Best Stationary Bike for Physical Therapy-Top 5| 2021

If you’re looking for a convenient and enjoyable indoor workout especially for physical therapy, nothing beats a recumbent exercise bike. With better comfort, safety, and adjustability, a recumbent bike offers many advantages over similar types of machines. 

Finding the best stationary bike for physical therapy can be a hassle, that is why we are only interested in the best machines available for your needs. Any one of these options would be a great way to enjoy fitness, though if you are suffering from knee injuries.

We consider quality, features, and value when narrowing down the best choices possible and bring you our top 5 best stationary bike for physical therapy available now. Head over to the links above for more detailed info on each of these items. And remember to leave a comment to let us know your opinion!

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Why Stationary bikes are suitable for physical therapy? 

Exercises for physical Therapy are usually recommended when the patients have a critical injury or after surgery or for chronic diseases. The main target of physical therapy is to ease the pain of your injured or sensitive parts with some low-impact exercises without harming. 

If you choose random exercises like running, push-ups, or other exercises like that, you will put yourself at risk of serious damage.

Huber-Anderson, a well-known physical therapist from Harvard Medical School, recommended performing low-impact exercises like riding a stationary bicycle for rehabilitation and physical therapy.

The stationary bike has a bucket seat instead of a regular seat that is super comfortable for the patients. Best part is, the seat is backward centered from the pedals. As you don’t need to seat directly over the pedals, it will put low stress on your knee. 

Recumbent bikes put less pressure on the knees, backs, and hips. Besides, it puts less stress on the heart while doing a perfect cardio exercise. 

So, stationary bikes are perfectly suitable for physical therapy than an upright exercise bike. 

Top 5 best stationary bike for physical therapy

So, here we are with some amazing best indoor exercise bikes for you. We basically depends on true customer review as well as quality, durability and price.

Marcy Recumbent Exercise Bike ME-709

A very popular option for your daily cardio at an attractive price point is Marcy ME-709. It’s your easy comfortable way to shed pounds and improve endurance. Also, it has gained the title of one of the best sellers today as the best exercise machine for bad knees. With an easy step-through design in a basic but usable LCD display, Marcy gets the job done. Super impressive design with total convenience in a choice range of 8 resistance levels, you can easily track your speed, distance, calories burned, and the time at the same time sitting on a comfortable positioned seat with pedals balanced perfectly. 

Hope, you already got why we pick Marcy Recumbent Exercise Bike ME-709 in our top five list of best stationary bike for physical therapy.

This bike is specified for seniors as the chances for injury are minimal and one of the best options for people with knee problems. That’s why this bike is popularly known as the best exercise bike for knee replacement rehab. A solid entry-level and affordable bike for comfortable weight loss, fitness in general health.

Nautilus r616 recumbent bike reviews

This best recumbent bike is a surprise package for you! You’ll be overwhelmed with its tons of cool, challenging & interesting features. 

It is an expert piece of equipment that offers a variety of powerful technology features too. Not only that, this bike has an mp3 player jack and a built-in charger port. 

The dual-track blue backbit LCD console also displays 29 customized workout programs.

It is loaded with features such as 25 levels of resistance, 9 heart rate customized programs along with the ability to use a chest strap, and also exercise data downloading options. This bike has everything, like the scope to connect mobile devices, three-speed fan, media shelf, and also a water bottle holder.

It even has a proprietary mixed reality training called RideSocial. This app lets you tour the world on your bike while tracking pace & distance. You can set your goals or even virtually alongside your friends. 

No wonder Nautilus R616 is your perfect choice. 

So why are you delaying?  Let’s jump into the pros and cons before you buy. 

Schwinn 270 recumbent bike review

The Schwinn 270 really stood out from the crowd with its focus on rider’s comfort and over heart health. It’s a great choice for keeping you honest and dedicated with a large selection of programs like multiple user settings, goal & data tracking with a dual LCD display. 

The ventilated & contoured seat with extra padded seat bottom is very comfortable for a longer ride as well. 

The Schwinn 270 is equipped with great features like 25 resistance levels, 29 programmed workouts, the ability to download workout data, mobile device connectivity, high speed & high inertia drive system for a smooth, consistent workout, three-speed cooling fan, water bottle holder, transport wheels and what not! So, this recumbent bike is surely the best stationary bike for physical therapy

Heart rate monitoring on handlebar grips and chest strap capability has attracted the customers more.

The high-quality machine with some great features is an amazing value at this price point. No doubt Schwinn 270 can be the first of your choice list.

Exerpeutic Gold Folding Recumbent Exercise Bike

Even if you reside in the big apple vogue lodging wherever the area is prescribed, Exerpeutic Gold 525XLR Folding unerect exercise would be your good selection. With a total of 400-pound weight capacity, this bike has a high sturdy steel frame and an eight-level magnetic tension system.

Exerpeutic Gold 525XLR offers the adjustable capacity to suit 5’2” to 6’5” user height. With a simple to browse digital display laptop and hand pulse, you’ll be able to track your exercising results and monitor your target pulse zone. Once done exercising, it is simply collapsible to virtually half the dimensions of storage.

Its large petals and the well-cushioned seat is ergonomically designed for ultimate comfort and adjustable for length in order to suit people of various sizes.

Stamina Elite Total Body Recumbent Bike

Imagine the lower body benefits of stationary cycling with the proven power of an upper-body workout. Now it’s possible with Stamina’s Total Body Recumbent Bike. Mounting and dismounting the bike is simple with a smart walkthrough design. Even for those of limited mobility the seat easily adjusts too. As soon as you seat down, you will notice the comfortable contoured design. Strength & tone muscle, increase your cardiovascular endurance & burn calories with one machine. While paddling, the textured foot pedals and adjustable straps keep your feet in place. The 8 levels of quiet magnetic resistance are smooth and consistent.  When you want to increase the intensity, you will find the adjustable resistance dial easy to reach. 

The multi-functioned monitor is great for tracking the metrics that matter most to you. Speed, calories, distance, workout time and pulse are all displayed in real-time. Track your heart rate with the pulse sensors on the handlebars. When you are ready to take out your workout a step further the rotating handlebars will effectively work your arm, shoulder, and back. On the bottom of the bike’s durable steel frame, you will find non-slip encaps designed to protect your floor and stabilize the bike as you cycle. 

At the end of your workouts, use the built-in wheels to roll the bike in your nearest storage area. So you see, this is indeed the best exercise equipment for bad knees and hips.

Experience the joint family benefits of biking along with the full upper body workout with the Stamina Elite Total Body Recumbent Bike.

can read this article to know more about physical therapy

Other benefits of a stationary bike workout

Also known as a stationary, a recumbent bike offers users to sit upright and also stay in a proper condition. If you are suffering from knee injuries then a stationary recumbent bike might be a better choice than an elliptical machine. It is the ideal choice for those people who have such acute conditions like past knee injuries or recovering from knee surgery that even walking for extended periods of time without difficulty is hard for them.

This one’s also a good choice for people being more than 50 pounds overweight. Thanks to its wide, cushioned seat, which allows you to sit in a chair instead of on a traditional bike saddle, has less of a chance of damage to the hips and spine, also lessens strain on your back. Moreover, people with balance problems, like arthritis sufferers, who frequently develop balance problems due to inactivity can easily perform this exercise as it is a relatively safe exercise.

Today most of the gyms serve the facility of a recumbent bike or an upright bike. The recumbent bike is a better choice for beginners because here you can enjoy an ergonomic seat which makes exercising even better and convenient. Therefore, it is also safer for the back muscles.

The upright bike is assembled like a mountain bike requiring more control from the upper body. Thus you have to put much pressure using your core muscles as you paddle. 

As recumbent exercise bikes provide safer environments than upright bikes and more equipment, it is widely used for rehabilitation. It offers several levels of adjustments to find your optimal position and resistance. Having much smooth low impact cardio, it absolutely is a perfect choice for seniors, obese people, and people with severe knee injuries. 

In our top five picks of best stationary bike for physical therapy, you will be facilitated with all of the benefits discussed above.

what is a good speed on a stationary bike?

Short Answer: You should keep the speed of your Stationary bike in between 40-50 rpm (Revolutions per minute).

But, its truly depend on your stage of exercising, I mean either you are a beginner or an expert. It also depends on the physical stability of you. Never give extra burden bounden the capacity of your body.

What to look for in a quality stationary exercise bike?

Short Answer: You will need to look for some must-have features like heavy-duty flywheel, durable frame, warranty, workout programs, pedal straps, etc. Let’s explain it one by one and step by step.

It’s super easy to get confused about the features and price. A common perception among us is, the higher the price, the bigger the number of features and the quality.

But, question is, what features are required to be a quality stationary bike? You don’t need all the features for an effective workout with your exercise bike.

We have collected information from physical therapist, orthopedic surgeon and considered some factors like pain level, patients of knee surgery, bad knees, fitness level, your muscle tone, cardio activity, cardio fitness, the possibility of heart attack, body weight, physical limitations, etc and sum up a chunk of features that are required to be a quality stationary exercise bike.

Let’s face the must-have features with proper descriptions:

Heart rate monitor/ LCD display:

we found it super helpful for the users. You can watch your workout session, track the workout progress, have waring issues, heart rate monitoring, and lots of things like that.

Types of the monitor vary due to price. You can multiple types of fitness monitor like analog, digital, touch screen, etc.

Resistance level

You will find a stationary bike with a different range of magnetic resistance levels. But, as we are looking for the best stationary bike for physical therapy, we are not going to perform high impact workout or heavy exercise.

So, a resistance level with a range of 3-5 is enough. But whatever its levels are, you should start with a resistance level of one and increase it with a slow and gradual process.

Adjustable Seat

If there are multiple users of your exercise bike, then this feature is crucial for you. Because different users have different levels of height and size. So, the constant size of the seat is not suitable for all of them. The seat adjustment feature can help you with this.

Besides you need to concern about the comfortability. A comfortable seat means softness (cushioned seat), flexibility, and adjustability.

Weight capacity

An extra weight capacity is always good. 

But you have to think about your body weight and the price. Because higher weight capacity will lead to a bigger price. So, know your weight first, then choose your stationary bike based on this.

Water bottle holder

Sometimes silly feature matters a lot. A simple water bottle holder along with your stationary exercise bike can help you a lot.

Sturdy frame

It will make your bike durable and long-lasting. 

Besides, there are some other features that you can consider:

• Bluetooth connectivity
• seat adjustment
• pedal straps
• user friendly
• Timer app
• mp3 player
• USB port