Assault Bike Shout Out

As my belly has gotten progressively bigger and bigger I have had to modify or take out certain exercises. Things like pull ups, sit ups, and box jumps got taken out pretty early on in my second trimester. I stopped doing heavy cleans and snatches once I felt like I had to pull around my belly. I stopped doing double-unders early in my third trimester along with heavy (over 80% of my maxes) barbell movements like deadlifts, front squats, and back squats. Shortly after that I had to say goodbye to the rower and lunges.

But through it all I have had "Old Reliable" by my side... my #AssaultBike . Now, now... I know that another favorite name for this device is the devil's tricycle and that most people do whatever they can to avoid it. But I have to say that especially since I have become quite limited in these last days of pregnancy (Yes! You heard me correctly! I am currently in my 39th week of pregnancy as I type this!), this has become one of my go to programming pieces. The Assault Bike (or the #RogueEchoBike) is awesome to implement into your training. Like intensity? Look no further. Adding in sprint intervals for calories, distance or time is guaranteed to light your legs and lungs on fire. Then again, sometimes there are days where training intensity isn't the right option, so just cruising at a moderate pace for 20-30 minutes will also get you a good sweat. I also like the option of being able to take my feet off the pedals and just hammer my upper body.

One of my favorite workouts that I did recently was a long burner, where you get to mix some intensity in but not blowing up. And you guessed it, about half the time is spent on the bike. Give this a try and tell me that it didn't do the trick ;)

6 rounds, 5 minutes each round

30 goblet squats [53/35# KB]

20 american kettlebell swings [53/35# KB]

10 strict pull ups

Rest of time spent on bike, score is total calories across all rounds

I'm not sure about the echo bike, but I know that the assault bike's screen/clock will not shut down for five minutes, so the best part about this is that you don't have to worry about reseting the bike or keeping track of your calories from the previous round(s).

Give this one a try and let me know how it goes! If you need scaling/modification ideas let me know - I would love to help you program some workouts that meet your needs but still hit the desired stimulus.

So let's stop hating on the bike! It has so many great qualities and just like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it, which means it might suck just a little bit less... maybe :)

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