Airbikes

Probably the best cardio machine ever invented

Those of you who have been following me a long time know I began prioritizing cardio back in 2020, and its been a journey of discovery ever since.

Thus I have a new recommendation for you all.

The past year ive become very keen on using "air bikes" for cardio.

I admit I am late to the party on this, as Crossfit popularised the Assault bike years ago, but Ive realized that airbikes are the greatest piece of cardiovascular equipment ever made.

Reason being, they can be used by ANYONE for total body sprinting, anaerobic conditioning, and they are zero impact, with a low learning curve, and all the data is provided for you on their display screens.

A beginner client could use, a high level athlete, a 70+ older person, it does not matter.

You want a higher VO2 Max? Airbike

Better overall cardio? Airbike

Want to do sprints but cant run? Airbike

Want to do HIIT cardio at home? Airbike

Want to work bother upper and lower body and build some muscle? Airbike

No worries about tearing a hamstring or needing to learn how to run or requiring a track or dealing with shinsplints or old injuries. An airbike negates all those issues.

What Kind of Cardio do you do exactly?

You have many options, but the basics is you can do aerobic cardio (pedaling at easy pace, Zone 2 or 3, 20-40 minutes), or you can do sprints, anywhere from 10 seconds to 60 seconds, and you can make your rest periods as long or short as desired.

Without getting into a long discussion on cardio and how it works, I recommend two simple High intensity workouts

Workout 1-Doing 10 sets of 10 second sprints, with 50 seconds rest in between

Workout 2-Doing 1 minute sprints, with 2 minutes rest inbetween, repeat this 6-8 times.

to track progress, you simply record watts or calories, and aim to improve each time by increasing total output

There are THREE Main Airbikes to choose from

Ive used all of these the past year (I have 3 different gym memberships, and each gym has airbikes). FYI, Ive used other brands, but these are the only ones worth looking at.

Fundamentally they are work the same, you are pedaling a rotating a fan which provides resistance. But they each feel a bit different with their resistance levels and comfort

1# Choice- Assault Bike-These are chain driven, and are my favorite by far. They have high initial resistance but allow for the highest possible RPMs. I have found the seat on these to be the most adjustable and comfortable

2# Choice- Rogue Echo-These are belt driven, and are a beefed up version of the Assault Bike. These have more even resistance due to the belt drive, but trying to hit 100RPM on these is a bit more challenging.

3. Airdyne Bike-These are the most expensive by far, costing upwards of $1000. Ironically they are the most fragile as well. But they have the highest level of resistance by far and doing anything intervals on these is pure brutality. These bikes have a cult following, but I dont see it as having any real advantage over the Assault or Echo.

My Professional Recommendation is the BASIC ASSAULT BIKE.

And fyi, that is 100% an affiliate link to Rogue.

The Assault bike used consistently will change your life, raise your VO2 max, lower resting heart rate, and can turn you into a cardio monster.

Also, dont make the mistake I did and get a Schwinn. The resistance level is fun, but despite being overbuilt they are a bitch to fix, hard to adjust pedals, and youre money would be better spent on one of the other two models.

Get the Assault Bike.

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Common Questions

I wanted to answer the main questions and clear up some uncertainties people had 

Why not just Sprint? Or ride a bike? Whats the advantage of the airbike? 

I realize if you have never used an airbike you probably dont understand how they work, Airbikes are called Airbikes because when you pedal there is active resistance on every stroke. The chain of the bike is powering a fan, and the harder you pedal, the more resistance you experience from the fan rotating. 

And its not only your lower body working, its your ENTIRE body, the handles are resisted as the same time. When you pedal had on an Airbike, its a total body resistance workout and cardio workout. 

Because of this, the total body power output, which can be measured as calorie burn or Watts, its FAR more than what you could achieve sprinting, or pedaling a regular bicycle. 

This makes airbikes the best tool in the world for anaerobic training.

FYI-Most people dont have Pro level bicycles and access to Hills

There were some smartass comments about "just buy a regular bike and pedal hills". 

These people are blocked for being fucktarded. Its not a reasonable recommendation to tell people to buy a pro cycling bike, and then find some hills, and then attach a device to measure wattage, and then standardize that workout week to week

Maybe Im being petty, but Im always amazed that chucklefucks who have clearly never trained anyone think their commentary is valid. Its not. 

The whole advantage to exercise equipment like an airbike is its convenience, universal usage, and standardization of performance that allows for real progress. 

FYI-This also applies to sprinting, 99.9999% of people are not Elite Sprinters

​Sprinting is great, dont get me wrong, but the suggestion to "just sprint" was laughable. Doing high intensity sprints even in trained athletes is high risk. High impact, high likelihood of injury, you'd need a track, and the equivalent workout (running 1/4 mile repeats with insufficient rest) would only be able to be done 1x a week at most. 

Sprinting has a learning curve, and sprinting is NOT done to lung burning fatigue if you are training it correctly. Sprinting is a skill. 

At the same time, it would be harder to measure and assess progress timing yourself even if you did attempt it. 

Contrast that to the bike, which is ZERO impact, can be done 3-4 times a week, the display screen shows all relevant metrics to track progress, and ANYONE can safely perform Airbike workouts, and it builds muscle at the same time. 

Now that weve cleared that up, which model of Bike do I recommend? 

I recommend the BASIC version. If you have a home gym, it will work great. Crossfit has used these for years and they are super resilient. These things are known to hold up for years, are easy to fix, and unless you've got someone pedaling on it every hour, theyre are never going to break down. 

However, IF you are well over 200+ pounds, and you're a strong guy that can push the output Hard, and plan on using it a lot and other people will be using it that are big guys (I know some of you are gym owners), Id recommend the "Pro" version.

Reason being, its HEAVIER. Its made with more metal and is more stable for larger people. 

Lets Finally Talk WORKOUTS, What WORKOUTS do I recommend

​Without turning this into a science lecture on cardio, I'd keep it simple. Do one of the following 

First Workout-Basic Zone 2 cardio-Simply pedal on it as a reasonable pace for 20-60 minutes. 

Second Workout-10 second Sprints-pedal as fast as you can for 10 seconds. Rest 50 seconds. Repeat this 10 times. This workout can be done by anyone and is a good intro to anaerobic training. Any level athlete can do this to train max power output. For a beginner client whose never done hard cardio, Id start them with this.

Third Workout-30 second Sprints-This is going to be more fatiguing. Sprint as fast as you can for 30 seconds, rest 1-2 minutes inbetween. Adjust based on your current level of cardio. If its youre first time, rest 2 minutes, if youre more fit, rest one minute. 

This workout would work for anyone that wants to improve cardiovascular health and has a cardio base. 

Fourth Workout-Devil Cardio-This is where it gets brutal. Thus why I call it Devils cardio. No matter how fit you are, you can push yourself into a Fugue state with these workouts. 

Sprint for ONE minute. Rest for ONE minute. Repeat 5-8 times. (the entire workout is 10-15 minutes) 

If youre NOT cardiovascularly fit, I suggest 2 minutes of rest instead.

This is the kind of cardio where you might "hit a wall" and gas out or vomit if you're never done anything like this before and youre deconditioned. Not for total beginners. 

Fifth Workout-​10 Minutes of Hell-Max calories for 10 minutes. Meaning pedal as fast as you can for 10 minutes and try not to die. The best athletes in the world can burn 200 calories in 10 minutes. Good luck to you. This is a "challenge" workout and not meant to be done daily. 

Finally, if you want to combine intervals and zone 2,

DO the intervals FIRST, when you are fresh. And then pedal at Zone 2 for however your heart and lunges desire

And Lastly, the FREQUENCY Question

For "optimal" health benefits, you could do any of the sprint workouts 3-4 times weekly. These could be the ONLY form of cardio you do, but you can of course do Zone 2 cardio daily as well. How much cardio you want to do is up to you. 

The Airbike could be your primary form of cardio, or be supplemental. Specific programming would depend on your program, goals, state of health. ​

Hopefully that answered all the relevant questions, 

If there is anything else, dont hesitate to reply

Talk again, 

Alexander

Any cardio questions, feel free to post in the comments