Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

This workout creates significant grip and cardiovascular fatigue through continuous high-intensity intervals with minimal rest. The 10-second breaks are insufficient for recovery, forcing athletes to maintain near-maximal effort for 4+ minutes straight. Pull-ups become increasingly difficult as grip fails from bike sprints, and the short work periods demand immediate high power output. Most athletes will hit failure on pull-ups mid-workout despite the movements being individually manageable.

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): High-intensity intervals with pull-ups and bike calories will heavily tax upper body and leg muscular endurance with limited recovery.
• Speed (8/10): Extremely short work intervals with minimal rest require rapid transitions and maximum intensity cycling between movements.
• Endurance (7/10): Short intervals with minimal rest create significant cardiovascular demand, though the 1-minute rest between rounds provides some recovery.
• Power (6/10): 20-second intervals demand explosive output on the bike and dynamic pull-up movement, creating moderate power requirements.
• Strength (3/10): Pull-ups require relative bodyweight strength, but the interval format emphasizes strength endurance over maximal force production.
• Flexibility (3/10): Pull-ups demand shoulder mobility and bike requires basic hip flexion, but no extreme range of motion requirements.

Movements

• Air Bike
• Pull-Up

Benchmark Notes

This workout consists of 4 rounds of alternating 20-second intervals of bike calories and pull-ups with 10-second rests, plus 1-minute rest between rounds. Total work time is 320 seconds (5:20) with 160 seconds of actual work intervals. For bike calories, elite athletes can achieve 15-18 calories per 20 seconds when fresh, while recreational athletes manage 8-12 calories. Pull-ups in 20-second intervals range from 12-15 reps for elite to 5-8 for recreational when fresh. Fatigue accumulates significantly: Round 1 at baseline, Round 2 at 1.1x fatigue, Round 3 at 1.2x, Round 4 at 1.3x. The alternating pattern creates additional interference as grip fatigue from pull-ups affects bike performance and vice versa, adding approximately 10-15% degradation. Elite calculation: Round 1 (17 bike + 14 pull-ups = 31), Round 2 (15 bike + 12 pull-ups = 27), Round 3 (14 bike + 11 pull-ups = 25), Round 4 (13 bike + 10 pull-ups = 23). Total: 31+27+25+23 = 106 reps per movement pair × 2 = 212 total reps, then adding the second bike/pull-up pair brings elite to ~280 total reps. Recreational athletes would achieve roughly 40-45% of elite performance due to lower power output and faster fatigue accumulation, landing around 120-140 total reps. The benchmark spreads account for the high metabolic demand and grip-intensive nature of this interval workout.

Modality Profile

Two movements: Bike (monostructural cardio) and Pull-Up (bodyweight gymnastics). Equal 50/50 split between M and G modalities.