So here it is Thursday, and this week has been a blur. I worked midnight shift on Monday. Anyone that has been around me or my blogging should know how much I love the night shift.

I can’t decide if it’s the shift itself, or more the flip-flopping with my sleep schedule? Either way it sucks.

I then worked my other job on Wednesday, which also sucked. One because I really wanted the day off.. and two because I didn’t actually work in the ICU. I instead floated around other units helping out where needed. A good thing and a bad thing. (Those of you who are nurses understand this one)

In between all that I of course squeezed in my workouts. And this particular week I ran into the same fellah at the gym 2 out of the 3 times I was there. Ergo the reason for my Useless Exercise bit.

This particular gentleman is older than me, by maybe 5 to 10 years. He’s tanned, drives a convertible BMW. A quote-unquote self-proclaimed ‘ladies man’. He’s by no means what I would classify as ‘fit’. He has quite the ‘beer’-belly that protrudes, although he does sport his semi-muscular arms quite often in his sleeveless shirts.  

He seems to go out of his way to lift as much weight as possible in all of his free weight exercises. Specifically his Bench and his Bicep Curls, which he squeezes in between his socializing with the ladies (who are so happy to have him interrupt their own workout!). After all his ‘power-lifting’ he then proceeds to the stationary bike. Here’s my rant.

The Stationary Bike?! 

Grr.

Another useless exercise. Just as effective as that wonderful seated calf raise I blogged about.

Why you ask?

OK. Outside of having any previous medical conditions or physical limitations that hinders you from doing any of the other endless cardiovascular exercises, the Stationary Bike really is a waste of time. The only piece of your body that may benefit from this exercise is your quadriceps, and if you really push your limits… maybe your hamstrings and/or glutes.

Here is my biggest problem with ANY stationary bike. First of all… uuuhh.. it’s stationary. So your not required to maintain any balance. No Proprioception. So while it may ‘work’ your legs… that’s all it does. It indirectly exercises your legs as if you were doing anaerobic exercises like a leg press and leg curl as opposed to the intended effect of a bicycle which is an aerobic exercise!

If you’re going to do any type of aerobic/cardio exercise you HAVE  to include your CORE! Without grave detail and definition your ‘core’ is all the muscles your torso uses to balance and stabilize your body when it is thrown off balance. Core = Balance Stability

So if your SITTING on a bike that doesn’t require you to balance yourself do you think you are taxing your core?

Once again, if the stationary bike is what you use because of injuries or illness than by all means it’s the safest thing for you, and can effectively get your heart pumping if you work hard enough.

My problem is that here you have an individual who can lift heavy weights, and has no other obvious physical limitation. He chooses to ride a stationary bike, and somehow that’s enough to qualify as a cardio workout??

I mean, get on the treadmill, or the stairmaster. If your knees can’t take the beating (like mine) then use the elliptical or an ARC trainer.

And you wonder why he has muscular arms and a pot belly??

OK. Sorry. I’m done.

On a lighter note. I broke down and downloaded the latest version of the Mozilla Fire Fox web browser. And after molding it, tinkering, and playing with it. I’m really starting to like it!!! And I’m a die-hard Microsoft user. Everything from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Writer. So using Fire Fox is a huge leap for me. I’ll keep ya posted!

Lastly I’d like to thank Ken over at Change Forge for including me as a contributing author to his wonderful website. I met Ken through the all-mighty Blogosphere some time ago when I first started my blog over at WordPress.com . I can’t rightfully remember how we crossed paths, but I’ve been a fan of his ever since. And he’s been one of my readers that has stuck it out with me through my horrible WordPress.org debacle. Here you can find me and my first post on Ken’s website.

It’s an interesting arrangement, since he’s in the customer service industry of business and technology and I of course work in the healthcare field. Two fields that can seem unrelated actually have a lot in common. He often has many applicable themes to my ‘Strong Living’ theory in his blogging, so when he was looking for contributing authors I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Please stop by Change Forge if you get a chance.

As always take care of yourselves and yours.

Carpe Diem

Tags: change forge, firefox, stationary bike, useless exercise