By Paul Kendrick, Cardio & Endurance Editor · Updated 30 October 2026
An exercise bike with moving arms is any bike where the handles move as you pedal, so your upper body pushes and pulls while your legs turn the cranks. The most common version is the air bike (an Assault-style fan bike), but you'll also find dual-action upright bikes, seated recumbent cross trainers and small arm and leg pedallers. Adding your arms doesn't magically double calorie burn; what it does is spread the work across more muscle, which lets you work harder at the same perceived effort. That's a real benefit, and it matters more for some buyers than others.
These machines look similar in product photos but behave very differently once you sit on them. The resistance system, seat position and how the arms connect to the pedals decide who each one suits.
An air bike uses a large fan instead of a flywheel, and the handles are linked to the cranks so every push with one arm matches a drive with the opposite leg. Resistance comes from the air, which means it climbs steeply as you go faster: an easy spin feels light, while an all-out sprint gets savage within seconds. That self-regulating feel is why CrossFit and HIIT classes use them.
The Assault AirBike Classic is the reference point for this category, with a 25in steel fan and a 159kg user limit. Cheaper hybrids such as the ERGOLIFE air bike add magnetic resistance on top of the fan, which gives you a steadier, quieter option for longer sessions. Echelon and others sell similar fan bikes in the UK too.
The downsides are noise (the fan sounds like a jet engine at high effort), wind blowing at your legs, and a fairly basic saddle. They're excellent for intervals and decent for steady cardio, but nobody buys one because it's quiet.
These are standard upright bikes with handlebars that swing back and forth in sync with the pedals. They usually use a flywheel with friction or magnetic resistance rather than a fan, so they run quieter and the effort stays fixed at a given level rather than rising with speed.
You'll mostly find this design at the budget end, and quality varies widely. Many have short, wobbly arm levers and pivots that develop play over time. On the better ones, you can lock the handles in place so the bike works as a normal upright when you want a legs-only ride. If a listing doesn't say whether the arms can be locked, assume they can't.
A recumbent cross trainer puts you in a chair-style seat with a backrest. Your feet push on pedals or stepping plates, and long arm levers slide forward and back in a linked motion. Some use a circular pedal stroke, others a linear stepping movement (the NuStep style you'll see in hospital rehab gyms).
This is the type built for low impact and stability. Because you're fully supported, there's almost no balance demand and nothing loading your spine. Rehabilitation researchers use the total body recumbent stepper for fitness testing with people recovering from stroke, and one study found the test gave highly reliable results in both healthy adults and stroke rehab patients (the stroke group averaged 62). Home versions are big and pricey, so measure your room first.
If you're weighing this against a standard seated bike, our guide to recumbent bike benefits covers the seated position in more detail.
These combine an elliptical with a seat, so you can stand and stride like a cross trainer or sit down and pedal like a bike, with moving handles in both modes. The appeal is obvious: two machines in one footprint.
The catch is that they rarely do either job as well as a dedicated machine. The seated position is usually cramped because the seat has to clear the elliptical stride, and stride lengths tend to be short. Be careful with the label, too. "3-in-1" gets used loosely on Amazon; the Dripex 3-in-1 we reviewed, for example, is an elliptical and cardio climber hybrid with no seated bike mode at all. Read the listing photos, not the headline.
A pedal exerciser is a small unit with two pedals and a resistance dial. Put it on the floor and it's a mini bike; put it on a table and you can turn the pedals by hand for gentle arm work. It's cheap, quiet and useful for rehab or limited mobility.
What it isn't is a dual-action machine. A single unit can only work your arms or your legs, not both together, and the resistance is far too light to train fit people properly. Some buyers use two units at once, which works but is fiddly. See our best under desk bike picks if this is the route you want.
Marketing and physiology disagree here. Most listings imply the arms add a big slice of extra calorie burn, and the evidence says it's more subtle than that.
A study on the Airdyne (the classic fan bike that Assault-style bikes descend from) compared legs-only cycling with combined arm and leg work at the same power outputs. Oxygen uptake was only marginally higher with the arms involved, about 0.04 litres per minute, which is a tiny difference. But the effort felt easier with the arms helping, and at the same perceived exertion, oxygen uptake and heart rate were higher with arms and legs together (Hoffman et al., 1996).
The practical upshot: the arms don't make a given workload cost more energy, they make it feel easier. If you train by feel (and almost everyone does at home), that means you'll naturally ride at a higher workload on an air bike than on a legs-only bike, and you'll burn more as a result. If you just pedal along at a comfortable pace, the arms add very little.
There's a reality check from another lab study. Thirteen young adults used six indoor machines at fixed effort levels, and the treadmill produced the highest energy expenditure. The ski simulator, rower and stair stepper all beat both the Airdyne and a standard cycle ergometer, which the authors grouped together at the bottom (Zeni et al., 1996, JAMA). So moving arms don't turn a bike into the biggest calorie burner in the gym. Seated, non-weight-bearing exercise tends to burn less than weight-bearing exercise at the same effort, arms or no arms.
Our take on calorie claims
Ignore any listing that promises a fixed percentage of extra calories from the moving handles. The benefit is real but it comes from letting you work harder, not from the arms themselves. Use the arms with intent, push and pull rather than just holding on, and you'll see it.
The case is strongest for people who want cardio without impact but don't want their upper body sitting idle.
They suit cyclists less well. If you want to improve on the road, you need a bike that matches your riding position, and a dual-action upright or fan bike won't do that.
Fan resistance suits intervals and gives an unlimited top end, but it's loud. Magnetic resistance is quiet and lets you set a fixed level, which is better for steady sessions and early-morning use in a flat. Friction resistance is cheapest, noisiest over time and needs pads replacing eventually. A fan plus magnetic hybrid gives you both, at a price.
Grab the handles in a shop or study the photos closely. Long levers with sealed bearings feel smooth; short, thin levers on plastic bushes develop play quickly. A lockout or fixed set of handles is worth having so you can do legs-only work when your shoulders need a break.
Air bike saddles are notoriously hard, and a gel cover or a standard bike saddle swap is a common first upgrade. On recumbent machines, check the seat slides far enough for your leg length and, ideally, swivels for easier access. Look at the listed user height range and maximum user weight before anything else.
Air bikes take up about the same floor space as an upright bike but weigh a lot more, so transport wheels matter. Check the listed dimensions, since they vary by model. Recumbent cross trainers are bigger still. If space is tight, an under-desk pedaller or a compact air bike is the realistic choice.
Most consoles show time, distance, calories, watts and heart rate. Treat the calorie figure as a rough guide; consoles have no idea how hard your arms are working, and hand-grip pulse sensors become unreliable at higher effort. A Bluetooth chest strap is a better heart rate source.
Just holding the handles. If you let the arms drift along without pushing and pulling, you're riding a normal bike with a fancy handlebar. Drive the handles actively.
Going all out on day one with an air bike. The fan punishes enthusiasm. Start with steady efforts at a pace you could hold for 20 minutes, then add short sprints once you know how the bike responds.
Buying a 3-in-1 for the bike mode. If seated cycling is your main use, buy a dedicated bike. Hybrids compromise on seat position.
Expecting an under-desk pedaller to work arms and legs together. It can't.
A cross trainer also moves your arms and legs together, but you're standing and supporting your own body weight, which raises the energy cost and adds some balance work. A seated bike with moving arms takes that load off your joints and is easier to start on. We've compared the two in depth in cross trainer vs exercise bike. As a rough rule: if your joints are fine and you want the most work per minute, lean towards a cross trainer; if you want to sit, or need the support, pick a bike with moving arms.
They can, but not automatically. At the same power output, adding your arms barely changes how much oxygen you use. What changes is how hard it feels: lab work on an Airdyne found arm and leg pedalling felt easier than legs alone at the same watts, so you can push a higher workload before you hit the same level of effort. If you use that headroom, you burn more. If you pedal gently and let your arms come along for the ride, you won't.
It depends on the design. A fan bike with push-pull handles is usually called an air bike, fan bike or assault bike. An upright bike with handles linked to the pedals is sold as a dual-action bike. A seated machine with sliding arms and a stepping motion is a recumbent cross trainer or total body recumbent stepper, and a small unit you can turn by hand is a pedal exerciser or arm and leg pedaller.
It's one of the better choices. The seat has a backrest, you step on and off easily, and the arms let you keep your shoulders moving without any impact on your joints. The same style of machine is widely used in stroke and cardiac rehab. Look for a swivel seat, a low step-through frame and resistance that starts very light.
Yes, as long as you understand how the fan works. Resistance rises steeply the faster you pedal and push, so a gentle pace feels easy and a hard sprint becomes brutal very quickly. Beginners can ride one comfortably at a steady effort; the problem is that the seat and noise put some people off before they get going.
Yes. Put the pedal exerciser on a table, sit in front of it and turn the pedals with your hands. You'll get light shoulder and arm movement that suits rehab or limited mobility. You can't do arms and legs at once on a single unit, though, so it's not the same as a true dual-action machine.
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