There are five different hand positions on the bike, and trust me when I tell you that I’ve used them all, especially during crazy fat burn workouts. The goal is to trigger a huge calorie burn with 60 (!!!) eight-second all-out sprints from 17 to 25 minutes with a 12-second recovery time. It’s really hard and you need a very responsive exercise bike to do it! That’s when I stopped mocking Carol Bike in my head—when the program started warning me to skip a few sprints before I finished.
Carol Byck notes that REHIT is scientifically backed. Technically, it is. A small-scale study with 20 participants at the University of Western Colorado showed that, while calorie burn during riding is lower than during regular treadmill exercise, excess energy expenditure after exercise (EPOC) on the day Continues throughout.
Photo: Adrienne So
Carol Bike is not for dilettantes. It’s for people who are kind of psyched about exercising and are too worried if life circumstances force them to skip a day. With Carol Bike at my house, it didn’t matter if I left work at 4pm and planned to meet a friend at 5pm. I can still run uphill, do some leg work, put the heart rate monitor on my chest, do a REHIT workout, and run out the door 20 minutes later. There are even toe cages, so you don’t have to change your shoes into clip-ins and you can just hop into your van.
Bike’s workout program walks you through the workout, and one of the mantras that stuck with me was the bike’s reassurance, “Now you can workout because you want to, not because you have to.” I found this reminder very helpful. Now I don’t have to worry about getting runs. And Lifting/climbing/hiking with your dogs and kids. I can do both! I can do it all! Being a decent human being requires a minimal level of effort each day, and Carol Bike makes it possible to squeeze it all in.
After just two weeks on Carol, I’m starting to feel like I’m getting stronger. The Amazfit T-Rex 3 that I am currently testing has noted in my runs that my performance is improving. I smoked my friends on a recent hike with an elevation gain of 2,100 feet. (Please don’t let them read this! However, it’s true and I felt it.) More isn’t always better. Carol Byck, I’ll eat my words. And my writings.
