FITNESS & OUTDOORS

Want to melt fat and boost your fitness without anyone watching you? Claire Davies checks out the latest indoor exercise machine

Burn calories, blast fat and boost your cardio health, all in the privacy of your own home, with a new smart exercise bike

Okay, we know that spin class is brilliant for enhancing cardiovascular health, blasting fat and burning calories. But it can also be expensive, overcrowded and, well, incredibly public; some of us don’t like the thought of being eyeballed as we work ourselves into a puddle of sweat. The new Bkool Smart Bike, with automatic resistance control and access to instructor-led classes, sounds ideal for those who prefer cycling away the pounds in the privacy of their own home.

The Smart Bike (£1,249, store.bkool.com) works with the Bkool simulator, through which you can sign up to a range of indoor cycling classes or ride thousands of ‘real life’ routes (via the simulator’s 3D views and videos), participating in group challenges and velodrome events. Download the Bkool simulator and wirelessly pair the Smart Bike, then drop in on live classes or schedule a specific class to better suit your day.

Bkool has designed the Smart Bike to automatically adjust its 1,500 different levels of pedal resistance to best suit the effort level of your session. For example, making it realistically tough during elevation.

You can also control pedal resistance via the Bkool Remote Control app. A quick fitness test on the Smart Bike results in personalised resistance settings, which are automatically adapted as your fitness increases. You can even track stats onscreen, seeing real-time displays of power, heart rate, cadence, calories and more.