Assault Bike Workouts
Gyms all across the globe are seeing the benefit of assault bikes beyond just CrossFit. You’re seeing more professional athletes using them to get in high-intensity training, and professional trainers recommend them up and down to transform your body in no time. But we’re not just here for a PSA on how good they are, you know how good assault bikes are. Today we’re turning up the heat, and looking at these insane exercises you can do on your assault bike that bring you to the next level.
1. Ultimate EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute)
You may have heard about this method before or at least the ideology that a lot of workouts are based on. Assault bikes and exercise bikes are there for high-intensity workouts that test you, push you past your limits and so on. An ultimate EMOM, also known as a death by assault bike exercise, is a full measure of your stamina and ability.
Every minute on the minute, you need to complete a certain number of calorie burns. The goal of this isn’t to focus on losing weight, but to use the calorie burn as a marker for how intense you’re going with your workout. Think of each calorie as a point earned for performing your exercise with the best intensity rather than focus on this as a body fat torching workout.
Start out with the goal of burning two calories in your first minute. That’s fairly easy, you’ll move at a rather brisk pace, and then kick it up. Minute two will have a goal of four calories, and so on the trend goes. The point of this is to stop whenever you can’t go on. We don’t want you to drive yourself in major regretful fatigue, but you should be able to say, “Okay, that’s my limit for this run.”
2. Single Minute Max Cal Burns
This one is tough and tricky and might actually eat up your entire time spent on the assault bike for one given day. Doing this twice a week while focusing on other assault bike exercises can add some intensity to your normal workout, and help you see the limits you’re breaking through every time you put the pedal to the metal.
You’re going to spend sixty straight seconds going as hard as you can. We don’t want you to turn into an animal that forgets form and stability but to push the boundaries while still maintaining your composure. For those sixty seconds, use the LED or LCD screen on your assault bike to see how many calories you can lose in a single minute.
It’s time to rest. Take two minutes of zero movements in between these high-intensity intervals. Your heart rate is still elevated during those two minutes, so you won’t be undoing any of your hard work: you’re still burning calories, your muscles are still working. You’re going to do this for a total of seven sets, spending twenty-one minutes on the assault bike.
Understand the important distinction between high intensity and going beast mode here. If you’re stretching outside the boundaries of proper form, like making the bike rattle and shake uncontrollably just to get that extra calorie burned, you’re not going to be getting the full benefits. Try to beat your previous calorie maximum, and keep on trucking.
3. Push and Pull
Alright, guys, part of this takes you off the assault bike, but therein lies the challenge. You’re going to quite literally push yourself to the limits, and then hurdle right over them. Start off on your assault bike, give it thirty seconds going as intense as possible while still maintaining your form. Then you’re going to get nuts, look like the king of the gym, and hop off to do ten push-ups right next to the bike.
Hop back on the bike, give yourself fifteen seconds to rest, and repeat this process for five sets at the very least. If you find yourself superiorly skilled in doing push-ups quickly and in proper form, then you can always hop off the bike while the pedals are still whirring, perform your push-ups, and hop back on before the pedals stop. It’s a fun little way to challenge yourself, but don’t do it if it’s going to interfere with your form.
4. Catch 22
We all know what a catch 22 is, but we’re redefining it. This is a workout that we specifically challenges your stamina and your overall composition at the same time, so get ready. Hop on the assault bike, get your calorie counter going, and hit the HIIT regimen. You’re not going to stop until you hit 22 calories.
The fun part about this is that it’s challenging, and by the end, you’ve burned between 100 and 200 calories while actively engaging your body in a way that tests your physical capabilities. Time will fly, trust us.
But how many sets do you need? For beginners (and we say that word very lightly), try to do this for five sets. You want to take a one-minute rest in between each of these so you’re performing high-intensity interval training, and not just tiring yourself out completely.
Feeling a bit more hardcore? Aim for between ten and fifteen sets. For those of you who are bonkers as can be, total gym kings that refuse to quit, take the Gear Hungry Catch 22 Challenge and do 22 sets. That’s going to be an entire day’s assault bike workout, and be sure to take necessary breaks in between.
5. The Tabata
This one is built on a simple foundation, but that’s not what we’re going for here. You’re going to take the concept and intensify it. The idea is that you do twenty seconds of fairly moderate work, and take ten seconds to rest, then repeat it a total of eight times (on average). I say eight times because when you go to just about any gym, that’s the number that is going to be pre-programmed into most assault bike workouts in their screen setup.
But let’s kick it up a notch. Do HIIT bursts in those twenty seconds, definitely take that ten-second rest, and keep going. If you were to follow the standard and do this eight times, that’s only four minutes of training. You’re more intense than that, I’m more intense than that, so let’s double that time.
We want to do this for sixteen sets, equalling a total of eight minutes. I’m not going to recommend more than that because eventually you’re just going to be heating up your body and bringing on unwarranted fatigue. But there is an intense and bright side to this.
If you’re doing this often and find that there’s not as much sweat on your forehead when you’re done, work in a pyramid interval (which we’ll discuss in-depth in the next topic), and shave off one second of rest. Twenty seconds on, ten seconds off. Then twenty-one on, nine off. Do this until the rest is only five seconds, then pedal backward. Twenty-four on, six off, continue the pattern. It keeps everything fresh.
6. Pyramid Intervals
These derive from some tried and true running methods, but when applied to your assault bike, you really feel the burn. We’re going to aim for at least three sets of pyramid intervals. The idea is that, much like a pyramid, you’re going to start out on a narrow spectrum and gradually work your way towards a wider goal, so to speak.
For pyramid intervals, you’ll want to start with ten seconds of a full sprint on the bike. Really give it everything you’ve got, you’ll then take a fifty-second break. Sounds crazy, but press on. When that fifty-second break is done, you do twenty seconds of high intensity, forty seconds of a break.
You’re going to alternate like this until you get to fifty seconds of intensity, ten seconds of a break, then start all over again. High intensity, minimal impact, and a ton of core and leg muscle building motions to really show-off what you’ve done.
An alternate version of this exercise is that on the sixth minute when you would restart your cycle, you start scaling backward and go from a fifty/ten, to a forty/twenty, and so on until you’ve reached the beginning again. This takes a total of nine minutes, and is a great way to start out doing pyramid intervals if you’re new to them, but doesn’t offer the same intensity as our method here. Make sure you have proper workout clothes and start exercising today!
7. Six-Minute HIIT
We put this at the end because it’s a great way to wind down if you’re going hardcore on the assault bike. As you might imagine, you’re still adopting the principle of high-intensity interval training, but in a way that cools you off and relaxes your muscles a bit.
This takes a total of six minutes to complete. Simply start with a slow fifty seconds of moderate movement, with ten seconds of sprinting. The next minute, you’ll spend forty-nine seconds slow, and eleven seconds sprinting. End on a forty-five/fifteen interval to finish out your workout strong.
This exercise works extremely well to strengthen your joints, which can be especially helpful to those with rheumatoid arthritis or other problems with high impact workout methods. You’re going for intensity in a low impact way, keeping everything nice and mellow.
Lastly, if you’re still feeling a little revved-up, you can spend the seventh minute solely operating on a slow, calm and easy ride to help wind you down. I know that I get extremely pumped up and don’t want to stop when my body is starting to tell me otherwise, so this is a great way to get back in a clear headspace and not overexert yourself.
It’s Time to Take Point in the Assault
Hop between these different exercises, and in no time you’re going to bring your physique into an entirely different plane of existence. If you thought you plateaued at any point, our seven insane workouts are going to test that, and help push you further. You like to challenge yourself, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this: put on your CrossFit shoes, grab your duffel bag and hop in the car. Time’s wasting.
