Whether you’re looking to stay active through the winter, add low‑impact cardio to your routine, or finally stop paying for a gym membership, an exercise bike can be a great investment. They’re quieter than treadmills, easier on the joints than running, and perfect for squeezing in a workout while watching TV — but only if you pick the right model.

With so many types, features, and price points, choosing the best exercise bike can feel overwhelming. Here’s a straightforward, no‑nonsense guide to help you find the one that fits your body, your goals, and your space.

Questions to Ask Before You Buy

What’s My Fitness Goal?

Are you aiming to burn calories, build leg strength, do gentle daily movement, or train like you’re prepping for a race? Your goal affects the type of bike that will work best. A basic upright bike can help with general cardio, while a spin or indoor‑cycle‑style bike is better for intense workouts.

How Much Space Do I Have?

Measure the area you plan to use — whether it’s a spare bedroom, living room corner, or basement gym. Exercise bikes can be compact or bulky, and you want one that fits comfortably without blocking walkways.

How Often Will I Use It?

If you plan on daily workouts or long sessions, look for comfort, durability, and adjustability. If you’re an occasional rider, a simpler, budget‑friendly model might be enough.

Types of Exercise Bikes

Upright Bikes

These look most like traditional bicycles: you sit upright and pedal. They’re simple, usually affordable, and perfect for everyday cardio.

Best for: Casual riders, small spaces, basic cardio.

Recumbent Bikes

With a reclined seat and back support, recumbent bikes are ideal if you want less strain on your lower back and more comfort overall.

Best for: People with back issues, seniors, and long‑session workouts.

Indoor Cycling / Spin Bikes

Built for performance, these have heavier flywheels and allow more intense workouts — including standing climbs and sprints.

Best for: Serious cyclists, interval training, high‑intensity cardio.

Fan / Air Bikes

These use a large fan that creates resistance based on how hard you pedal — the harder you go, the harder it gets. Great for full‑body workouts if the bike has moving handles.

Best for: HIIT workouts, cross‑training, and athletes.

Features That Matter

Resistance Type

• Magnetic resistance: Quiet, smooth, and adjustable — great for most home users.
• Felt brake/friction: Older style, sometimes noisier, but can still work well on budget models.
• Air/fan: Naturally variable, works harder the faster you pedal.

For daily use, magnetic resistance usually gives the most consistent and quiet experience.

Adjustability

Look for bikes with adjustable seats and handlebars. People come in all shapes and sizes — without adjustments, even a pricey bike can feel uncomfortable.

Comfort and Ergonomics

• Seat comfort: Some seats are basic — consider upgrading to a padded one if you plan longer rides.
• Pedals and straps: Good grip and foot support help during more intense rides.
• Step‑through frame: Makes mounting easier — helpful if mobility’s a concern.

Console and Tracking

• LCD or digital display: Shows speed, distance, time, and calories.
• Heart rate sensors or Bluetooth connectivity: Handy if you track workouts on a phone, watch, or fitness app.

Stability and Build Quality

Heavier frames with solid bases are more stable — especially during spirited sessions. If you’re doing standing climbs or interval sprints, stability matters.

Noise Level

If you live in an apartment or share walls, quieter magnetic bikes are better than noisy fan bikes.

Extra Considerations

Budget

Exercise bikes range from under $300 for basic models to $1,500+ for premium indoor cycling bikes. Set a range and decide what features you actually need versus what’s “nice to have.”

Assembly and Delivery

Some bikes are simple to assemble at home. Others may require tools or professional assembly — especially heavier spin bikes.

Warranty and Support

Look for solid warranties on the frame and parts. Canadian availability of replacement parts and support is a bonus — especially if something breaks mid‑winter.

Our Top Picks for Exercise Bikes

Why Trust Shopping Trends?

At Shopping Trends, every product we review goes through rigorous hands-on testing to ensure we’re recommending only the best for Canadian households. With over a decade of experience in product evaluation and consumer reporting, I personally oversee each test and comparison.

Our process is transparent, methodical, and grounded in real-world usage. Whether it’s a cordless vacuum, a 4K TV, or a hammock for your next camping trip, we evaluate items the way you’d use them at home. When needed, we also consult Canadian industry experts to offer context and help readers make confident, informed decisions. Every “top pick” featured in our guides has earned its spot through careful analysis, not sponsorship.

Workouts can be intimidating and time consuming, but there’s more evidence that just a few minutes of activity may improve your heart health.

You don’t need to join a gym, there’s no equipment required, and the exercise comes in brief bursts of movement that are easy to fit into daily life.

The health benefits are real, researchers say, and the routine can counteract some of the negative impacts of sitting all day.

Cardiologist Tip of the Day: Try Exercise Snacks to Boost Heart Health

Exercise snacks are “short, structured bouts” of physical activity — five minutes or less of climbing stairs or doing bodyweight exercises like squats — done several times a day, the authors of a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine explain.

“The main takeaway here is that anything is better than nothing,” Dr. Tamanna Singh, director of the Sports Cardiology Center at Cleveland Clinic, told NBC News.

“The exercise snack can be the start of a foundation for more intense exercise.”

Exercise snacks add up over time and they make you healthier, so take breaks and move during the day, Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician, said on TODAY.

Why It Matters

Exercise snacks led to “meaningful improvements” in cardiorespiratory fitness in adults, even though the amount of exercise was “far below” the current recommendations from the World Health Organization, the authors of the review of studies noted.

Importantly, people actually stuck with the routine, with more than 90% of participants completing the prescribed sessions rather than dropping out.

“This suggests that exercise snacks are not only effective but also practical and well accepted, making them a promising option for real-world, unsupervised settings,” the authors wrote.

How to Get Started

The exercise snacks in the review of studies were defined as five minutes or less of physical activity, deliberately performed at least twice daily most days of the week.

Brief bouts of vigorous stair climbing were a popular option. Or it could be doing bodyweight exercises or lifting small weights.

Certified personal trainer Stephanie Mansour also suggests these exercise snacks:

• Go for a walk — brisk daily walking can reduce the risk of early death, a study found.
• Do 10 squats
• Walk around the house 10 times
• Do 10 wall pushups
• Do a wall sit during the commercial breaks of a TV show — this isometric exercise is static but very intense, and can reduce resting blood pressure, research has found.

Exercise snacks can change the body in ways that make it easier to start more intense and longer workouts, Singh said.

“Hopefully these exercise snacks will make people want to have an exercise meal,” she said.

For more exercise tips and suggestions, download the Start TODAY app to get fitness challenges and daily inspiration from trusted experts.

TODAY’s Expert Tip of the Day series is all about simple strategies to make life a little easier. Every Monday through Friday, different qualified experts share their best advice on diet, fitness, heart health, mental wellness and more.

General Physical Preparation (GPP) and Specific Physical Preparation (SPP) are rooted in Soviet-era sports science and popularized by Romanian sports scientist Tudor Bompa, Westside Barbell, and CrossFit. These programming models can apply to any type of long-term, progressive athletic goal, fitness event, competition or tactical challenge. They are simply terms that trainers and coaches should use to organize training programs for any type of goal. 

Built on the Same Foundation

Together, GPP and SPP create an athlete capable of handling any physical situation one might encounter. Tactical fitness does the same, just on a different level of ability with different goals.

Phase 1/GPP

Like the first phase of tactical fitness, GPP focuses on building a foundation across multiple fitness components, including strength, power, speed, agility, endurance, stamina, coordination, flexibility and mobility. GPP’s primary goal is to “build the engine” by developing a wide range of physical attributes rather than sport-specific skills. Tactical fitness’s first-phase goal is to prepare the recruit/candidate to ace a fitness test (get to the training). 

Phase 2/SPP

The second phase of tactical fitness most closely resembles SPP, as it focuses on preparing athletes for the specific future challenges of military training and the job itself. SPP is also the “transformation” phase, during which general fitness is channeled into sport-specific qualities. Maintaining these fitness elements is part of the SPP programming for both competing athletes and active-duty operators, whether competing or performing their job. 

Phase 3/Divergence

The third phase of tactical fitness includes maintaining all components of fitness, with a focus on stress mitigation, recovery and just being good at all of them; rather than being elite in just a few, like a competitive athlete. 

While the training phases are similar in structure, the biggest difference between the competitive and tactical athletes is that the sport demands higher levels of capability to compete. Being competitive in tactical communities requires an above-average fitness level (not elite) across many components of fitness, but, depending on the job, an above-average/elite proficiency in tactical knowledge to perform under stress, and the ability to recover quickly.

How They Match Up

If you compare the GPP/SPP of athletics to tactical fitness, many of the same types of programming can be used, but eventually, the tactical specifics will require a new layer of training. You can see why in this side-by-side comparison: 

GPP/SPP in Tactical Fitness Training

Drawing from my experience as a tactical fitness coach for over 25 years, here is how the Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization model compares for GPP/SPP training:

Athletes are trained from a broad base (GPP) of fitness to specific and more challenging levels of performance (SPP) through the “To and Through” Philosophy.

GPP is the “getting to” phase. It focuses on the baseline required to get accepted and pass entry-level fitness exams, such as the Navy PST. This involves building a foundation through high-repetition calisthenics (pushups, situps, pullups) and cardio training (running and swimming) to build muscle endurance and aerobic capacity. However, more challenging events exist in actual military training compared to many of the entrance fitness exams.

You do need to build strength, power and mass in many candidates, so an “off-season” lift cycle phase addresses these weaknesses to build overall durability in various load-bearing activities specific to special ops selection (logs, boats, rucks, personnel carry). This is where SPP joins the preparation as the “getting through” phase, because movement and energy system specificity are essential. Also, longer swims with fins and longer runs are required in this “getting through” phase. In the end, a runner who can lift and swim or a lifter who can swim and run is created.

Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization is a yearlong training cycle using the spring/summer to build and peak (GPP/SPP), including high volume calisthenics and maximal but progressive endurance in running, rucking and swimming. The fall season is a transition period that adds weight training, reduces running miles and introduces speed and swimming miles. The winter lift cycle is to build durability, mass and strength, and to reduce the impact of running so joints can recover (GPP).

While GPP/SPP and tactical fitness and strength aim to build a capable athlete, they differ largely in their “why” and “how.” Both are about building a broad physical foundation, but tactical fitness also requires professionals to survive and succeed in high-stakes, unpredictable environments, often in life-or-death situations. This requires significant tactical skills in addition to the fitness foundation provided. However, it is fair to call the preparation to transition from athlete to tactical athlete part of the GPP/SPP process.

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