Exercise bikes are great cardio machines that aid with your home routine workout. However, their greatness can be short-lived if they pose impending damage to your carpeted or wooden floor. How do exercise bikes pose damage to your floor? Keep reading to find out more.
Can you place an exercise bike on the carpet? The answer is no. If you are serious about protecting your carpet, placing an exercise bike directly on it is a bad idea. To start, although most exercise bikes have end caps on their legs, their impact on the floor is damaging. The long-term impact of using this machine on carpets is depressions, dents or even scuffed areas of your carpet.
This is also the case for a hardwood, concrete or even tile floor. Do we have an alternative? Yes a bike mat like this, is used when placing your exercise machine on any surface.
Keep reading to find out more about why you should not place your exercise bike on the carpet, what is a bike mat is and why it is important when setting your exercise bike and other exercise bike related questions.
Why you should not Use an Exercise Bike on Carpet
There are several reasons why you should not place your exercise bike on the carpet or the floor directly. However, top on the list and the most important is, the bike damages your carpet. I cannot emphasize this enough.
One of the ways the bike may damage your carpet is by causing depressions and prints on the carpet by simply sitting on it. The bike has weight, a lot of it, so, it is only normal that it will form a depression on the surface after some time.
Other than depression, any slight movement in the exercise bike my cause a dent on the carpet. A wooden floor, tile or concrete are also equally susceptible to a scratch resulting from movement. It is impossible to work out without moving the machine occasionally. That means you increase the risk of damaging your carpet or floor by simply working out, therefore, defeating the purpose of the machine in the first place. It does not help that repairing these scratches or damages may be expensive.
Moreover, with the carpet, the exercise bike may not be stable. Therefore, the bike is susceptible to falling anytime.
Another reason why you should not place an exercise bike on the carpet is that the dust and lubricant from the machine will fall to the carpet, leaving dirt and stains. The amount of dust collected from your bike depends on the type of bike you have.
An exercise bike with magnetic resistance releases off little to no dust while the friction resistance bike releases a large amount of dust. This is because for the magnetic bike no parts are touching each other. For the friction bike, there is a wool-like pad that touches with the flywheel. The continuous rubbing of these two parts causes them to wear off which is seen in the form of dust.
Now imagine the dust being trapped in your carpet. It exposes you to respiratory diseases among other negative effects of dust.
The dust is not the only thing that you should be worried about falling on your carpet, there is sweat. When working out, sweating is a good thing until it falls on your carpeted floor. With a carpet full of sweat, foul smells are bound to happen which is unattractive for any home. Placing your bike on the carpet is way too expensive, especially, since there is a working alternative.
So, What Alternative Do You Have?
Now that we have ruled out placing an exercise bike on the carpet, does it mean working out should only in the gym? No, you can still purchase your machine for home use; you will, however, need to add a bike mat like this in your budget.
A bike mat is designed to fit under the base of an exercise bike so that the bike not in direct contact with the floor surface. There are different bike mats fitted for different types of floors. A bike mike is very important since apart from mitigating the damage of the bike on the carpet or floor, it performs other functions. They include:
- Protect the Floor
As mentioned above, regardless of the type of floor in your home, eventually the weight of the bike will leave a print on the floor and in some cases; it can cause a scratch or dent on your carpet. This is where the bike mat comes in. The mat is built to withstand the weight of the machine and therefore minimizing the impact on the floor.
Also, because of the bike mat, your machine is protected from humidity and dust resulting in a long life. Some of the states of art bike mats have cushioning to manage the scratch and a protective layer for the dust and humidity
- Noise Reduction
This is one of the main benefits of purchasing a bike mat along with your exercise bike. When you pedal your bike, especially during high-intensity exercises, the machine reduces the vibrations.
These vibrations can be noise to your neighbors especially if you are living in an apartment. As such, unless you deal with the vibration, noise, you are not at liberty to exercise whenever you want.
However, with a bike mat, you do not have to worry about disturbing your neighbors. The mat creates a layer of padded cushions, which absorb the vibrations, dampen them, and reduce noise significantly.
This is not to say that the bike mat gets rid of the noise completely. The mat does not alter with the sound or existence of the noise, just the intensity of the vibrations.
- Stability and Smoother Work Outs
It is not easy to notice an unstable exercise bike, however, heavier people tend to notice one more than lightweight people do. An exercise bike can be unstable because it lacks rubber stabilizers or it is placed on an irregular floor like a carpet.
Working out on an unstable bike is both tiring and unsafe. As such, you want to make sure your bike is as stable as possible. A bike mat can come in handy in this case. With a stable bike, you get to enjoy a smoother ride and workout session.
- Easy to Clean
Ideally, exercises are meant to result in sweating and depending on the type of your bike, dust. Cleaning your floor after your routine exercise can be exhausting especially since it requires moving the bike. Leaving the sweaty floor, however, is not an alternative since sweat can ruin hardwood.
To help you out with the cleaning you can place a bike mat below the machine. The mat is water-resistant and therefore does not require being cleaned every day. With the mat, you can enjoy having an exercise bike at home.
Related Questions
Can I use the bike mat for working out?
Other than using it for the exercise bike, you can use your bike mat for other purposes. For starters, you can use the mat for working out including, Strength training with dumbbells or plyometric.
Alternatively, you can use the mat for your yoga sessions in the morning and stretching after a long day at work. The mat is also resourceful for ab circuits during your leg exercise or planks which are meant to tighten your midsection and form abs.
Other than working out, you can use a bike mat to protect your electrical equipment including a dryer, washer or fridge. Therefore, feel free to size your mat to the size of the exercise machine and use the remaining piece on your appliances.
Related Article: Can You Put A Tumble Dryer On Carpet?
Can I use a Treadmill placed on Carpet?
Just like the exercise bike, placing a trade mill on a carpet is wrong. Although each machine has different reasons, it is wrong all the same. First, with the carpet underneath, the lifespan of the treadmill is reduced.
You might be the cleanest person in the globe, but carpets always find a way to trap dust and dirt. When working out on your trade mill static is built from running on the rubber belt. The static attracts the dirt and dust from the carpet into the treadmill. These dirt, dust and carpet fiber destroys the electric motor and brushes in the exercise bike With that damage, the treadmill begins to fail and eventually it breaks down.
Other than destroying the treadmill, placing it on a carpet may also result in damaging your carpet. A treadmill is a heavy machine, as such, if placed on a carpet; the weight will dig into the carpet and leave impressions. Also, due to the vibrations produced they can cause the carpet to stretch and eventually tear. So unless you are ready to bear the cost of a destroyed treadmill and carpet consider purchasing a mat for the treadmill.
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