What Muscles Does a Stationary Exercise Bike Work Out?

AI Smart Bike · RENPHO · Self-Care · November 3, 2021

by Jonathon Baggia

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People use a stationary bike to develop and strengthen lower muscle groups like the thighs and calves, but did you know that cycling also contributes in strengthening the upper body, arms, and core?

What muscles does a stationary exercise bike work out? We’ll explain how riding an exercise bike targets all of your important muscle groups, especially if you choose to use the RENPHO AI Smart Bike, which generates a full body workout by customizing your ride based on your current cycling fitness level to truly challenge all of your key muscle groups.

If you’re looking to do more than just pump your legs, and you want to achieve a true full body workout, then we’ll explain in detail what muscle groups an exercise bike helps to tone. Let’s get to the topic at hand.

Lower Body

As you pedal for the first few minutes, you will begin to feel the strain on your legs. But which muscles are feeling the benefit of the workout?

Quads and Hamstrings

These are your front and back thigh muscles and they continually work as you pedal. Your quads can be found in your femur bone and act as knee extensors. A stationary bike targets this muscle group by having the quads steadily working as you pedal.

The hamstrings on the other hand are the upper thigh muscles that work opposing the quadriceps. Its purpose is to flex the knee and allow it to bend as you pedal. As you pedal, the hamstrings are worked and toned depending on the intensity.

Glutes

The gluteal muscles, also known as your butt, are worked whenever you push down when pedaling. These muscles help in propelling you forward by working with the hip to pivot your thighs as you cycle. Cycling tones and strengthens your small, medium, and large buttocks.

Calves

Your triceps sural, or calf muscles, are the muscles located at the back of your leg which do the pushing and pulling as you cycle. Cycling targets your primary calf muscle, called the gastrocnemius, as it is used to lift your heel and extend your foot during pedaling.

Hip Flexors

This is the muscle group that surrounds and supports the ball-and-socket joint in your legs. This muscle group allows you move your leg and knee up to your torso, but it’s also used to bend your upper body forwards, towards your hip. This area is worked as your body cycles, runs, or walks. Cycling allows you to work out your flexors in tandem with your hips and glutes, and has the effect of both toning and stretching them.

Upper Body

Most people are pretty familiar with how an exercise bike targets the muscles of your lower body, but it may come as a surprise to learn that cycling can also target your upper body’s muscles as well.

Riding an exercise bike won’t always work out your arms, but when you pedal with high resistance while standing above the saddle, you put pressure on your arm muscles and your lower back, giving them some serious exercise!
Finally, your back and abs feel the burn especially when you increase your cycling intensity.

As you change positions while cycling, the shift in body positioning puts pressure on your upper body’s muscle groups, helping to tone and strengthen all of your upper body muscles in your arms, back, and shoulder.

Abdominal Muscles

Aside from your legs, what other muscles does the bike machine work out? If you’ve ever had a vigorous cycling session, you’re probably aware that that cycling can and will target your ab muscles, giving them a tremendous workout.

While cycling doesn’t typically provide enough movement for you to get rock-hard abs from just cycling alone, you will develop a stronger core, which is key to helping provide a strong foundation for your body to perform the cycling motion, providing strength all throughout your body, from your hips down to your ankles.

Back

Cycling also targets your back muscles and tones and strengthens them. As your abs and back muscles improve, your spine gets increased stability, resulting in a more comfortable and steadier ride.

Biceps and Triceps

Your biceps and triceps can be found in the front and back of your arms and these muscles are worked heavily since they’re crucial for helping you grip the handlebars as you cycle.

As you intensify your cycling and ride up out of the saddle, you will target this muscle group any time that you tighten your grip.

More Benefits of Riding a Stationary Exercise Bike

Aside from the cardio benefits you get from using an indoor cycling machine, you may also enjoy other significant health benefits, such as:

- Weight loss
- Blood pressure decrease
- Improved fitness levels
- Reduced risk of injury via low-impact exercise

Other benefits to indoor cycling also include the fact that it is:

- Safer than outdoor biking
- Builds your overall strength
- Decreases stress levels
- Decreases body fat levels
- Increases muscle flexibility

To learn more about the many benefits of indoor cycling, please read our blog post "What Are the Top Benefits of Riding a Stationary Exercise Bike?”

How Long Does it Take to Build Muscle on an Exercise Bike?

The road to strong legs and a toned glutes is long and tough, but through consistency and hard work, you should start seeing significant results in about 4-6 weeks.

You might notice that your legs, thighs, and buttocks are firmer than they were before, and you might find that cycling has become a lot easier compared to the first week you began riding.

After the 2-3 months of continuous cycling, especially if you’re adding intensity to your ride each week, you’ll notice an increase in muscle mass and a decrease in body fat mass. By this time, you may also notice a more athletic-looking build staring back at you the mirror!

Of course, if you are looking to create a workout and exercise smarter for faster results, choosing the RENPHO AI Smart Bike is the ideal solution. This is an AI-driven bike that develops a customized workout system to give you the best ride at the most challenging difficulty possible without risking injury to yourself.

How to Build Muscle with a RENPHO AI Smart Bike

The key in building muscle is to know which muscle group to focus on and how to plan your riding sessions. The RENPHO AI Smart Bike and AI Gym app work together to help you plan your workout course and automatically determine when to apply and increase intensity based on your fitness threshold.

As you use the smart bike, it begins to improve and optimize your workout by adjusting itself and applying changes to your resistance levels so that you’ll receive a better, full body workout that develops each muscle group and strengthens your entire body.

Over time, your muscle groups will gradually develop as you introduce new difficulties to your routine such as interval training and endurance.

Increase Resistance

The RENPHO AI Smart Bike has the technology to read your cycling data and create enough resistance to put pressure on your muscle groups, giving them the necessary work needed to strengthen and tone them without risking long-term muscle pain.

With RENPHO’s AI Gym app, you are given access to 70+ courses for all your cycling needs, and these include challenging modes that will help you adjust resistance based on your skill and time spent on the RENPHO AI Smart Bike.

Interval Training & Sprints

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) works by burning calories during high-intensity workout intervals. The RENPHO AI Smart Bike and AI Gym app offer HIIT the easy way by creating the best workout session for each user profile based on the power and experience of the individual rider.

Adjust Riding Position

Using your RENPHO AI Smart Bike correctly will make your session fun, safe, and efficient in targeting those muscle groups. By adjusting your riding position based on your comfort, you feel more capable of riding longer.

An upright posture will always be the safe option during your workouts and fully gripping the handlebars won’t put too much stress on your upper body as you cycle.

Why Choose the RENPHO AI Smart Exercise Bike

RENPHO’s AI Smart Bike, coupled with the AI Gym app, has all the features you need to help get the perfect full-body workout that will strengthen all your muscles, not just your lower body!

With a multitude of riding courses and programs, cycling challenges, daily cycling reports to assist your goals and more, you can expect an unparalleled experience from our AI Smart Bike.

Personalized Workouts for All

The RENPHO AI Smart Bike is a stationary bike that not only gives a good cardio workout, but also personalizes and adjusts its settings for you based on your skill level. Whether you’re an active young person looking to burn some calories or an older individual who wants to keep active, this bike is for you.

Performance Monitoring

The Functional Threshold Power, or FTP, is custom-tailored based on your performance data and allows the bike to automatically adjust resistance to match your level, power, and goals.

Free App With 70+ Classes

The AI Gym app is your exercise partner and it has over 70 unique classes and 4 courses available, all tailored for your choosing. It also includes a Cycling Power Test that helps you calibrate your workout based on your pedal power.

As for people looking for some competition, the AI Gym app also has circuit races where you can try to beat the best times of other RENPHO AI Smart Bike users! All these and more are available at the AI Gym app for free at the Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Next Level Precision

The RENPHO AI Smart Bike does away with the average technology of other bikes by using Smart Motor Dampening Resistance. This technology provides users with a smooth and quiet riding experience that smoothly adjusts resistance automatically and smartly.

Safety Ensured

The RENPHO AI Smart Bike gives you a real-world riding experience all in the safety of your own home. Aside from that, its enclosed wheels will keep your family and pets safe from snagging the gears when the bike is left unattended.

Ergonomic Comfort

The RENPHO AI Smart Bike provides comfort that you can see. Its larger seat cushioning provides comfort even during intense cycling sessions, and its ergonomic handlebar design allows for a lower and higher grip posture while riding.

Get the Best Stationary Exercise Bike at RENPHO!

Ready to beef up your fitness? Supercharge your workouts with the many benefits of RENPHO’s AI Smart Bike. Get additional details about the best stationary bike for cardio now and place your order on the RENPHO online store to supercharge your workout.