Have you ever watched the NHL draft combine when the do the fitness testing? Remember the part when the guys do a bike sprint for 30 seconds and are completely exhausted afterwards? This is the wingate test. It is used to measure peak anaerobic power.
It sounds easy enough, 30 seconds of bike sprinting. Where is the problem? The difficulty lies with the resistance and cadence you are expected to maintain throughout the test. The test measures how fast and how much you drop off from your peak anaerobic power. The goal of our workout today is to increase this peak power and duration you can maintain it.
How it works: You will do 4-5, thirty second ALL OUT sprints with heavy resistance. Technically, the resistance should be set at 7.5% of your body weight (eg. 7.5% x 185 lbs = 13.8 lbs of resistance). BUT, this measurement tends to change with age and with regular spin bikes this is almost impossible to gauge. So, the best thing to do is find a resistance level that is challenging you to the point that you may struggle to pedal during the last 5-7 seconds of the sprint. You should start the 30 second sprint by pedaling as fast as possible then quickly increasing the weight (mimicking the action of a weight being dropped). This tends to equate to about 2 or 3 complete turns of the resistance on a regular spin bike.
Overview: You will start off sprinting incredibly fast and by the end you will struggle to finish
Repeated Wingates
Do a regular warmup with some core exercises. Don’t over-exert yourself because the wingates are extremely challenging
Wingates
Warmup with a 5 minute moderate pace on the bike
Complete 1 rep of 30 second sprint with extremely high resistance (as mentioned above)
Remove all resistance, continue pedaling, and recover for 4.5 minutes
Repeat 4 times
Cool down with 5 minutes of biking.
Keep in mind that even professional athletes find this workout so difficult that they vomit after just ONE repetition of this test. So, if you have completed the 5 sprints and feel fine, you weren’t working hard enough. Jack up that resistance and battle through!