Recumbent Spin Bike With Emulation Station

Low intensity cardio feels like a waste of time that you feel guilty about skipping. Playing old video games feels like a waste of time that you feel guilty for doing. Combine the two for healthy guilt-free indulgence. For this I used:

  • One cheap ebay spinbike, stripped of its seat, handlebars and dignity
  • One incline bench
  • One old PC
  • One old Playstation 3 controller with USB connector
  • Two sawhorses
  • One sheet of melamine (it could have been ply or osb or kitchen worktop)

I installed Lakka on a defunct 10 year old Dell laptop (though to be fair it has a 64 bit processor, I have had less luck with 32 bit). This allows you to play roms of old video games and drive all the menus with the controller. It’s better suited to easier games and easier pedaling but if you want to try to beat Battletoads while doing tabatas, I think you are very brave.

A proper recumbent bike would probably be better. Or you could attempt to do this sitting up. This is just what I could do without spending any money.