I would suggest a full bridge rectifier, followed by a capacitor and a ready-made DC-DC step-down (buck) circuit. You can find many that are about 20x35x10mm big and each one cost about 2-5 dollars, shipment from Hong-Kong included.

The advantage of these buck regulators is that they take from the source only the energy they need, wasting little in heat, and therefore the "load" on your legs is as low as you can possibly get.

Any other solution that involves resistors (like a Zener regulator, or a linear regulator) will be less efficient.

The different solutions listed here are explained in this answer to the question "How to convert 6V AC to 5V DC?": a technical version of this question.

I would suggest a full bridge rectifier, followed by a capacitor and a ready-made DC-DC step-down (buck) circuit. You can find many that are about 20x35x10mm big and each one cost about 2-5 dollars, shipment from Hong-Kong included.

The advantage of these buck regulators is that they take from the source only the energy they need, wasting little in heat, and therefore the "load" on your legs is as low as you can possibly get.

Any other solution that involves resistors (like a Zener regulator, or a linear regulator) will be less efficient.

The different solutions listed here are explained in this answer to the question "How to convert 6V AC to 5V DC?": a technical version of this question.

I would suggest a full bridge rectifier, followed by a capacitor and a ready-made DC-DC step-down (buck) circuit. You can find many that are about 20x35x10mm big and each one cost about 2-5 dollars, shipment from Hong-Kong included.

The advantage of these buck regulators is that they take from the source only the energy they need, wasting little in heat, and therefore the "load" on your legs is as low as you can possibly get.

Any other solution that involves resistors (like a Zener regulator, or a linear regulator) will be less efficient.

I would suggest a full bridge rectifier, followed by a capacitor and a ready-made DC-DC step-down (buck) circuit. You can find many that are about 20x35x10mm big and each one cost about 2-5 dollars, shipment from Hong-Kong included.

The advantage of these buck regulators is that they take from the source only the energy they need, wasting little in heat, and therefore the "load" on your legs is as low as you can possibly get.

Any other solution that involves resistors (like a Zener regulator, or a linear regulator) will be less efficient.

The different solutions listed here are explained in this answer to the question "How to convert 6V AC to 5V DC?": a technical version of this question.