for those who ride a exercise bicycle for your workout.

[johnson1942]

i have been riding my shwinn exercise bike since the 70/s. have put thousands of miles on it and it still is going. recently a physical therapist said, if you want to get more of a workout out of the time spent on it, pedal it backwards. i started this 3 months ago and she was right. it took me 2 weeks so it didnt feel odd or difficult. and man does it work the legs a lot more than going forward. ive tried pedaling it forward and i dont get anything out of that. try it, get used to it and you will like it and never go back to the regular way. she claims pedaling backwads helps older people keep there balance when walking better. i thought of sharing this while i was doing my hour on the bike today.

[lead-1]

When I was in cardio therapy that would get me in trouble, I would tell them it felt better to me on my bad knee. They would say just do it right.
When I rode my stationary bike at home I would do equal time forward and backwards.

[johnson1942]

i agree with you. i have had a right knee injury for a bad fall on construction and also my left hip joint. pedaling the bike backwards gives my thighs more of a workout and is pain free for my left hip and right knee. the way you are doing it will help you with balance as you are getting older. thanks for you input.

[RugerFan]

Same thing with an elliptical machine. Striding backwards is more of a workout.

[bedbugbilly]

I got a Schwinn to ride after a heart attack and by-pass surgery 22 years ago. A great exercise bike. I never rode it backwards though but my wife does. In all those years, never a problem with the bike until last year when a spring broke but it was an easy fix.

This past winter, I ordered a Schwinn for our house out in Arizona as I have had to cut down on my walking out there some (neuropathy in feet and lower legs due to 51 years of Type I Diabetes). I will give you a warning about the Schwinn - or rather a "heads up". I had it shipped to the house and it was easy assembly. It works great . . BUT, when my wife road it and peddled it backwards, the peddle on one side "unscrewed" (due to going in opposite direction) and by the time she noticed it, the peddle was half out and the threads in the socket the peddle threads in to were "buggered up". I wa able to get a bolt the same size and thread pitch (fine thread( and "fresh them out". I removed the other peddle and when I reassembled them, I used Locktite on the threads which took care of the problem when peddled backwards. Had I not been able to fresh out the threads with the bolt (and I bought a tap just in case as well) I would have had a big issue in trying to get a new peddle arm.

I have never had the peddles off of my old 22 year old Schwinn so I don't know if they are threaded the same way or not but it appears that the new ones are so if you get one and are going to reverse peddle, you might want to remove the peddles and put some Locktite on the threads so you won't have a problem - I had now qualms in doing it on the new one as I have never had a reason to remove the peddles on my old one in 20 + years of use.

I do remember that when I went through Cardiac Rehab after the by-pass surgery that the folks running the program told us about peddling them backwards to get a better workout - I never did it during rehab as I had issues with my heartbeat not slowing down normally after we ended our exercise - that all sifted out and settled down after a few months and the cardiologist waasn't overly concerned about it at the time.

[The Governor]

I do the hand bike counter clock. Believe it or not, it's PT on my jaw TMJs!

[earlmck]

I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for the tip!