What is the opinion of Reddit about the
MagneTrainer-ER Mini Exercise Bike Arm and Leg Exerciser?

A total of 7 reviews of this product on Reddit.

2 points

·

4th Sep 2018

It is a different work out, but it’s expensive. Basic department-store-build handcycles start at about $2,000. Enthusiast setups start at $4,000 and go up from there.

Other than using a different muscle group there are no benefits to handcycling over a normal bike. It’s heavier, more expensive, harder to transport, etc.

There are arm trainers that sit on a table top like this

1 point

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12th Dec 2019

I agree with other commenters that diet adjustment is a wildly effective way to lose weight. By strict portioning alone, zero exercise (I use a power wheelchair actually, so very sedentary) I lost about 30 pounds.

However, I also own a MagneTrainer-ER Mini Exercise Bike Arm and Leg Exerciser, which is conveniently available on Amazon, $159. Can be used with feet or hands, measures time and distance, estimates calories, super easy to adjust difficulty level. I have recently begun using mine again, purely for fitness. It’s honestly so much nicer to just put on a podcast and “go for a (semi-imaginary/stationary) evening bike ride” rather than “workout as hard as absolutely possible, feel miserable, and sweat to death.”

1 point

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20th Jul 2015

Para esse caso eu já vi quem usa uma mini exercise bike, que vem a pedaleira separada e sem o resto da bicicleta, a qual dá para se usar sentado em suas confortáveis cadeiras — essa é a melhor maneira de usar uma bicicleta ergométrica com o PC.

1 point

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20th Feb 2019

If you take off the bells and whistles, they’re all pretty much the same thing with varying methods of adding resistance. Currently I’ve got my eye on one on Amazon that’s about $160, plus $30-40 for the handles which replace the pedals. It doesn’t have much beyond a timer and a dial to increase or decrease resistance. The one you’re used to looks like it tracks your workout, maybe your vitals, how much energy expended, and possibly has an option to automatically change resistances so it seems like you’re going up and down hills. For my money, most of that stuff can either be figured out on my smartphone/manually or just ignored, so I’m fine with the sub $200 price for my setup (also, space being at a premium…).

I feel like your workout will be fairly cardio intensive either way, though the larger machines do have a few possible advantages. The biggest of which is that if you’re larger/stronger than most, the floor machine would be much more stable than a table top unit unless the latter is bolted down. Another possible advantage is that with the space and electrical usage, the floor machine may be able to take advantage of electromagnets to push resistances far beyond that of which a table model is capable (purely conjecture, I have no idea if any floor models use electromagnets or if they can crank them well beyond a table top model and am basing this on physics alone)

1 point

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24th May 2018

So, I have spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. Although recently, on a letter of medical necessity, I have a doctor classified my cerebral palsy as quadriplegic. So apparently, that’s a thing.

In any case, exercise is often a specter for me as well. I was recently placed on medication to manage blood pressure. It is a slight derivation from normal, but consistently elevated. The medication has managed it so far – but I do not want to be placed on additional medication, if I can help it.

All of this is to say that I went out and got myself an upper body ergometer. If that doesn’t sound familiar to you, it’s a fancy way of saying “arm bike.”

The specific version I got is wheelchair accessible. It is called the MagneTrainer.

With the wheelchair accessible stand, and the ergonomic handles – which you may or may not think about getting, as you seem to have hand involvement, more on this in a second – it comes to around $500. Which, admittedly, is not inexpensive. But, on the other hand, it is not nearly as expensive as some handicap specific exercise equipment can be.

And I can verify that it will give you an intense upper body workout. The first time I used it, I was a bit overzealous with the tension, and so afterwards, my upper body felt like so much beaten and raw meat. ��

But, back to the issue of your hand involvement. You might stick to the base handgrips, as they may be easier to grasp. Alternatively, I had a physical therapist once who liked to use UBEs with people who had cerebral palsy. And she had no compunctions physically strapping hands onto handlebars to support their limited abilities to grasp. So, it’s a thought.

Admittedly, I do not know your body. And so, your mileage may vary. However, it feels great to be able to do this kind of exercise. Of course, I would love to be able to do more. Swimming, as you say, is fantastic exercise. However, it also requires someone like me, and from the sounds of it, someone like you, to have people who can assist. Which unfortunately means being dependent on other people. Which can be frustrating, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

1 point

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28th Nov 2010

First off, let me start by saying that exercise is probably one of the best ways to take care of your body — it’s one of the best investments you can put into yourself. Sedentary living is one of the biggest health risks to US residents.

However, excercise is not a means to loose weight. Excercise will simply make you hungrier and give you a false impression of doing something healthy for you. That one hour jog you did on the treadmill seems impressive until you realize that you just barely expanded the energy provided by two cans of soda.

Another thing to keep in mind. All sorts of health factors like cholesterol and blood pressure will improve as you loose weight. So if you’re overweight and start on a diet, any diet (including the twinkie diet) that causes you to loose weight, all of your “indicators” will improve. However, as you approach your ideal weight, you may have to look more closely at factors like sodium intake.

The main point is that, in the pursuit of loosing weight, portion control, and more specifically, calorie count, is king. Consume less calories than you expend, and you will loose weight.

Your first step is to keep some sort of food journal to track your caloric intake. Sites like fitday.com and fatsecret.com (and to a lesser extent, weightwatchers.com) help you with this by maintaining nutrition information on popular foods. Plug in something like McDonald’s medium fries and it plugs in the calories for you. I’m not sure about fitday.com, but fatsecret (which is what I use) has an android app you can use to enter foodstuffs consumed. At a bare minimum, you can use a pen and paper to track your food + calorie consumption.

The fatsecret site has a calculator to determine your calorie expenditure based on height + weight. The default exercise is 16 hours resting and 8 hours sleeping. Put in two hours on the treadmill and subtract 2 hours from resting. Most people expend between 2000 and 2500 calories daily, so to loose weight, you want to go below that, say 1800.

Start by tracking your calories, then modify your diet to put you below it. You’ll be surprised how many calories some foods contain.

I’ve started a “soup diet” trend at work. Basically, find the healthiest soup you enjoy eating (for me, it’s the Campbell’s Select harvest chicken and brown rice), add some low-sodium crackers, and make that your meal.

For me, I found I’m very good during my workweek. I stick with the soup and something fast food during the day and keep around 1200 calories. Then on my transition day where I go from my nightshift to being off (and awake during the day), I tend to only sleep 4 hours and find I eat well over 2000 calories. The rest of the weekend is hit or miss, but I try to keep it around 1800. However, I find that I often still exceed the 2300 mark during my days off.

Also, you might want to google “the hacker’s diet”. It didn’t stick for me, but has a lot of good information.

tl;dr: excercise: good, portion/calorie control: essential to weight loss.

Another note: per your original question, others have mentioned the treadmill desk. Until I moved (and no longer have room for it) I used a mini-excercise bike so that I could pedal while on the computer. I had modified my chair to hold my keyboard higher than my knees would rise. Simpler people sit at an angle.

Another technique I use for recreational reading (not learning programming) is my droid-x and a treadmill. I read World War Z for 3 hours doing a brisk walk on a treadmill.