Can Stationary Bike Workouts Slim Down Thick Thighs?

Do you have stubbornly thick thighs and don’t understand why all your stationary bike work won’t trim them down?

Is it genes or is something lacking in your workouts?

Women don’t have to like their hefty thighs.

There should be no guilt in wanting to have slimmer, sleeker gams!

What’s important is that you don’t obsess over not having stick-thin thighs. THAT’S the problem.

Getting rid of the thickness (excess fat) doesn’t mean getting twiggy legs. It means getting rid of the thickness (excess fat).

This article is about whether or not stationary bike workouts can actually tone down the thunder.

And the answer is YES – through a technique called HIIT: high intensity interval training.

• Perhaps you’ve heard of this before.
• Maybe you think it’s overly-hyped up and have thus never tried it.
• But it’s not a gimmick. Loads of science back up HIIT as a stellar fat burner.

HIIT on a stationary bike also goes by the name “sprint cycling.”

How does HIIT slim down thick thighs and tone their muscles via a stationary bike?

Stellar Fat Burner

HIIT is known for its ability to burn a significant amount of calories in a short period.

The intense bursts of exercise (e.g., pedaling) followed by short recovery periods keep the heart rate elevated and create an after-burn effect.

The after-burn is where the jackpot is.

This means your body continues to burn calories even after the workout has ended.

Not surprisingly, there’s a chemical-physiological explanation for why this happens and why it doesn’t happen with long-duration, fixed-pace cardio.

But I’m going to give it to you quite simply: HIIT thrashes your muscles. They’ll need lots of time after the workout to recover from this.

They’ll need fuel to recover. They’ll raid and plunder your fat deposits for that fuel – even while you’re sitting at your computer.

This accelerated calorie burn is key to reducing body fat.

When you burn more calories than you consume, you create a calorie deficit, which is essential for weight loss.

Thus, to optimize the results of HIIT, you must control your portion sizes!

Overeating after HIIT because of the after-burn is not how to get rid of excess fat.

Fat Loss

High intensity interval training is particularly effective for fat loss because it engages multiple muscle groups at once, increasing the overall intensity of the workout.

When cycling at high intensity on a stationary bike, you activate large muscles: glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings.

As your body burns calories to fuel this intense exercise, it taps into fat stores for energy.

While you can’t spot-reduce fat in specific areas, doing HIIT just twice a week can lead to overall fat loss, which will reduce the layer of fat between the skin and muscles of your thighs.

If your upper legs are disproportionately heavy, sprint cycling will definitely slash the fat in this area, while leaning you out all over.

Muscle Toning

While you’re burning fat, HIIT on a stationary bike also helps tone the muscles.

The repetitive cycling motion strengthens your leg muscles.

Over time, this results in tighter, more defined legs – replacing that soft puffy look with a firmer appearance.

Since muscle tissue burns more calories at rest than does fat tissue, building lean and sleek muscle through sprint cycling can help further accelerate fat loss, even at rest.

Boosting Metabolism

But in case you’re wondering just how it is that high intensity interval training causes your body to plunge into fat stores, it’s all about hormones.

To put it simply, HIIT increases the production of hormones (chemical messengers) that promote fat breakdown, such as lactate and human growth hormone.

HIIT is also known as “hormonal exercise.”

It changes the hormonal environment of your body, leading to a faster resting metabolic rate.

Time Efficiency

One of the biggest advantages of HIIT is its efficiency.

A short, intense session on the stationary bike — typically lasting 20 to 30 minutes excluding a five-minute warmup and cool-down — can provide greater fat burning than longer, moderate-intensity pedaling.

Moderate exertion of a sustained nature stimulates production of the hormone cortisol (the “stress” hormone).

This hormone is no good for fat loss and can actually contribute to belly fat under certain circumstances.

But this moderate intensity, which can be sustained at a fixed pace (give or take some small fluctuations), isn’t vigorous enough to incite elevated production of the fat burning hormones.

Light intensity pedaling isn’t active enough to stimulate cortisol. That sounds like good news.

But, light intensity — like medium intensity — also isn’t vigorous enough to unleash the fat burning hormones!

Now … HIIT, like moderate intensity, stimulates production of cortisol.

However, unlike moderate exercise, HIIT unleashes fat burning hormones that counteract the cortisol!

Isn’t that wonderful? So with HIIT, you don’t need to worry about cortisol running amuck in your body, because the “anabolic” hormones will snuff it out.

The net result is an accelerated fat-burning effect all throughout your body – without any stress hormone elevation.

HIIT Sample Session on a Stationary Bike

Here’s a HIIT sample session on a stationary bike with a 30-second work interval and a one-minute rest interval for a total time of 20 minutes.

Warm up with a light resistance and easy pace to gradually increase your heart rate and prepare your muscles.

For the actual workout, you’ll alternate between 30 seconds of high-intensity work and one minute of lower-intensity recovery.

During the work intervals, push yourself to pedal as hard and as fast as possible.

You should be nearly breathless after 30 seconds. And I mean nearly breathless.

During the rest intervals of one minute, decrease your speed and resistance to allow your body to feel recovered enough to resume the 30 second sprint after just one minute.

• So it’s 30 seconds on, one minute off, eight times total. This will take 16 minutes.

Cool down for one minute. You can take more time if desired.

Gradually let your heart rate return to normal while continuing to pedal at a relaxed pace.

The Remarkable Thing…

In this sample session, you’ll exert yourself for a total of only FOUR MINUTES (eight, 30 second sprints).

But don’t let that fool you into thinking that stationary bike HIIT won’t slim your thick thighs.

If you follow the protocol and really blast it out, you will feel pummeled by the time you complete only the fourth work interval.

If you don’t, this means you didn’t truly sprint it out with all your might for those 30 seconds. This is the only way to kick up those fat burning hormones for the after-burn!

Do HIIT cycling twice a week and be consistent, and you’ll see the thickness of your thighs dwindle down.

Whether or not to use a recumbant bike vs. upright bike is a matter of personal preference.

Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages and abilities for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health.

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Top image: Freepik