The gym at my townhome clubhouse has a recumbent exercise bike only and the city Recreation Center has upright exercise bikes, as well as recumbent bikes. I prefer the upright bike because it's most similar to riding a regular bike, but all of the bikes were taken yesterday at the Recreation Center so I hopped on a recumbent bike for the first time. It was a little bit of an odd experience, but seemed like it was working a lot of the same muscles as an upright bike. So the question I have is if there is a major difference in the muscles exercised or overall workout with a recumbent bike vs an upright one? If it's fairly similar, I could see myself using the clubhouse recumbent bike more because it is so close. I've just avoided them because they look goofy.
Hi Brandon. Have done some research on this and the general opinion prefers upright bikes over recumbent citing more core muscles usage. However published research on women found no real differences. Personally I use recumbent and find it cool and comfortable but I use it for cardio and I sweat well. I suppose if you need it for cardio won’t matter both should be ok
