Is An Air Bike Better Than Cycling For Fitness Levels?

To anyone who loves cycling, summer can be a wonderful time. There are long, warm, sunny days to climb into the saddle and go for a long ride, as well as some big events. However, if your chief goal is to build muscles, an assault fitness air bike is much better.

Of course, there is no denying the extraordinary fitness of professional cyclists who take on gruelling challenges such as Le Tour de France, which is now underway. What is notable, however, is that those who do so do not look like bodybuilders, but very lean and thin.

Undoubtedly, those training for such events will spend a lot of time in the saddle and that may include a lot indoors on exercise bikes. They will also take care of their fitness in other ways with gym work and the right diet.

How Fit Are Elite Cyclists?

Indeed, their fitness levels are quite extraordinary compared to the average person:

• The average rider has five per cent body fat, compared with the 18-24 per cent of a typical male and 25-31 per cent of the average woman
• They exhibit a power-to-weight ratio of six watts per kg, which is exceptional
• They display greater cardiovascular capacity than average
• They can absorb more oxygen than most people
• Their capacity for recovery is greater, which is essential for endurance sports

Being able to build up to this level of fitness requires dedication, discipline and favourable genetics. But what if your goal is not to be the rider who reaches the Arc de Triomphe wearing a yellow jersey, but to build up your muscles more widely?

 

What Muscles Do Assault Bikes Build Up?

This is where using an assault fitness air bike can prove so invaluable. The reason for this is that while you will still be building up your leg muscles as you pedal, it is designed to provide more of a full-body workout.

Several major leg muscle benefits can accrue from using an assault bike, with the following muscles and tendons being strengthened substantially by regular use:

• The quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Calf muscles
• The glutes

However, an air bike is not just a stationary version of a bicycle. The fan creates air resistance, while the handlebars are moveable and it is by pushing and pulling these while battling against the wind direction that other muscles can be built up.

Among the upper body muscles that can be fortified through using the bike are:

• The deltoid shoulder muscles
• The pectoral (chest) muscles
• The Latissimus Dorsi and Rhomboid muscles in the back
• Biceps and triceps
• Core muscles

Quite simply, you won’t see Tour de France winners with big shoulders and bulging biceps. But using an assault fitness air bike can add these as well. In short, it is designed to create a different but more all-rounded muscular physique.

 

How Do You Get Started With Using An Assault Bike?

At the same time, it will achieve some of the same goals by increasing respiratory capacity, giving you great cardiovascular workouts and building up your endurance.

The key when using an air bike for the first time is to build it up gradually. Don’t try to go flat out right away, because the fan will blow harder the faster you pedal, so until you have built up your muscles, it could be quite exhausting to deal with high levels of resistance.

Over time, however, you will find you keep on building up the muscles. The principle is essentially the same as any exercise, such as using weights, where you gradually lift heavier loads and work your way up.

There are some other advantages over using an outdoor bike, too. Having an air bike in your home gym means you can use it in all weathers.

Consequently, you can enjoy using it in a shaded home setting rather than riding a bike outside in another sweltering summer heatwave. This is also good news if you have very fair skin, making you more prone to sunburn or, worst of all, hay fever.

At other times of year, you can enjoy using the assault bike during the colder months of the year, instead of trying to cycle in pouring rain, cold weather, mist or midwinter darkness.

This further attribute means that an assault bike can be one of the most invaluable things you can have in a home gym.

It might not be the tool to help you win a bike race, but that is not the aim, as it suits people who no more want a cyclist’s physique than they want Sir Bradley Wiggins’ sideburns. For all-round fitness and muscle building, it can prove to be one of the best things to invest in.