The eSpinner is a spin bike that comes with preloaded workout videos, or you can watch tv or listen to you ipod. It's basically like taking a spinning class by yourself. They filed a bunch of 3-5 minute clips and depending on the parameters you input in the beginning they string together several of the videos to fit the desired time and type of workout. For today's workout, I selected interval training, 25-30 minutes, and level 4 out of 5 in difficulty. I also input that I am male, aged 29 and 166 lbs. They did not let me move my max heart rate above 191 (they clearly used the guidelines of 220-age).
Sadly, my chest strap was not recognized by this machine. It says it is supposed to work with a chest strap, but I guess only certain ones are compatible. I will have to research this more. It gives you a cadence (rpm) range you should be in for each part of the workout and shows where you heart rate should fall in. Since I had my watch going, I used my watch to guide me. I figured that heart rate is better than speed for goals, although I did try to make both work to the best of my ability. At times my heart rate was too high to keep going at the speeds the machine was recommending, and so I either had to slow down or cut down the resistance. Obviously resistance levels on any spinner are decided by the user, but the cadence and heart rate guidelines will keep you honest.
The total routine the machine selected for me was 26:21. I started my watch and noticed that during the first 3 minutes or so (the warmup video), the machine wasn't counting calories. I therefore turned my watch off and restarted it when the actual workout started and the machine did start counting calories.
Avg HR =143 bpm
Peak HR = 168 bpm
K Burned (watch) = 332
K Burned (machine) = 273
Time (of counting calories) = 22:55
Distance = 7.7 miles
Avg Cadence = 66
By now, I am not surprised my watch came in high on calories burned. However, at times when my heart rate was in the 160's I slowed down below the recommended cadence, and the machine's calories counter barely budged. Had it read my chest strap it would have known I was still working hard, but since it couldn't it probably assumed I was going slow and my heart rate was too low.
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