Need a temporary programme

Fractured rib, can't do any upper body or running so I'm looking to maintain fitness and continue doing leg work until my rib is healed. I can't do weighted squats either (dumbell or barbell) pretty much anything where I need to support weight with my arms is out given that the rib is up around my chest. Three days per week, so I figure I need to jump on the bike but I haven't gpot a great deal of experience with pure cardio based stuff as I usually do tabata for cardio work. So can one of you fitness experts please help me with a programme I can work with until my rib is better?

Also I'll add that spedning an hour on the bike twice a week will be terribly boring so I'm really looking for a variation on that. If it must be done what's the best way to do it? Intervals etc?

Surely just following itchy's program in one of the threads should be enough

well if i am on an indoor trainer (ie bike hooked up to a magnetic trainer which provides resistance for the back wheel), i do a variation of things...ill change into a bigger gear every minute until i get into the biggest gear, then do the same backwards, and depending on how i feel will either go harder each higher gear change or try to keep same intensity. other options are 5 minute w/up, 20 minutes all out. just mix up the resistance (more resistance is not necessarily better) and the intensity.

Cross trainer bro. Don't put your hands up to swing them, but rather place your hands on the handles in the front, so your upper body remains static. Intervals of 30 seconds - eg, 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds rest. Do it for 20 minutes at the level 10. With bike, just put it on random mode (assuming you have something like LifeFitness bikes at the gym). Go for half hour @ level 12-14. It's enough to even give you a bit of power work out.

I'm no expert ... But if you go to a gym with group fitness maybe you could go to spin classes? I find the bike really boring but I enjoy Spin and you'll get the intervals and resistance (which you can crank up to make sure you're working hard).

Yeah do spin/ride classes Jono - those things smash you. They have them at our gym. Your injury sounds very restrictive bro and I don't really think any of us know that much about injury rehab to be able to offer very sound advice on how best to proceed.



gc.

Of course spin! Cheers for the suggestions.

not sure about spin if they make you do that retarded thing where you stand for 1 second, sit, then repeat...might not be good for your ribs. guess you could just sit the whole time...you can def get a good workout in spin.

to be honest i wouldn't be doing anything too intense with an injury like that...even the bike might be out to be honest. in fact i would prob only do very easy spinning - just get the legs moving. yahoo answers agrees with me:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080306131927AA6l8xF

How did you break your ribs?
And some of the stuff in this thread sounds a tad too rough ...