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Fitness
3 great indoor cycling workouts to try at home
Recently got yourself a turbo trainer? These sub-60 minute sessions from cycling coach Alan Milway will transform your training, boosting performance and technique in under an hour.
Indoor cycling is a very effective way to target fitness improvements and focus on specific areas of your fitness training.
With no external influences from weather, gradient, road conditions or traffic, sessions can be delivered very accurately, pinpointing the most effective wattages and efforts for the biggest improvements in fitness and conditioning. Time spent on an indoor bike can also be tailored to different areas of training, allowing for practical, efficient and worthwhile workouts, and removing possible junk miles from the equation.
The turbo trainers and bikes themselves have evolved to provide accurate wattage feedback too, linking with heart rate monitors to give improved feedback and accuracy of training sessions that can be downloaded, analysed, tracked and shared afterwards.
Not sure where to start when it comes to indoor cycling workouts though? Here, cycling coach Alan Milway shares three different sub-hour workouts that each target a specific area of your technique and performance, which when combined will lead to gains next time you head out on the bike...
1. FTP improver
Indoor cycling allows you to focus on training from start to finish
© Dave Mackison / Red Bull Content Pool
Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is a measure of endurance cycling performance, and essentially quantifies the effort you can sustain for an hour. Although most FTP tests don’t require an hour-long time trial to assess this, working on improving FTP translates very well to road cycling performance.
There are different ways to target improvements in FTP, but aiming to ride at ‘sweet spot’ intensity is a time-efficient session and a good starting point for most. To see noticeable improvements, it should be repeated 2-3 times a week. It can also be supplemented by a longer weekend ride at zone 2, (55-75% FTP), and this is an ideal way to improve aerobic endurance and FTP.
FTP indoor cycling workout
- 15mins warm up with gradual increase in effort
- 8mins @ 85% FTP
- 4mins recovery spin @ <55% FTP
- 8mins @ 85% FTP
- 4mins recovery spin @ <55% FTP
- 8mins @ 85% FTP
- 4mins recovery spin @ <55% FTP
- 8mins @ 85% FTP
- 4mins recovery spin @ <55% FTP
- 10mins cool down
2. Cadence crusher
Mastering your cadence is great for all sorts of racing, including CX
© Patrik Lundin / Red Bull Content Pool
Improving the efficiency of each pedal stroke will play a part in overall endurance performance and higher average cadences have been shown to reduce fatigue. A smooth stroke generates power throughout your pedal's rotation, as opposed to stomping on the pedals, which results in more fatigue in the legs and far less efficiency.
Generally, 60-70RPM is considered too low, and 85-90RPM is considered much more efficient. High RPM sessions aren’t about revving out at max sprint speed (unless you are training for BMX for example), but to improve higher cadence efforts over 90RPM.
Low cadence sessions (spinning at 50-60RPM) have their benefits too though, and can be used as a form of strength training on the bike.
If your cadence is an area that you need to improve, this session can be done once a week in combination with other sessions, or as a focussed block 2-3 times a week.
Cadence indoor cycling workout
- 10mins warm up
- 5mins @ 95RPM
- 3mins @ ‘normal’ cadence
- 5mins @ 95RPM
- 3mins @ ‘normal’ cadence
- 5mins @ 95RPM
- 3mins @ ‘normal’ cadence
- 5mins @ 95RPM
- 3mins @ ‘normal’ cadence
- 5mins cool down
3. Endurance builder
Indoor training is a great way to maintain your fitness over winter
© Dave Mackison
Endurance is obviously a key component to long events and rides and will determine success by the very fact you can continue to perform for sustained periods of time.
Generally, the longer the route, the more aerobic it is – requiring your body to utilise carbohydrate and fat as fuels and deliver energy in a sustainable way for hours.
Training for a long ride doesn't have to mean sitting in the saddle for hours on end though, and one method is to use a polarised approach – spending 80 percent of your riding time in a fully aerobic zone (75% FTP max) and then 20% of your time performing high intensity intervals (120%+ FTP). Short, sharp efforts for the 20% of training volume are very effectively trained indoors and form hard-but-short sessions.
These sessions can be done once or twice a week when balanced with longer, easier effort rides.
Endurance indoor training workout
- 15mins warm up, building effort gradually
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 30secs very hard effort (120%+ FTP)
- 15secs recovery (<55% FTP)
- 5mins cool down
