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Safe exercise at home
Start slowly, warm up and cool down for at least five minutes each, and stop and rest if you feel pain or tightness in your chest, short of breath or dizzy. That is the heart of healthdirect’s advice on cardio exercise, and cycling is one of the examples it gives.
General information, not medical advice. airbike.com.au is a guide published by Dotto. The health lines on this page follow healthdirect and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. For advice about your own health, talk to your doctor, or call healthdirect on 1800 022 222.
What the guidelines describe
The department publishes its physical activity guidelines as the 24-hour movement guidelines, and its pages set out what adults should aim for across a day and a week. They ask adults to be active on most days, and preferably every day, with a mix of activities at different intensities. The table puts the adult and older adult recommendations side by side, as at October 2026.
| Recommendation | Adults, 18 to 64 | Older adults, 65 and over |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity | 30 minutes or more on most days | 30 minutes or more on most days |
| Muscle-strengthening activity | 2 or more days a week | 2 or more days a week |
| Activity for mobility, balance and coordination (the department calls it functional activity) | 3 or more days a week | 3 or more days a week |
| Light-intensity activity | Several hours a day | Several hours a day |
| Sleep | 7 to 9 hours of good quality sleep, with regular bed and wake-up times | 7 to 8 hours of good quality sleep, with regular bed and wake-up times |
Both pages also ask you to keep sedentary time down and to break up long stretches of sitting as often as you can. They note that one activity can count toward more than one recommendation, and give climbing stairs as the example.
healthdirect describes the two intensities in plain terms. Moderate activity lifts your heart rate without leaving you breathless; vigorous activity lifts it and has you breathing heavily. It adds that several short bursts spread through the day can help you reach your goals.
Before the first ride
healthdirect suggests getting advice before you begin a new exercise program, from your doctor or another health professional. They can check whether the plan suits you, and that can help you avoid an injury. It says this matters most if you have a health condition or haven’t been active for a while. The guide When to check with a doctor goes through those moments in more detail.
If you don’t do much physical activity at the moment, healthdirect’s advice is to begin slowly and build up from there. Short-term and long-term goals can help you keep going, as long as they are reasonable ones.
Set the bike up
The mandatory standard for exercise cycles requires instructions with the bike, covering assembly (including fitting the guards), maintenance and the correct adjustment of the seat. healthdirect’s cycling page, written for bikes in general, links a few common aches to the way a bike is set up:
- Knees. Knee pain is a common cycling injury, sometimes called cyclist’s knee. Adjusting the saddle height, or having a professional set the bike up, can help prevent it.
- Hips. Repeated hip movement or a poor riding position can cause hip pain, and saddle height can help here too.
- Neck and back. Holding one position for a long time can bring on neck and back pain. healthdirect suggests stretching before each ride, and setting the handlebars at a height that stops you hunching over.
Warm up, ride, cool down
Warm up
Give it at least five minutes. healthdirect says a warm-up lets your heart ease into the exercise.
Ride at the effort you planned
Build intensity over time rather than all at once, working toward the level of activity recommended for you.
Cool down
Another five minutes at least, so your heart rate slows gently back to its normal pace.
Listen to the hurt
If an exercise hurts, healthdirect says to stop at once, rest, and speak with an exercise professional or a doctor so you don’t injure yourself.
healthdirect’s signs to stop
healthdirect’s advice is to stop exercising and rest, and to get help if you need it, “if you feel any pain or tightness in your chest, shortness of breath or dizziness”.
Chest pain can be a symptom of a heart attack. If your chest pain “is severe, gets worse or lasts longer than 10 minutes”, call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance.
Children and the bike
Product Safety Australia says older exercise bikes were usually chain-driven and used fan-style wheel spokes for resistance, and that both are major causes of injury. Children can catch fingers, feet or toes in the chain, the sprockets or the spokes. Modern designs have mostly moved on from that older layout.
The mandatory standard for exercise cycles requires guards that stop a child’s fingers reaching dangerous moving parts while the bike is running. Product Safety Australia’s advice for the home is short:
- never take the safety guards off
- store the bike away from young children
- keep young children away from a bike while someone is riding it.
Where to read more
The department publishes separate recommendations for older adults, people with chronic conditions, people with disability and pregnancy. For people with chronic conditions, its tips are to start slowly and build up where possible, and it notes that professional help may be needed.