The Schwinn Active 20 Series Recumbent Exercise Bike is good if you’re looking for alternative to a upright, but at a lower price point to other recumbents. And one that still has plenty of great features.

This bike comes with seven programs to accomodate different fitness levels. It also has eight resistance levels that you can progress through as you get fitter. You can monitor your fitness too, as the Schwinn Active 20 recumbent exercise bike comes with a grip heart rate sensor.

It’s suitable for users of different shapes and sizes, up to a maximum of 275 pounds. It has a wide, well-padded seat, plus padded backrest, which provide good back support.

Good points

The Schwinn recumbent requires some home assembly and adjustment, but users have found this an easy process.

It doesn’t have any electrical parts, so no need for a power outlet.

It’s stable and very durable.

Different levels of resistance mean it’s suitable for both exercise beginners and those who need more advanced programs.

Built-in front rollers ensure it can be moved around easily.

Not-so-good points

The LCD display doesn’t have a light inside, so it can sometimes be hard to read.

The calorie calculator seems to give readings that are too high.

There’s a big leap between one resistance level and the next, which some exercisers may find too challenging.

As with most exercise bikes, the Schwinn Active 20 provides a good lower limb workout but no upper body one.

Conclusion

The Schwinn Active 20 recumbent bike is a great piece of home exercise equipment that will suit every user, from beginner to advanced. It creates a low-impact and comfortable aerobic workout, that can be done while reading or viewing a screen.

Less than $220 at Amazon (at the time of writing), the Schwinn Active 20 recumbent exercise bike helps you get fitter in the comfort of your own home.

With its popularity, so came an increasing range of fitness games – so many that you might have problems deciding which is the right one for you.  Let’s take a look at 3  fun and effective Wii workout games.

1. Wii Fit Plus
While it’s fair to say that newer games can offer more intense workouts, the Wii Fit Plus has a factor that shouldn’t be discounted, and that’s fun. A big issue many have with maintaining regular exercise is that it can become a chore. This is no good as far as morale and motivation goes – if your workouts are fun to do it will help motivation no end.

The Wii fit plus incorporates exercises like Big Top Juggling, Flying Chicken and Snowball Fight. So, you can workout and have a smile on your face at the same time! Plus you’ll be doing everything from a cardiovascular workout, to improving your balance, to making your body more flexible and toned.

One thing to note is that if you are not upgrading from the original Wii Fit, you’ll need to buy a Wii Fit Plus version that includes a balance board.

2. Active Life Outdoor Challenge
If you love exercising with a friend, or you want to involve all the family in getting fit, this could be the game for you. It’s a mixed set that includes multi-player challenges such as trampolining and river rafting.

Active Life Outdoor Challenge has beginner levels if you’re unused to exercising, and you can try out each of the games first in this easy mode.  Overall, it will give you a full body workout, as well as improve your coordination. You can do the games on your own if you prefer.

3. Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party
Have you ever found yourself dancing along while you’re listening to music? Dance Dance Revolution is the perfect Wii workout game for anyone who loves music and dancing. Like Outdoor Challenge, it can be played on your own or with others. As well as using your feet, you use your arms with this game, which gives you a better cardiovascular workout.

At the time of writing, the game is on version 3, which has more tunes (the originals rather than the copies in the first DDR), and more features.

More and more people are turning to the Wii Fit as an alternative to traditional fitness routines, ditching their existing equipment on the way. One you give it a try, you’ll see why. Fun, effective and never boring – just what you want from a workout!

I’m sure you’re aware that there are a heap of websites like YouTube that have any number of fitness training videos on them. You’ll also be able, with a little bit of searching, to find websites belonging to individual fitness trainers. If you don’t have a clear idea of what type of online fitness training you want to do then you’ll be spoilt for choice; there can be very few types of exercise videos that can’t be found online.

The problem with using a large video sharing site is that it can be hard to find a full workout rather than individual fitness videos. If you have a good knowledge of what your body needs, exercise-wise, then you can pick out individual videos and use them to create a full workout routine. This is only for those experienced enough to know all the body muscle groups that need to be targeted.

Remember also that an online fitness video can be put there by anybody.  There is no telling whether it is effective or even safe.  It could have been put on the site by a qualified trainer with years of experience; it could be from someone that doesn’t know the basics but thought they’d show off what they think is a cool exercise for the camera anyway.

Unlike random online fitness videos, you can be sure that if you watch a DVD the people on it will know what they’re doing. After all, if they don’t the production company will be left with costs that they can’t recover from sales. Plus the fitness instructors or celebrities presenting and endorsing the DVDs will have lost their good reputation.

A small but important advantage for DVDs over online videos is that you can see them much better. It’s quite hard to follow a routine on a small computer screen – often you will have to memorize the exercise by watching the video a number of times. Watch on a TV and you can see clearly what to do and follow along as the DVD plays.

So, while the idea of free online fitness training is appealing, most of the time people find it easier to get a good workout by spending a few dollars on an exercise DVD instead.

High intensity interval training, also known as HIIT, is a type of exercise that forces the body into going through anaerobic exercise. That’s where the body has less oxygen than it needs for a short time, and so burns more fat. The way to achieve that is to exercise at variable speeds, and that’s the basis for HIIT.

Human bodies are designed to store fat, from the days when it was in short supply. Regular, steady exercise will burn some of the fat, but after a time, if you keep doing it at the same pace your body will revert to storage mode and you won’t burn as much fat.

There are many variations of high intensity interval training; a common hiit workout is a combination of jogging and sprinting. Jog at a brisk pace for thirty seconds and then sprint as hard as you can for another thirty. Repeat several times. Ideally, maintain this for fifteen minutes. Build up to this; not many people can manage that length of time at first.

You will feel extremely tired, or even exhausted after an HIIT session. However, you will have used up a lot of calories, with most coming from your fat reserves. In addition, your metabolism will be raised for the day. High intensity interval training to burn fat will soon have you looking a lot leaner.

In times past people didn’t have the luxury of popping into a car to fetch groceries or take the kids to school. And you don’t have to either if it’s a short trip. If you need a few groceries from the local store or it’s time to collect the kids, ditch the car and walk instead. Walking will get you fit just as easily as regular gym workouts.

Staircases are great for giving you a general workout. It’s been shown that spending a few minutes a day walking up stairs is beneficial to your heart. And, as a bonus, if you stop taking the elevator you’ll end up with shapely, toned legs!

Here’s a real old-fashioned tip when it’s time to spring clean – beat your rugs instead of using a vacuum. Hang the rugs on a washing line, get yourself a carpet beater and whack away till all the dust is gone. If you get out of breath, it means you’re getting a cardiovascular workout.

Like gardening? Put the electric lawnmower into storage and get a push mower instead. Use it a couple of times a week in the summer and you’ll soon increase your fitness and stamina levels. Your upper arms will be getting a good workout too as the mower gets pushed to and fro.

In a nutshell, our ancestors were fitter because they were more active in their daily lives. If you apply that same principle to your life, you’ll quickly start to realise your goal of becoming fitter.