Thinking about getting a cardio machine

[preslove]

travel time really sucks for going to the gym. My wife and I already have a weight setup in the garage and just use cardio machines at the gym. I mainly use those elliptical style machines with no handles. I hate treadmills, like ellipticals and am ok with spinner bikes. Spinner bikes are less expensive for a decent model, my research so far says ellipticals are the most efficient cardio burners. I'm thinking about ditching our gym membership and either getting this $500 Schwinn elliptical machine, or 2 of these $239 spinner bikes.

Anyone have experience with midrange schwinn equipment, or midrange ellipticals, in general? I'm thinking we'll do HIIT for 30 minutes each, on days we don't lift weights. It would be more convenient to have two machines, but stationary bikes burn so many fewer calories per minute. I might get a spinner in a little while and have 1 elliptical and 1 bike.

So, any thoughts? Is the $500 machine going to fall apart? It get's good reviews on amazon and youtube. Let me know what you think.

 

[highland145]

As you know, the cardio burning is equal to your input. And the elliptical might have more parts to wear out.

FWIW, probably not much, but...3 days/wk on the gym elliptical and 3 days on the schwinn spin. Self paced because Vi won't let me move in....I'll drop 1.2lbs in sweat/exhaled vapor on the spin and .8lbs on the elliptical over 30 min. Every time. But that may be gravity, sweat falling on the floor vs in my shoes. I think the spin is harder but I don't have anything to look at but the floor vs 4 tv's, etc.

3rd'ly I need the gym because I probably wouldn't do it at home.

Edit: pics of wife?

 

[preslove]

As you know, the cardio burning is equal to your input. And the elliptical might have more parts to wear out.

FWIW, probably not much, but...3 days/wk on the gym elliptical and 3 days on the schwinn spin. Self paced because Vi won't let me move in....I'll drop 1.2lbs in sweat/exhaled vapor on the spin and .8lbs on the elliptical over 30 min. Every time. But that may be gravity, sweat falling on the floor vs in my shoes. I think the spin is harder but I don't have anything to look at but the floor vs 4 tv's, etc.

3rd'ly I need the gym because I probably wouldn't do it at home.

Edit: pics of wife?

I'm the opposite, the getting ready & drive to the gym really cuts into my initiative, while having the weights at home has increased it.

From what Ive found, at the same levels of intensity, ellipticals burn more calories than spinning because it's a whole boy workout vs a a smooth lower body workout. Maybe you're just going harder on the bike?

Wife tax: http://i.imgur.com/lHyrwSb.jpg

 

[highland145]

And she married you? Must be for your $$.



kidding, kidding

 

[preslove]

And she married you? Must be for your $$.



kidding, kidding

I f**k like a beast.

Now I'm leaning towards getting 2 spinner bikes, because some say it's easier to do HIIT training, because you can just go from sitting to standing pedaling for intervals.

Decisions...

 

[cbrunny]

Well, not sure where you live but you could get two real bikes and two turbo trainers to put them on. At least that way you can go outside when the weather is nice.

I heartily support cycling.

 

[preslove]

Well, not sure where you live but you could get two real bikes and two turbo trainers to put them on. At least that way you can go outside when the weather is nice.

I heartily support cycling.

I own a nice flatbar road bike & am planning on getting the wife one, too. But, I really want to get into a routine of interval training, and that's harder to do safely with a real bike.

 

[cbrunny]

I own a nice flatbar road bike & am planning on getting the wife one, too. But, I really want to get into a routine of interval training, and that's harder to do safely with a real bike.

It is true you can safely do higher intensity intervals on a spinner vs a turbo. if you have bikes anyway, in your case i'd go with the spinners over an elliptical. I'd be curious to see if ellipticals are capable of building muscle and increasing your BMR the way cycling does. If you're cycling properly, your quads, glutes, abductors, core, hams, calves, and lower back will strengthen (to varying degrees, but quads, glutes, abductors, core, hams and calves will gain noticeable muscle). That is to say, elliptical may burn more in the moment, but I'd be amazed if it increases your BMR the way cycling does.

Also you can just cycle longer to make up the calorie difference.

One other thing. I've seen some shit spin bikes. No way would I order discount spin bikes off Amazon, especially if I was planning on using them for high intensity intervals. definitely need to be vetted in person and ridden. You don't want that thing falling apart or flipping over.

 

[Riverhound777]

How about a Row machine?

 

[highland145]

It is true you can safely do higher intensity intervals on a spinner vs a turbo. if you have bikes anyway, in your case i'd go with the spinners over an elliptical. I'd be curious to see if ellipticals are capable of building muscle and increasing your BMR the way cycling does. If you're cycling properly, your quads, glutes, abductors, core, hams, calves, and lower back will strengthen (to varying degrees, but quads, glutes, abductors, core, hams and calves will gain noticeable muscle). That is to say, elliptical may burn more in the moment, but I'd be amazed if it increases your BMR the way cycling does.

Also you can just cycle longer to make up the calorie difference.

One other thing. I've seen some shit spin bikes. No way would I order discount spin bikes off Amazon, especially if I was planning on using them for high intensity intervals. definitely need to be vetted in person and ridden. You don't want that thing falling apart or flipping over.

No way on the muscle.

 

[Kaido]

I had a fold-up elliptical, from Proform iirc. Had it a long time & finally donated it to my brother when I got my VR bike. The elliptical was nice because I have a trick knee & it didn't really bother me like running does. Low-impact or whatever.

VR biking is fun (spinner bike-style), but you need a VR system to go with it. At bare minimum, that means a Playstation & PSVR. $400 bike + $300 PS4 + $500 PSVR = $1200.

In addition to a machine, I would also suggest getting matching Fitbits. Helps keep you motivated because you can both track your stats & friend each other for tracking & light competition.

 

[cbrunny]

I had a fold-up elliptical, from Proform iirc. Had it a long time & finally donated it to my brother when I got my VR bike. The elliptical was nice because I have a trick knee & it didn't really bother me like running does. Low-impact or whatever.

VR biking is fun (spinner bike-style), but you need a VR system to go with it. At bare minimum, that means a Playstation & PSVR. $400 bike + $300 PS4 + $500 PSVR = $1200.

In addition to a machine, I would also suggest getting matching Fitbits. Helps keep you motivated because you can both track your stats & friend each other for tracking & light competition.

would you mind posting a link or two to your VR system? I think you (or someone else) posted a thread here once about something similar. Curious again.

I second Fitbit recommendation too. As a weight loss tool, a Fitbit + myfitnesspal + discipline will go a long way. I lost ~40 lbs using this method, then another ~15 when I moved over to a higher end Garmin product (Fenix 3HR - the best smartwatch ever made).

 

[Kaido]

would you mind posting a link or two to your VR system? I think you (or someone else) posted a thread here once about something similar. Curious again.

I second Fitbit recommendation too. As a weight loss tool, a Fitbit + myfitnesspal + discipline will go a long way. I lost ~40 lbs using this method, then another ~15 when I moved over to a higher end Garmin product (Fenix 3HR - the best smartwatch ever made).

It's the VirZoom bike:

https://www.virzoom.com/

$50 off until the end of the month. You also need a PSVR (requires a PS4), an Oculus (requires a heavy-duty gaming computer), or a Vive (also requires a heavy-duty gaming computer). I have the Vive setup. They are adding support for the GearVR & Google Daydream VR mobile VR systems at some point later this year as well.

They also added Fitbit support to the gaming system recently as well.

 

[cbrunny]

It's the VirZoom bike:

https://www.virzoom.com/

$50 off until the end of the month. You also need a PSVR (requires a PS4), an Oculus (requires a heavy-duty gaming computer), or a Vive (also requires a heavy-duty gaming computer). I have the Vive setup. They are adding support for the GearVR & Google Daydream VR mobile VR systems at some point later this year as well.

They also added Fitbit support to the gaming system recently as well.

That's interesting. Seems like not a bad entry into the field for a lower-end fitness enthusiast. For cycling buffs, there's this, which is still in the works:

Obviously costs are much higher though.

 

[vi edit]

I don't know about you guys...but if I'm busting my ass on a cardio machine I'm also sweating like a beast. A VR headset when I'm sweating by the bucketload seems like a bad idea...

:/

 

[cbrunny]

I don't know about you guys...but if I'm busting my ass on a cardio machine I'm also sweating like a beast. A VR headset when I'm sweating by the bucketload seems like a bad idea...

:/

ain't no way a vr headset is touchin my head for this reason. I have literal pools - big ones - of sweat on the floor after I'm done, and have to take extra precaution not to let the sweat corrode my bike, much less expensive electronics.

For real cyclists, I think this is a gimmick. nothing more.

 

[Kaido]

...I'm also sweating like a beast. A VR headset when I'm sweating by the bucketload seems like a bad idea...

They make waterproof & water-resistant headset bands specifically for that reason.

 

[Kaido]

For real cyclists, I think this is a gimmick. nothing more.

Well, a real cyclist would have a trailer or rollers. I used to be heavy into road cycling, but after some close encounters of the idiot-driver kind, I'm very happy just using VR for my biking now

 

[Kaido]

There is a very interesting indoor cycle system out now called the Peloton:

https://www.pelotoncycle.com/

Their gimmick is live classes, so they push the social aspect of exercising (exercising with other people is probably the highest form of motivation available for consistently doing exercise) by live-streaming classes & putting a webcam on your bike. They also offer on-demand classes & performance metrics. The bike itself is about two grand (carbon-steel frame with a 21" touchscreen) & you have to pay monthly or annually for the classes. Fairly pricey, but again, working out with other people is like THE #1 way to consistently exercise, so I'd be curious to see how this company does over time...you're not actually in the gym or out with somebody, but doing a live classes & chatting with people via webcam seems like it would be a close second. The main reason I did road biking for so long was because I had a biking buddy locally to go out with, so it was a social thing AND an exercise thing, which definitely made it more fun & kept me accountable IRL for staying consistent.

 

[cbrunny]

There is a very interesting indoor cycle system out now called the Peloton:

https://www.pelotoncycle.com/

Their gimmick is live classes, so they push the social aspect of exercising (exercising with other people is probably the highest form of motivation available for consistently doing exercise) by live-streaming classes & putting a webcam on your bike. They also offer on-demand classes & performance metrics. The bike itself is about two grand (carbon-steel frame with a 21" touchscreen) & you have to pay monthly or annually for the classes. Fairly pricey, but again, working out with other people is like THE #1 way to consistently exercise, so I'd be curious to see how this company does over time...you're not actually in the gym or out with somebody, but doing a live classes & chatting with people via webcam seems like it would be a close second. The main reason I did road biking for so long was because I had a biking buddy locally to go out with, so it was a social thing AND an exercise thing, which definitely made it more fun & kept me accountable IRL for staying consistent.

vi-edit has one and a thread about it too. imo, what he has posted makes it sound quite awesome.

 

[vi edit]

There is a very interesting indoor cycle system out now called the Peloton:

https://www.pelotoncycle.com/

Their gimmick is live classes, so they push the social aspect of exercising (exercising with other people is probably the highest form of motivation available for consistently doing exercise) by live-streaming classes & putting a webcam on your bike. They also offer on-demand classes & performance metrics. The bike itself is about two grand (carbon-steel frame with a 21" touchscreen) & you have to pay monthly or annually for the classes. Fairly pricey, but again, working out with other people is like THE #1 way to consistently exercise, so I'd be curious to see how this company does over time...you're not actually in the gym or out with somebody, but doing a live classes & chatting with people via webcam seems like it would be a close second. The main reason I did road biking for so long was because I had a biking buddy locally to go out with, so it was a social thing AND an exercise thing, which definitely made it more fun & kept me accountable IRL for staying consistent.

Yep. I've got a thread here documenting my experience with it. It's friggen awesome. The live part is sorta gimmicky...but the enourmous library of on-demand stuff is not. It's an incredible variety of workouts and instructor styles. My wife is not a cyclist at all, but she's even falling in love with the thing. You'll be hard up to get a better sweat going than you do with 45 minutes on a spin class. Check out my thread in this forum on it.

 

[Kaido]

Yep. I've got a thread here documenting my experience with it. It's friggen awesome. The live part is sorta gimmicky...but the enourmous library of on-demand stuff is not. It's an incredible variety of workouts and instructor styles. My wife is not a cyclist at all, but she's even falling in love with the thing. You'll be hard up to get a better sweat going than you do with 45 minutes on a spin class. Check out my thread in this forum on it.

Ahah:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/just-spent-a-redonk-amount-of-money-on-a-peloton-bike.2496708/

Yeah, see, I don't think it's a waste of money to invest in something that will make you healthy because the cost is worth it if it actually makes you use it. That's what makes it a worthwhile investment...everyone has had an exercise bike or elliptical or whatever at some point that turned into a clothing rack haha.

 

[Kini1000]

Nothing beats the Concept 2 rower for overall conditioning. Virtually bullet proof and maintenance free. I've had mine for 20 years and have spent maybe a $100 on maintenance.