Learn how to set up your stationary bike for pelvic floor safe exercises.
If you’re looking for a great way to workout for fitness and fat burning without straining your pelvic floor stationary bike might be the solution you’ve been looking for. Please scroll down for more tips and written guidelines.
With Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist Michelle Kenway from
Stationary bike is great form of fitness and weight management exercise that can help women exercise and avoid pelvic floor strain.
Stationary bike is low impact providing a safe effective workout for women with prolapse and/or incontinence problems.
This stationary bike video shows you how to set up your bike and ride to protect your pelvic floor when cycling. It also describes the most effective stationary bike exercise for weight loss.
What are the Benefits of Stationary Bike?
Potential benefits include:
-Cardiovascular fitness
-Weight management and weight loss
-Pelvic floor protection
-Joint protection (i.e. knees, hips, ankles)
-Lower limb muscle strengthening
-Lower limb muscle endurance
-All weather
-Convenient
When to Avoid Stationary Bike
Avoid stationary bike exercise:
– With pelvic pain (usually aggravated with sitting)
– With increased pelvic floor tension
– Some lower back conditions (e.g. acute disc injury, sciatic nerve irritation)
– With numbness or tingling in the area you sit on
Stationary Bike Set Up
To set up your bike:
-Position the bike seat so your hips are higher than your knees throughout
-Your extended leg remains slightly bent when fully extended
– The arm rests support you sitting your body upright on the seat
Stationary Bike Techniques to Avoid for Pelvic Floor Protection
Some stationary bike techniques can increase pelvic floor loading and are best avoided if the pelvic floor is at increased risk of injury:
– Using high gears causing heavy resistance and straining to move the pedals
– Standing out of the saddle when cycling
Stationary Bike Techniques to Choose
-Stay seated in the saddle
-Keep leg resistance manageable
-Alternating cycle speed with fast,moderate and slow pedal revolutions
Best Stationary Bike Technique for Weight Loss
Stationary bike may help you exercise for longer duration than you might otherwise be able to with pelvic floor problems.
Stationary bike helps some women exercise at a higher intensity than they otherwise may not be able to achieve
Using the stationary bike with alternating high and low intensity provides for highly effective weight loss exercise – without the need to diet.
Stationary Bike Regime for Abdominal Weight Loss
Research at the University of NSW has investigated stationary bike weight loss exercise using a regime known as “Life Sprints”.
The most effecting weight loss stationary bike training regime involved:
– Exercising on 3 alternate days of the week
– Performing 20 minutes alternating high and low intensity exercise (following 5 minutes warm up)
– Alternating 8 seconds high intensity vigorous cycling with 12 seconds low intensity cycling known as “interval sprinting”
Summary for Stationary Bike and Pelvic Floor Safe Exercise
-Set up your stationary bike so your hips are higher than knees
-Sit your body upright
-Choose light to moderate resistance
-Avoid high resistance
-Avoid standing out of the saddle when cycling
-Cycling with short sessions of alternating high and low intensity can provide effective weight loss exercise
For further reading about the Life Sprints stationary bike exercise regime see /
