to figure milage (on the bike or yourself! ) My PT just has me set a timer and then cycle. I watch the timer, and at about half-way through the minutes, I reverse direction. Also, if you're in any sort of physical therapy (I highly recommend it to recover strength in a safe setting) another seated type of exercise would be to get some stretch bands (they come in different strengths according to the color and are simply rolls of stretchy plastic that the PT can cut off "to length" for your needs). Way cheaper than the commercial bands you buy. You use them in all sorts of different ways to work different muscles, you can even work your leg muscles while your seated. All the best and I hope your achy arms hold up!! Myra

what are armbike reps.. I could not find the post she was referring too..

Hi Marie, I think Kix is just referring to a full turn of the arm bike as a "rep". This thread is basically referring to our replies on one of Lori's "Daily Gym" posts ... sorry I don't remember the date. I mentioned in that post that my physical therapist has me do a set amount of minutes "pushing" the arm bike handles away from me in a forward motion, and then equal minutes "pulling" the arm bike handles toward me, effectively reversing the motion and putting different muscles to use. I might be wrong but I think Kix keeps track of "reps" while doing armbike, where I simply set the resistance on it and use a timer ... I don't count anything. Just basically different ways of doing the same thing. Maybe that makes more sense? Myra

My arms feel better today, so they are either tougher than I thought or I'm just a big baby. Take your pick! I'm doing the armbike for aerobic exercise, so the doc wants me to do a minimum of 45 minutes per day. As my lung capacity improves, we plan to increase the time. My armbike comes with a meter that registers all sorts of things, and I figured that 3370 reps (a rep is one turn on the bike) equaled one mile. Depending on how vigorously I "pedal", I can do more than a mile in my 45 minute allotment, especially if the radio station is playing lots of good music. I would like to get some muscle benefit out of it as well, which is why the reverse direction sounded appealing. I'll incorporate both directions in my routine and see how it goes. Kix

egad! hurts when you rediscover those muscles that we haven't used --or even know we had! I found out recently I had abs someplace, since I woke them up doing crunches in my exercise class a while back. I took a couple of yoga classes and found out I need to learn how to breath too! So exercise your lungs too with deep breathing! Something I am learning to do as well! My Boyfriend bought me a recumbant stationary bike and I probably should drag it out of the guest room and use it, huh? Yes, I even asked for it for my birthday, go figure.