I’ve often written about how much I love the assault bike for hard crossfit workouts that increase endurance, improve lung health and burn fat. It doesn’t matter if it’s the echo bike, assault bike or air dyne, any variation is going to make you a fitter athlete.
Personally I feel that an AMRAP assault bike workout is the biggest bang for your buck. An AMRAP workout is as many rounds or reps as possible for a given time frame and adding the assault bike into your training can greatly increase the required cardio output. You work harder. In an AMRAP you’ll perform one set or a given number of reps before moving on to another movement.
Why does the assault bike work so efficiently? Because you’re using your arms and legs at the same time. As a result you improve your ability to handle the shuttle of lactic acid more efficiently. The issue with most crossfit athletes is that they burnout too quickly in one specific movement and can’t recover before moving onto the second movement. Their bodies get heavy as lactic acid accumulates.
Training with the assault bike helps you to operate at a higher heart rate for longer intensities.
These are my six favorite hard AMRAP assault bike workouts for crossfit.
“Dumbbell Downfall”
5 Rounds for Time
5 Man Makers (2×45/25 lb)
10 Dumbbell Lunges (2×45/25 lb)
15 Toes-to-Bars
20 calorie Assault Air Bike
One man maker consists of a dumbbell push-up, two renegade rows (one per arm), and a squat clean thruster.
One man maker consists of a dumbbell push-up, two renegade rows (one per arm), and a squat clean thruster.
“BlackJack”
AMRAP in 21 minutes
21 calorie Assault Air Bike
21 Kettlebell Swings (53/35 lb)
21 AbMat Sit-Ups
“The Hunt”
AMRAP in 12 minutes
3 Rounds of:
10 Toes-to-Bars
15 Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls (95/65 lb)
15 Push Presses (95/65 lb)
10 Bar-Over Burpees
Then, in remaining time:
Max Calorie Assault Air Bike
“Highway to Hell”
For Time
5 mile Assault Air Bike (in 2 minute max intervals)
After each 2-minute interval, if the 5-mile goal is not met, perform:
50 Air Squats
50 Push-Ups
50 AbMat Sit-Ups
“Assault Baseline”
For Time
60 calorie Assault Air Bike
50 Air Squats
40 AbMat Sit-Ups
30 Push-Ups
20 Pull-Ups
10 Burpees
“Caitlin”
For Time
2000 meter Row
120 Calorie Schwinn Air Bike
1 mile Run
If you consistently train with these hard assault bike workouts you’ll notice your Crossfit conditioning is going to improve fast.