When you look for a low-impact and high-intensity cardio workout, spinning or indoor exercise comes at the top. It increases your muscle strength, helps in reducing body fat and weight without putting any stress on your joints.
That’s why it’s a very popular form of exercise among all types of people. It doesn’t matter whether you’re short or tall, thin or fat, an exercise bike is something that you’ll want in every condition.
However, spinning becomes challenging for you if you’re shorter than an average person. As the majority of the spin bike manufacturers produce bikes for average height people. Here questions arise, Can short people do spinning? If they can, how to select the right spin bike?
You’ll get all the answers here in this article!
Can Short People Do Spinning?
Spinning or Indoor cycling is a great form of exercise. But the problem occurs when you’re below than an average height people. Usually, Spin bikes have a range of height they can accommodate. (4 ft 9 inches is the lowest height I have found for the people who can ride a spin bike)
However, if your height is below average, it’s quite natural to ask this question: Can short people do spinning? Although, it’s true that finding a short person’s favorite bike isn’t as easy as for normal height people. But, you’ll surely find some bikes for spinning.
How To Pick The Right Spinning Bike For Short People?
To pick the right spinning bike for short people you’ve to consider a lot of factors. But the rule of thumb is your spinning bike seat should be adjustable to your hip height. Plus, the front side of your seat ought to be the length of your arm from the tips of your hand to your elbow from the handlebars.
When you take your position on the seat, your knee should bend moderately whilst the pedal is at its minimum point of the stroke. Other things that you should consider while selecting your exercise bike are the length of your legs, arms, and torso, etc. (These things will determine how well you can fit with your bike and your overall flexibility and comfort.
Below I’ll show you some factors that’ll help you to select the ideal spin bike for a short person:
1. Height Adjustment
Short people spin bikes come with excellent height adjustment flexibility. You just need to make sure you got the right one that is specially designed for short people. If you’re at least 4 ft 9 inches, you’ll find several options for choosing your exercise bike for spinning. You’ll also find some adjustable spin bikes, you can easily adjust their height according to your height.
2. Stability And Durability
You can’t go for a bike randomly due to your height limitation. You must select a bike that can provide you with a stable ride with no flexing or rocking. Go for the bike that’s well constructed and comparatively quiet.
3. Smooth Ride
Your spin bike should give you a natural and smooth riding experience for getting a low-impact cardio workout.
How Your Height Affects Your spinning
If you’re an average height person, there are a lot of options for you when you are going spinning. The problem arises when you’re shorter than the average person. And, the reason is pretty simple, most of the manufacturers don’t produce spin bikes for short people.
Below I’ll show you some facts that you’re going to face with your spin bike due to your height.
1. Face Complexity With The Height Of Spin Bike
For proper spinning or indoor cycling, a person needs to ride a bike that perfectly matches their height. But when short people are going to ride a spin bike, they find most of the spin bike height is too high. Therefore they won’t get an adequate cardio workout from their bike.
The main goal of spinning or indoor cycling is to do high-intensity workouts with low impact. But when the seat of your spin bike is too high compared to your height, spinning can be impactful for you. It’ll put an excessive impact on your joints and knees that’s fully contradictory to what you expect from a spin bike.
2. Seat Is Too Far From The Handlebars
When you sit on a spin bike, you want to comfortably grip the handlebars of the spin bike. (With the right flexibility in your elbows.) However, when you’re a short heightened person you’ll find most of the spin bike seat is far from the handlebars. To avoid this kind of difficulty, you need to go for a spin bike that is specially designed for short people.
3. Inappropriate Foot Position/ Pedaling
Pedaling seems a very simple and straightforward task but it becomes difficult for you if your height doesn’t support you. If you can’t pedal in the right way with your spin bike will lead you to pain or injury. To avoid this you must select a bike with the right height that matches your inseam length.
Benefits Of Exercise Bike For Short People
It doesn’t matter whether you’re short or tall, thin or fat, exercise has different benefits for different types of people. Below in this section, I’ll show some benefits that short people are going to enjoy.
Boost Your Cardio Fitness
For low-impact cardio workouts, an exercise bike is an excellent option. It helps to strengthen your heart, lungs, and muscles. With an exercise bike, you can do effective aerobic workouts that’ll increase the blood circulation and oxygen flow in your body. Plus, there are several health benefits you’ll get from an exercise bike. They are:
- Cardio workout through the exercise bike will improve your memory and brain functionality.
- Minimize the blood pressure.
- Develop your sleep.
- Boost your immunity system.
- Reduce stress levels.
- Increase energy.
Can Assist You With Your Weight Loss Program
According to your body weight and the intensity of your workout, you can burn almost 600 calories per hour with an exercise bike. Therefore, indoor biking is an excellent choice for people who want to burn more calories. Remember, when you are able to burn more calories than you consume will help significantly in your weight loss program.
Low-Impact Workout
For a low-impact workout, nothing is better than an exercise bike. With an exercise bike, you can do smooth movements for strengthening your joints and muscles without putting too much pressure on them. Therefore, it’s an excellent workout for people who’ve joint issues.
Strengthen Your legs And Lower Body Muscles
Another great advantage of an exercise bike is it strengthens your legs and lower body muscle. You can strengthen your calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings with the pedaling action of an exercise bike. Plus, it also works with your back, core, and glutes muscles.
Interval Training
Exercise bike allows you to do interval training. With interval training, you can burn more calories in less time and boost your cardio fitness. You can change the intensity of your exercise bike by changing the resistance between low, medium, high. That’s why an exercise bike is considered one of the best options for interval training.
Final Thought
A regular workout with an exercise bike has huge benefits on your health, body, and mood. Although your height should not be the barrier to your spinning exercise, it has a significant role. That’s the reason most short people stay in doubt and looking for the answer to this question: Can short people do spinning?
If your height is above 4 ft 9 inches, you’ll find some specialized spin bikes for short people. In addition, there are some adjustable spin bikes that a short person can easily accommodate his/herself. If you are still in doubt comment here or email me. I’ll reply to your query soon.