The assault bike, also known as an air dyne or AB, has been around for the last 20 years of fitness. However in the last 10 years, the assault bike has risen to prominence due to the popularity of Crossfit and functional fitness style training. What makes the assault bike so special is the ability to use the upper body and lower body in unison to produce large quantities of force! It takes slightly less technique than say a rowing machine and can produce just as much, if not more, power over shorter distances.
Here at NRG we believe that the Assault Bike is a fantastic piece of equipment and one that anyone looking to burn fat, improve conditioning and/or performance should consider inserting into their workouts! In this piece we are going to look at three different workouts you should be doing and give you a quick insight into how they will feel!
Max Cal!
1 min on - 2 min off
7 rounds
This is all about going for broke, leaving nothing in the tank and pushing yourself. These three classic training phrases also mean just try your absolute hardest for a minute before you get a good two minutes of rest. If you really want to get the biggest benefit from this workout, you have to try your hardest in each interval and don’t try to save your energy for the final couple of rounds. If you think that this might be too difficult then you can always decrease the number of rounds you complete.
Top Tip: It is only a minute, dig in, you can finish it.
Ascending EMOM (+2 calories)
Min 1: 2 Cals
Min 2: 4 Cals
Min 3: 6 Cals
…………
Min 8: 16 Cals
So for those unfamiliar with Crossfit and programming terminology, an EMOM stands for Every Minute On (the) Minute. So when the minute strikes, you do an allotted amount of movements/reps etc. In this workout it is an ascending EMOM, so every minute, the amount of work increases. As you can see above, every minute you add two calories. Complete the two calories, then rest for the remainder of the minute, before completing four calories and so. You keep going until you cannot complete the allotted work in the minute.
Top Tip: Pace yourself! In the early rounds, aim to complete the work in 20/30 seconds to give you enough rest time. Once it gets tough, just go for it.
Sprint Ladder
Min 1: 10 second sprint - 50 second rest
Min 2: 20 second sprint - 40 second rest
Min 3: 30 second sprint - 30 second rest
Min 4: 40 second sprint - 20 second rest
Min 5: 50 second sprint - 10 second rest
Min 6: 40 second sprint - 20 second rest
Min 7: 30 second sprint - 30 second rest
Min 8: 20 second sprint - 40 second rest
Min 9: 10 second sprint - 50 second rest
This is a 10 minute workout which will get your lungs and legs absolutely firing. The workout starts easier, builds up before coming back down to an easier finish. Keep in mind in this workout, it is sprint intervals. 100% effort for short periods of time to produce as much velocity and power as possible! You haven’t got the rest that you have in the first workout, the short rests will test how quickly you can recover before applying full effort again! The middle block of the workout, minutes 4-7 is the toughest section, do you best to keep your power high and the body working together.
Top Tip: Completely rest, don’t active rest, allow the body to complete relax so you can focus on recovering your breathing and lowering your heart rate before the next sprint!
And that concludes our 3 assault bike workouts to fire up your engine, we hope you enjoyed it. Give the workout’s a go and let us know what you think. You may not hit the scores you thought you would get first time around but when you go to retest, you should have a better idea on what to expect! If you need help, you could also hire the help of a personal trainer or sports therapist to help take you through the workouts.