It's been a hectic few days here at Cycling Weekly, as we've handpicked the best Prime Day cycling deals.
I've had the challenge of hunting out the best exercise bike deals, and while I know that Amazon will have some decent discounts, I'll always check around to make sure they are the best exercise bikes to be had. Which is when I stumbled upon this...
Behold the LifeSpan Cycle Boxer - Upright Bike with Boxing Pad. It's not even on Amazon, I found this on Decathlon in the UK, but you can buy direct from LifeSpan elsewhere.
I laughed out loud initially, curious as to how on earth such a combination of two sports have been grafted together to become a single entity.
It's like a modern day taxidermist who's managed to stitch together the wrong creature, creating an entirely new, never been seen before species.
But then I remembered the drama that gripped the cycling world last year with the post-race punch up at US race, realising that the two sporting disciplines aren't perhaps quite so disparate I first thought.
Thinking about it, whenever tensions are fraught at a bike race, it can often lead to feisticuffs in the peloton with several famous cycling punch-ups coming to mind.
While violence in cycling is never something to be condoned, I've often taken to the bike when stressed or frustrated with things. Finding that after one or two pedal revolutions, troubles seem to melt away.
But could adding a new dimension of a punch bag help as an even bigger stress reliever?
If you've ever tried to spar, or just take on a punch bag, you'll have an appreciation as to how exhausted you can quickly feel, imagine this while riding a bike.
According to the brand, Cycle Boxer is an interactive workout, where, when combined with the Cycle Boxer App to download workouts, you will be guided through a training session of punches using a light up target pad.
At the same time as being scored for your glove accuracy, you'll simultaneously be measuring your cycling wattage and distance as well as your heart rate.
It's like an butch version of a dance mat, or an aggressive game of twister, depending on your dexterity.
The hand-eye coordination and cognitive processing under physical stress requirement can't be far off from what's required to gain a fighter jet pilot licence.
More likely, I'll just end up in a sweaty twisted heap of exercise bike and boxing gloves mess, but it sounds fun enough to really want to give it a go.
You could say it's an extreme way to hone the skill of multitasking, and arguably the desk bike is a somewhat more passive invention for the skill accreditation, but its no where near as much of a workout, and punching the living daylights out of a keyboard doesn't come anywhere near as stress reliving as a light up punchbag.
It may well be a novelty that quickly dies a death, which might be why it's currently on sale at Decathlon with 33% off, but looks way more entertaining than a spin class, and it might actually make me fitter and stronger along the way.
