Burn Those Calories With This Intense Bike Workout
Cardio workouts are an essential part of any workout. It’s an excellent way to burn off extra calories and strengthen your cardiovascular system. It also helps make your strength workouts more effective and keeps your workouts from becoming boring by switching things up.
Exercise Goals
The goal of this workout is to stress your cardiovascular system. This should provide an experience similar to High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which is a style of training that burns a maximal amount of calories in the shortest amount of time. Your legs will likely feel very tired after completing this workout.
Tips Before the Workout
Make sure you complete a proper warm up before jumping into this workout. A good warm-up should consist of some stretching and/or foam rolling. After you complete a good warm-up, feel free to start the workout. Just keep in mind these few things:
- When the intensity says “High”, go as hard as you can for 2 minutes. Remember you cannot maximally sprint for 2 minutes so you will have to pace yourself just a bit, but the effort should be near maximal.
- When the intensity says “Low” you should be able to carry on a conversation, when the intensity says medium it should be hard for you to say a sentence.
- When the intensity says “High” you should only be able to say a word.
To adjust this workout for your skill level there are a few things to consider:
- For a Beginner user: Follow the workout as stated, you will just go a bit slower on your high intensity sections.
- For an Intermediate user: Follow the workout as stated; just increase your sprinting speeds and level of resistance on the bike.
- For an Advanced user: Follow the workout as stated and your sprinting speeds should be near maximal. Try not to rest during the whole circuit, and then repeat the workout 2 more times after 2 minutes of rest upon completion of each round.
Proper Forms To Remember For This Workout
When completing this workout, remember these proper forms and tips to prevent injury:
Bike
Recumbent bikes, or upright bikes, are fine to use for this workout, but if you use an upright bike be sure to stand up and pedal hard on your sprints. If using the recumbent bike, only adjust the level of resistance.
Stationary Lunges
Begin with a shoulder width stance, take an exaggerated step backwards. Slowly lower yourself by bending your front and back legs simultaneously. Once your rear knee gently touches the floor, stand back up bringing your rear foot back up to your original shoulder width stance, and then simply alternate legs.
Try to keep weight on your heel on your front foot when in the lunge. If the lunge is too difficult you can simply perform these next to an object you can grab onto to provide a little assistance on the way up with your arms.
Plank
Begin by lying on the floor. Put your forearms flat on the floor, keep your hands apart and get your elbows underneath your shoulders. Keeping your legs and core tight, pick up your hips. You should look like a straight line from your head to your feet. Don’t push your hips too high like an arch and don’t let your hips sag toward the floor.
Burpees
This movement is about efficiency and not as much about form. Many people will perform this movement safely with vast differences. With a Burpee you want to go from a standing position to a prone position (lying on your chest) back to a standing position. To do this efficiently you will kind of “flop” yourself to the floor using the least necessary control as to not hurt yourself or smash your face on the floor.
Once your chest touches the floor, immediately push yourself up and jump/walk your feet underneath you and stand back up with your feet leaving the floor at the standing position. That is one rep. A quick YouTube search will help you out if you are feeling confused.
Pushups
Begin lying on the floor. Put your hands just outside your shoulders and about nipple level. (Your forearm should be vertical). Tighten up your legs and core, and then push away from the floor. At the top push as far away from the floor as you can. (Think: flatten your back out). Slowly lower yourself back down and tap your chest to the floor and repeat. If this is too hard to do from your feet, simply leave your knees in contact with the floor.
Straight Arm Plank With Shoulder Taps
Put your hands flat on the floor, directly underneath your shoulders. You should look like a straight line from your head to your feet. Don’t push your hips too high (like an arch) and don’t let your hips sag toward the floor. Keeping your legs and core tight, pick up one hand and touch your opposite shoulder, return your hand back down and do the same with the other hand. Don’t let your hips move or tilt sideways. Keep your hips square to the floor.
The Exercise
Final Thoughts
Be sure to cool down and stretch after this workout to help reduce the effects of post-workout soreness. Because of all the biking and reps accrued, your lower body may feel extra fatigued, especially your quadriceps and glutes. This is normal. Be sure to log your speed and resistance used and simply repeat this workout in a week or two to see how much better you have gotten. Make sure you stretch, stay active, eat enough healthy food, hydrate, and sleep enough. All these factors will help you recover faster.