Forget the clunky fan bikes of the past — today’s air bikes are sleek, heavy-duty machines built to push your limits. Models like the Assault Bike®, Echo Bike, and Airdyne Pro are designed for serious performance, with oversized fans, sturdy frames, and digital consoles that track every calorie burned.
And while “Assault bike” has become the catch-all term for any fan-resistance air bike, regardless of brand, one thing remains true: few machines can match its brutal efficiency.
By engaging both the upper and lower body simultaneously, air bikes provide a total-body cardio experience that builds endurance, burns fat, and challenges every energy system in your body.
If you’ve got access to one, it’s time to put it to work.
1. Best Air Bike Workout for Conditioning
Air bikes aren’t your average spin machines. Unlike spin bikes, where resistance stays fairly constant, air bikes fight back — the harder and faster you pedal, the more resistance they create.
That makes them ideal for developing strength, speed, and conditioning all at once. Research shows they’re particularly effective for improving anaerobic capacity, the ability to sustain short bursts of intense effort.
Push hard enough and you’ll feel that unmistakable “burn” — not from lactate itself, but from hydrogen ions that lower your muscle pH and cause that deep, searing fatigue. (1–4) Embrace it. It’s a sign you’re building serious conditioning capacity.
Modified Sprint Time-Trial Intervals
Inspired by a Danish study on elite endurance athletes, this workout challenges every major energy system — phosphagen, glycolytic, and aerobic — while remaining accessible for most trained individuals.
Start small and progressively build up volume month by month. Do this workout once or twice a week, ideally after resistance training or with at least six hours between sessions.
How to Do It:
- Warm up thoroughly.
- Perform three 5-minute intervals at the fastest pace you can maintain for the full duration.
- Rest 2 minutes between intervals.
- After your third recovery, complete five rounds of 15-second all-out sprints, followed by 45 seconds of easy pedaling.
Sets and Reps:
3 x 5 minutes (moderate) + 5 x 15 seconds (max effort)
Rest: 2 minutes between 5-minute sets; 45 seconds between sprints
2. Best Air Bike Workout for Fat Loss
Air bikes distribute the workload across both upper and lower body, making them one of the most joint-friendly and recoverable forms of cardio.
Unlike running or plyometrics, air bike workouts are concentric-only — your muscles contract to produce force but don’t lengthen under load. This drastically reduces muscle soreness (DOMS) while increasing the energy cost of the session. (6)
In short: you’ll burn more calories and recover faster.
Zone 2 Fat-Burning Ride
For a steady, fat-burning session that’s low-impact but effective, try a Zone 2 workout — 60–70% of your max heart rate.
To estimate this range:
- Max heart rate ≈ 220 – your age
- Zone 2 = 60–70% of that number
If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, ride at an intensity where you can breathe through your nose only. Once you have to open your mouth to breathe, back off slightly.
This workout keeps things engaging by using descending calorie targets rather than time.
How to Do It:
Warm up, then pedal with both arms and legs to burn:
- 120 calories
- 110 calories
- 100 calories
- 90 calories
- 80 calories
Try to complete each segment slightly faster than the last (“negative splits”).
Sets and Reps: 5 segments (120 → 80 calories)
Rest: 30 seconds between segments — either pedal gently or rest passively
Repeat 3–5 times per week, ideally after resistance training or several hours apart.
3. Best Air Bike Workout Finisher
A finisher is the perfect way to end a workout — short, intense, and guaranteed to leave you feeling like you gave it everything.
After lifting, your glycogen stores are already low, which makes this the perfect time for high-intensity intervals. Training in a “low glycogen” state teaches your muscles to store more energy and better handle metabolic stress over time. (2,7)
Sprint Interval “Finisher”
This EMOM (every minute on the minute) protocol trains all three energy systems — from explosive phosphagen power to anaerobic and aerobic endurance.
How to Do It:
- After your weight training, pedal lightly for 2 minutes to stay warm.
- Then, every minute on the minute, perform:
- 20 seconds all-out effort
- 40 seconds recovery (light pedaling or passive rest)
- Complete 5 total rounds, then finish with 2 minutes of easy pedaling.
Sets and Reps: 5 x 20-second max intervals (EMOM)
Rest: 40 seconds per minute
Bonus: Air Bike Warm-Up
A good warm-up prepares your joints, muscles, and cardiovascular system for the work ahead. Here’s a quick 8-minute sequence:
- Easy Ride: 3 minutes gentle pedaling
- Trunk Rotations: 20 total reps (10 per side) while seated
- Legs-Only Ride: 1 minute
- Arms-Only Ride: 1 minute
- Ramp-Up Series: Alternate 10 seconds each of easy, moderate, and hard effort; repeat 3 times
The Takeaway
The air bike is as simple as it is punishing — and that’s exactly what makes it so effective.
Use it for intense conditioning, fat loss, or as a powerful finisher after lifting. Its versatility, low-impact design, and ability to hit every energy system make it one of the best tools in the gym.
Just remember: the air bike never takes it easy on you. But if you stay consistent, it’ll pay you back with improved endurance, power, and next-level conditioning.
