Hand Cycle, Cranking, Upper Body Ergometer Challenge

Today we kicked off day 1 of a live 7-day challenge where we will use Excy as an upper body ergometer to pedal, crank, spin, and hand cycle Excy 10 minutes a day with quick intense bursts. During this hand cycle challenge, we will use the Excy Mobile Coach to drive intervals and work hard to put the full range of Excy’s bi-directional resistance using floor, table, and couch positions.

Hand cycling is such an amazing way to get a cardio and strength training workout for a wide variety of people. You’ve seen us showcase Excy as a hand cycle for Parkinson’s, an amputee, post knee and ankle surgery, movement and range of motion, but it’s also important to note that powering Excy with your arms can be one heck of a aerobic and anaerobic out whether fitness beginner or athlete! In fact, you can match or exceed the calorie burn of an exercise bike with an upper body spin and Excy gives you the quality of an upper body ergometer in a gym with 2-70 pounds of resistance, but it weighs just 14 pounds (see below chart).

Today’s Live Hand Cycle Workout

Proper upper body ergometer and hand cycling setup

The Power of Hand Cycling an Upper Body Ergometer

So often, people turn to upper body ergometers to keep active during a leg injury, which is so important because according to a review study from Princeton University, for athletes, being sidelined from sports can trigger anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. But it’s not just athletes who struggle being sidelined. Anyone who is active and gets injured knows how hard it can be to suddenly become inactive.

Leg injury or not, an upper body ergometer (UBE) like Excy offers so many compelling reasons to incorporate a (UBE) into your training schedule because you can engage virtually every muscle in your upper body to work on strength, endurance, intensity, agility, stability, flexibility and balance. In 2010, the American Council on Exercise sponsored a study of a class that features pedaling arm bikes to the beat of music. The researchers concluded that using an arm bike in a group setting can provide a high-intensity, calorie-burning cardio workout. Participants burned an average of nine calories per minute while pedaling the bike and maintained a heart rate of about 86 percent of maximum during a 30-minute session. In addition, the American Council on Exercise (ACE), America’s leading authority on fitness and one of the largest fitness certification, education and training organizations in the world, revealed key findings in an exclusive study on the emerging fitness trend of Kranking, which works similar to Excy as an upper body ergometer, although Excy offers a wider variety of upper body cycling positions and also works as an exercise bike. 

Make sure to check out our “Fall Into Health” sale to save $75 off retail and get free shipping! Contact us with questions! Tune into the 7-day challenge at www.excy.live