Stationary bikes remain popular, maybe because they work. Maybe it's more proper to say they make YOU work. Rain or shine, night or day, these machines provide balanced workouts. Balance is where the dual action machines excel.

See, exercise bikes work major muscles along with heart and lungs. The big muscles of the legs, hips and thighs are the ones that can do major work. That's the ones that can really move and generate work. Working the large muscle groups is also the fastest way to making progress. Gimmick machines make it look as if you can easily target specific problem areas and fix them with minimal effort. It just isn't so most of the time.

To make fitness improvements, work the big muscles just as a bike does.

Working the muscles is key to fat loss. That's because muscles burn fat. Build muscle and increase metabolism. It's burning calories that helps, but it's building muscle that helps keep the fat gone for good. That's why making fitness progress is easier and faster if you concentrate at the large muscle groups like the legs and back.

When you ride a dual action machine, turning a fan creates resistance or load as you pedal and pump the bike. Working with legs and arms gets at muscles everywhere in the body. It's literally a total body workout. Arms and shoulders get in the picture along with the major lower body muscles. Just about every other muscle works too as you move and react to the pedals and arm pumps.

Dual action bikes, like the Schwinn Air dyne that started the design, are noted for rugged construction and long life.

They are also noted for lack of electronics and frills and for lots of fan noise.

To those of us who use one, we're too busy pumping and pedaling to worry much about computers. Who needs more computer time anyway??? Do you? Actually computers help make workouts more interesting and maybe even fun. That really is needed partly because just pedaling away makes for real boring times. Seriously, using both your arms and legs does engage you in such a way that the boredom factor is not such a problem.

Escape from computers with AirDyne stationary bikes... Avoiding computers and magnetic drives results in a simpler machine that for many people is less frustrating to deal with. In addition, those components are most likely the potential failure points so eliminating computers and electronics makes for a more reliable machine less likely to cause trouble.