An air bike or an assault bike feels almost like a torture machine.
They’re widely used, particularly by rugby teams and CrossFit gyms, because they are seriously good at making you work hard and improve aerobic fitness.
If you haven’t come across an air bike before, it’s basically a stationary bike that has a fan attached to the pedals. As you pedal faster, the resistance from the fan increases.
It also has handles, so it challenges your coordination as you pull with your arms and push with your legs. That also means you get a big build-up of fatigue in your upper body as well as your lower body.
Doing a lengthy session on a machine built in this way is as mentally demanding as it is physically challenging and there are several workouts you can use to not only break up the work so it isn’t as monotonous but also challenge your body to work at higher intensities.
Here are six air bike workouts you can use to improve your fitness.
Death By Assault Bike
Every minute on the minute, make sure you hit your target then rest for the rest of the 60 seconds. Continue until failure.
Minute 1: 2 calories, Minute 2: 4 calories, Minute 3: 6 calories
10s Hard / 50s Easy
Sprint for 10 seconds, then follow it with 50 seconds easy. Do this for 10-20 minutes depending on your current fitness, excluding warm-up and cool-down.
1min On, 2mins Off
Try and burn as many calories as you can in a minute for 8-10 reps. You can choose whether to pedal slowly for the recovery or take it as a complete rest.
Pyramid
The reps get longer as you go on, but they’ll get easier again once you make it halfway.
10 seconds sprint, 50 seconds easy. 20 seconds sprint, 40 seconds easy. 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds easy. 40 seconds sprint, 20 seconds easy. 50 seconds sprint, 10 seconds easy. Then work your way back down.
200 Calories For Time
This one’s simple but painful. After a warm-up, get through 200 calories as quickly as you can. It’s designed to bring out your competitive side.
Push-Pull
Complete 10 rounds for time of 10 calories on the assault bike followed by 10 push-ups. The push-ups will get seriously tough by the end.
