Benefits of Assault Bike Conditioning

As with any athlete-driven training regime, assault bike workout programs can be as hard or as easy as you make them. Yes, an assault bike is a pretty simple piece of equipment. But sometimes the simplest devices can be the most effective. This goes double for cardio equipment. Working hard on an assault bike can help you burn as many as 80 calories a minute. Several studies of well-trained Vs sedentary men have shown that crossfit assault bike workouts are the fastest way to improve your cardiovascular fitness.

Not enough? Let’s look in-depth at the benefits of using an assault bike to form the core of your non-rugby fitness program:

Maximises aerobic conditioning

Rugby places extreme stress on your cardiovascular system. The higher the level of rugby you play, the higher your VO2 Max will need to be if you want to keep up. It’s been understood since as far back as the early 1980s, that the assault air bike is the most effective way to build cardiovascular endurance. Israel and Hardison showed that an assault bike workout program provides …higher values for maximum oxygen consumption, maximum pulmonary ventilation, maximum oxygen pulse, and maximum heart rate during bicycle ergometry… than maximal arm work. The continuous motion of using an assault bike can greatly improve your cardio.

Superior full-body workout

Using an assault bike requires coordination of your entire body. While one arm is pushing, the other is pulling. And all the while, your legs are driving down as your foot extends towards the ground. This is completely unlike any other cardio machine at the gym. You can’t get the same full-body workout on an exercise bike, treadmill or stair-master. The assault bike provides a low-impact, full-body workout that is hard to beat.

Burns the most calories of any exercise

We mentioned earlier that you can burn as many as 80 calories per minute using an assault bike. While it’s not possible to maintain that level of energy consumption for very long, this should indicate what a massive load using an air bike will put on your oxidative energy system. There are few training techniques that can even come close to attack bike exercises for burning calories.

Tests your mental strength

Mental toughness is often a key factor that separates the good rugby players from the great ones. Most training sessions, whether on the field or in the gym incorporate an element of mental strength training. Because fan bike workouts are low-impact, they’re also low-risk in terms of injury. Knowing that you’re unlikely to get hurt means you can go harder physically, getting into a workout zone that will test your mental strength.

Ideal for rugby rehabilitation

If you’ve suffered an upper-body injury while playing rugby, an assault bike workout program can help you stay fit while you recover. The low-impact nature of the activity makes assault bikes ideal for players with shoulder or neck injuries.

Used by the world’s best

Assault bikes are the cardio training tool of choice for some of the world’s best rugby programs. In Australia, the Queensland Reds have an assault bike challenge where two athletes compete to see who can burn 40 calories the fastest. Here’s a couple of their guys throwing down: