I’m not sure that this isn’t going to cause some other issues at work, but a new under-desk cycling trainer is said to make it easy to stay fit or get into shape while you stare at spreadsheets all day. The Cycli pedaling trainer just sits on the floor under your desk and you pedal away to get the benefits of being active while still chained to your computer at work. Plus it adds in a social app & some gamification feature to get you competing with friends and coworkers over who can ride the most during their 40 hour desk job. Cycli is a Kickstarter project, so you will have to wait til it make it through the crowdfunding and production process to get in shape, but having blown past their funding target you could be pedaling at work by the end of the year…
Cycli is intended to be an affordable way to stay and shape for those of us who can’t always squeeze in extra time before or after work for proper training sessions on the bike. It is surely not going to replace more targeted training, and certainly isn’t going to improve your form or core stability on the bike, but if you work in an environment where you can get away with working up a sweat while sitting at the computer, it could work.
I personally can’t imagine pedaling in a typical office chair (I can only think about a lot of chafing), but I imagine if you get serious about using this there are probably some reasonable solutions to that problem. My other issue would be getting work done with an elevated heart rate?! Then again this is likely geared towards just improving activity levels, so you are likely to be working at lower endurance zone efforts and not doing threshold intervals at your desk.
The big selling point of Cycli is actually the social functionality. Paired with a iOS or Android mobile app, the Bluetooth enable trainer will enable you to compete against coworkers in the office or friends anywhere connected to the app. Stats to go head to head will include distance (rotations/pedal cycles) calories burned, and time pedaling.
The designers say that the Cycli’s frictionless variable-resistance magnetic resistance unit is so quiet that it shouldn’t distract either you or your coworkers, and since it is frictionless it should not generate any extra heat under your desk.
Curiously the trainer requires power to operate its tracking and app-connection functionality (instead of taking advantage of the energy you are producing by pedaling). It has an on-board li-po battery that run the electronics for several days at a time, and a wall plug for charging and wired operation.
The Cycli under desk trainer is 25″ x 12″ x 15″ tall and weighs 24lb. It uses a 46mm LCD touchscreen on the device to show performance metrics when not connected to a mobile device. A very few are left as part of an Early Bird special today for a pledge of $120, with the price bumping up to $170 this afternoon. Cycli’s crowdfunding preorder is only available in the US as they haven’t sorted out any international shipping, for now, and delivery is expected for December 2016.
