THE GOODS : Make Sure Your Knees Are Up for the Ride

In just an hour a week, it tones up more body parts than a traditional exercise bike--or so go the claims--while it toughens your cardiovascular system.

There’s no high-impact pounding.

And at $100 to $500, it costs a pittance of what you would pay for most other home fitness equipment.

No wonder sales are booming for exercise riders, the newest home fitness option that looks like a hybrid of an exercise bike and weight-training equipment. While some exercise experts say the rider is here to stay, others fret it will set you up for back problems.

Here, what you should know before you shop.

The Market

HealthRider started it all in 1992. Then followed CardioGlide, E Force, AeroMotion and about a dozen other models, sold in sporting-goods and fitness stores and via infomercials. Now, HealthRider is planning to introduce a health-club model.

The riders aren’t yet tracked as a separate fitness category by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn., says a representative, but might be soon if the brisk sales continue. More than a million riders have been sold, according to industry estimates.

The Premise

While designs vary, the concept is the same: to shape you up aerobically and build muscle in a fell swoop. Your own weight serves as the resistance, although there are features that allow you to make the workout easier or more difficult.

On the HealthRider, for instance, you place your feet on the pedals and reach for the padded handlebars, which move up and down and can be positioned differently depending on which upper body muscles you wish to target. As you push and pull the handlebars and push the pedals, the seat goes up and down.

On the CardioGlide, users can adjust the tension to make the workout easier or tougher, says Stephanie Steed, spokeswoman for Weslo in Logan, Utah, the manufacturer. On the AeroMotion, there are 12 levels of hydraulic resistance, says Todd Udowitch of Keys Fitness Products, the Dallas-based manufacturer. Most riders include monitors to display speed, calories burned, time elapsed, distance and other factors.

The Payoffs

So new is the exercise rider that published scientific studies are believed nonexistent, says Karen Bucaro, a fitness expert at Keys Fitness Products. But she estimates an average person who weighs 155 pounds will burn six calories per minute or 120 calories per 20-minute workout on the AeroMotion. That’s a bit less than the calories expended during medium intensity aerobics.

A workout on the rider is most often compared to exercise on a rowing machine, an apparatus of declining appeal (according to the sporting-goods group, there has been a 24% decline in “participation” in recent years).

Expert Advice

The rider “requires a fair amount of knee flexion,” says Dr. James Garrick, an orthopedic surgeon at the Center for Sports Medicine at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. Still, he says, he has not gotten complaints about the rider from any of his patients.

But he urges consumers to be realistic. “Manufacturers can make these things look exciting on the infomercial,” Garrick says. “After the first few days [when the novelty declines], it’s work. You have to burn calories.”

He advises exercisers to try a rider in the store and take advantage of any special trial offers.

The Guarantee

At Sharper Image, for instance, customers can return the riders within 60 days for a refund, says Scott Stephens, manager at Sharper Image’s Glendale Galleria Store, where, he says, the riders are selling briskly. He gets about one return every two weeks, due not to quality problems but customers saying they have lost interest.

Consumers are advised to check with the retailer before buying, because the money-back offers vary from store to store.

Caveats

Besides requiring knee flexion, the riders require a lot of hip flexion, says Kam Miller, an exercise physiologist at Georgetown University Medical Center who has tried the equipment. Overworking the hip flexor muscles, which are attached to the lower lumbar vertebrae, can contribute to lower back problems, she says.

“People with knee and back problems should avoid riders,” she advises. People with large bellies might be wise to bypass them too, she says, reasoning that the machine would probably be too hard on their backs.

Response

“It does involve some hip flexion,” says Udowitch of Keys Fitness Products. But it’s hard to avoid hip flexion during workouts exercising major muscle groups, he adds. Consulting your doctor before buying a rider or any other piece of fitness equipment is advised.