Using an Exercise Bike the Right Way

For what seems like the beginning of time, exercise bikes have been a go to way for individuals to lose weight and maintain their fitness at home and rightfully so – exercise bikes are one of the most popular forms of at home cardio. Investing in an at-home fitness bike is a great decision to make to enhance your overall health and well-being, but it’s also important to recognize and put into action the proper ways to use one so you get the most out of your investment and use your bike to reach your full potential. Check out our tips below to see how to use an exercise bike the right way.

Familiarizing Yourself with the Equipment

Once you have purchased your bike, you’ve already accomplished the first step of committing yourself to change your health for the better. Following this, a good idea is to familiarize yourself with the bike itself for smooth usage.

• Locate and adjust the seat height to your liking to ensure an optimum comfort,
• Identify the foot straps and test out securing your feet in them
• Familiarize yourself with the bike digital display

Make a Schedule

To ensure that you actually use your bike instead of letting it collect dust in a corner after just a few weeks, hold yourself accountable with a reasonable exercise schedule. The great thing about at home exercise bikes is that you don’t have to go out of your way to drive to the gym – your workout is waiting for you right at home so it leaves you with less room for excuses. If you are just starting out with indoor biking, commit yourself to doing either 30 minutes three times a week, or 15 minutes every day with a 1 – day rest day.

If you are already fit and want to maintain your health, you could try doing 30 minutes a day, which is the smallest fraction out of your 24 hour day in the name of health.

Pick a Prime Location

Next you should pick a location to place your exercise bike, which you can always change later especially if it is quality and lightweight like our Merax Folding Magnetic Exercise Bike. If you are just starting out with indoor exercise bikes, a great place to start would be in front of your television – watch your favorite shows and complete your regular dose of cardio all at the same time! Pick an area that will motivate you so you stick to your predetermined schedule; for some it may be in front of the television, for others it may be in the bedroom as a reminder to exercise when you wake up as a way to start your day, or to get your workout in before you go to bed.

Working Out

We found a great exercise bike fat-burning workout plan that uses intervals – this means that you pedal at different resistance levels for varying amounts of time to help you get your heart pumping and the most out of your workout:

image: ( http://www.self.com/story/4-ways-to-turn-the-stationary-bike-into-a-fat-burning-machine)

Warm-Up. Spend 5 minutes pedaling at a medium resistance

• Spend 20 seconds pedaling at a high resistance 
• Spend 10 seconds pedaling at zero resistance
• Spend 1 minutes pedaling at an low-medium resistance
  • Repeat the three bullet points 4 times

Cool-Down. Spend 5 minutes pedaling at a medium resistance

Feel free to adjust these guidelines to your own personal fitness level and continue to adjust and challenge yourself as you progress!

Don’t have a bike and ready for the challenge? See our Meritline exercise bikes here: 

 

 

The Merax One-click Folding 3 Wheels Deluxe Golf Push Cart

A problem golfers often face when out on the field is carrying a hefty golf bag weighs you down, causing discomfort in your shoulders in feet that may affect your game. The Merax Deluxe 3-Wheel Golf Cart is specially formatted to be a quick resolution to golfers that don’t want heavy gear to get in the way of enjoying and unwinding while golfing.

Fitted with smooth glide tri-wheels and capable of folding up quickly with a lightweight frame, the golf cart is the perfect candidate for all of your transport needs whether you’re on the go on a hilly course or storing it away in your trunk. All golf bags were in mind during the initial construction of the Deluxe Golf Push Cart – conveniently outfitted with adjustable brackets, bags of any size can be accommodated easily while an upgraded brake system ensures that your belongings are safe and secure when unattended.

Merax One-click Folding 3 Wheels Deluxe Golf Push Cart $129.00

 

Price: $129.00
Link: https://goo.gl/gLqvT8

 

One of the Most Underrated Forms of Exercise: Heavy Bag Boxing

image: livestrong.com

We’ve all seen it in movies and television shows – a dedicated Get Fit or Die Trying character putting in hours at the gym towards their fitness with a few shots of them firing a one punch after another at a heavy looking punching bag. Watching people reach their fitness goals via a punching bag is both impressive and mesmerizing, buy why is it that most individuals opt for safer approaches like the treadmill or standard push-ups?

We definitely aren’t against running, or treadmills for that matter but it is worth mentioning that boxing takes the idea of fitness to the next level and for those who get bored of mundane long winded workouts, taking time out of your day to learn your way around a punching bag may be just the thing for you.

The Benefits

Strength Training. Strength training alone already has an array of benefits, but one of the main unique benefits when using a punching bag to develop your strength is the large range of motion that is provided. Compared to using weight machines or doing free weights, your limbs experience a full range of motion that the listed alternatives can’t provide.

Hand-eye coordination. Working out using a punching bag doesn’t just involve strength, it also takes a decent amount of technique as well. When you find yourself first experimenting with a punching bag, you will find that you need to build up to a certain rhythm in order to have a more enjoyable workout, which involves hitting the bag right when it is coming back to you; if you miss punching at the right time you will throw off the rhythm increasing the chances of you misplacing a punch.

Motivation. Using punching bags is a refreshing way to switch up your workout routine and maintain your motivation and maintain or surpass fitness levels without having it feel like a  mundane chore. Punching bags are also a great stress reliever to let out any pent up frustrations through an engaging workout.

Intensity. Burning an average of 324-518 calories an hour (Wisconsin Department of Health Services), using a punching bag is an intense workout that will reap results whether you are consistently using this method constantly, or using it as a supplement to your general workout as a way to shake things up a little.

 

How to Start

For some, a large punching bag may be a little intimidating to begin with, especially if you

Merax Adjustable Freestanding Punching Speed Bag

are starting off with heavy boxing gloves. A great starting point is to invest in a speed bag, the lighter, more nimble cousin to a hefty punching bag. If you think you would be better off
starting light, our Merax Adjustable Freestanding Fitness Training Punching Speed Ball Bag With Boxing Gloves might be the perfect fit for you if you want to just get your feet wet.

For those that want to jump right in and commit to a heavy bag workout and don’t know where to start, a great way is to consistently hit the bag lightly until your arms begin to feel sore and tired and you cannot lift them anymore. Starting off hitting lightly is key so you can get a feel for the bag and subsequent movement and begin to develop a solid technique that will prove to be useful when you begin punching at more rapid, harder speeds. Over time slowly build up the strength and speed of the punches to what you think you can personally handle, and then add a few kicks into the mix – before you know it, you’ll be going at your bag like a true pro.

Check out our Merax Punching Bag, complete with indicator numbers so you can know exactly where you are kicking and punching and create an easy to follow routine and track your progress:

 

Merax Freestanding Fitness Training Punching Heavy Bag

Price: $139.99
Link: http://goo.gl/95shs6

Merax Adjustable Freestanding Fitness Training Punching Speed Ball Bag With Boxing Gloves

 

   On Sale: $37.99 ($20 OFF)
Original Price: $42.99
Coupon: MLCA08JA
Expires: 08/09/16 11.59PM PST
Link: http://goo.gl/paA8aJ