Bike indoor training program

Home Advice Buying Guides The best indoor cycling apps compared: which training app should you use? When you buy through links on our site we may earn an affiliate commission, but this never influences our opinion. Zwift has arguably done more than any other app to popularise virtual riding and racing. Zwift has a library of workouts and training plans, but you can also create your own. Zwift regularly introduces new map areas and routes.

The app also includes off-bike workouts. TrainerRoad is completely focused on training. RGT Cycling. Rouvy offers augmented-reality virtual riding, where your avatar rides on videos of real-life routes.

Bkool is now focused on indoor training software. Kinomap increases the resistance as the video takes you uphill. FulGaz uses POV video of iconic rides from around the world. Kinetic Fit has free and paid-for levels.

Kinetic Fit. You can get started with a few basic pieces of equipment, but there are other things that will greatly improve your indoor cycling experience, if your budget will stretch. Immediate Media. Simon von Bromley Social networks.

Daily Deals. Cycling Plus magazine Subscription offer! Subscribe now. After three weeks, try one of the more challenging variations. Allow one day of rest, cross-training, or easy riding between sessions.

Each workout includes a to minute warmup and a minute cooldown. The workouts below were designed for an indoor bike trainer, but you can also perform them on a standard Spin bike. Just adjust the resistance accordingly. This workout will improve your power and speed and help you recover from repeated hard efforts. For the fast pedal intervals, use an easy gear and as high of a cadence as possible, but keep your rate of perceived exertion RPE low: 5 out of Total time: 47 to 59 minutes.

This workout is designed to help you respond to attacks on hills. Stand and attack for the second intervals. Total time: 83 to 88 minutes. Make it harder: The main workout is 3 x 10 minutes total with second stand and attack intervals every 2 minutes. Motivational and instructional text is provided on-screen to help you stay focused and provide useful tips.

Following a plan is the optimum way of improving your fitness, and it removes the guesswork so all you have to do is concentrate on following the plan. If getting fit is your goal, TrainerRoad is a seriously compelling choice. TrainerRoad also has a calendar functionality that logs all your outdoor rides too and keeps track of your overall Training Stress Score. Tell me more: Sufferfest is one of the original training services that made riding indoors more appealing than staring at a wall or watching reruns of the Tour de France.

It combined actual real pro cycling racing footage with instructions telling you when to ride easy and when to attack! It might not provide a virtual world to cycle around, but the real pro race footage, music and storylines are very compelling and provide a great distraction and keep you pedalling hard.

The company has also developed what it calls Four-Dimensional Power, or 4DP for short, which it reckons goes beyond FTP in using four metrics to help personalise the workouts to your exact needs. And now, beside actual training, Sufferest is branching out by offering yoga, mental toughness and strength training programmes aimed at the needs of cyclists. Tell me more: The Bkool Simulator software provides real-life footage shot from a cyclists point of view or, more likely, a camera mounted on a car with a variety, of course, to choose from.

The harder you pedal, the faster the footage plays, and if you have a smart turbo, the resistance will vary with the gradient of the hill. It looks best if you've got a nice big telly set up in front of you, and a decent internet connection is also needed. You also have the choice of riding in a 3D world where you can race against rivals from around the world, and this appears to be the new focus for the Bkool Simulator, moving away from video to providing virtual options of all major climbs.

Tell me more: If you want to ride real roads then Rouvy focuses on reality, providing a staggering , miles of video routes from around the world. The videos have been filmed in 4K from a camera mounted to a bike and the footage is sped up or slowed down to match your actual performance.

Tell me more: Clearly inspired by the success and popularity of Zwift, RGT formerly Road Grand Tours is another online training platform that provides a 3D simulation of the real-world to cycle around. It provides amazingly detailed, with crisp, clear graphics that add to the realism, and you can tailor every aspect of your avatar and bike. No make-believe worlds here, instead you have accurate recreations of some of the most iconic climbs in the world, dubbed Real Roads.

RGT is intended to be a social platform providing multiplayer races and rides, allowing you to interact with other users via the mobile app. Racing is intended to be accurate, the simulator also takes drafting and peloton dynamics into consideration, so when you hit the front of the peloton you'll need to put out considerably more power than if you were in the pack.

The premium level gets you access to more Real Roads and RGT's full library of workouts, plus the ability to upload your own workouts and to create races and group rides. Like some other apps here, it provides high-quality films so you could ride anywhere from the Alps to the spring classics. Divided into two six-week blocks, this plan will develop your aerobic base fitness and muscular endurance. TrainerRoad has over 3, indoor cycling workouts ranging from recovery rides to race simulations and everything in between.

Most workouts feature coaching tips and workout instructions to help improve your pedaling, efficiency, and mindset. Each indoor cycling workout targets a specific fitness adaptation and a generally organized by power zone. TrainNow gives you the flexibility to complete structured training, when and how you want, with intelligently recommended workouts in three different categories—Endurance, Climbing, and Attacking.

Here are some examples of indoor cycling workouts. This short, four-minute workout is an introduction to riding on a smart trainer. Pettit is an hour-long endurance workout. It includes cadence drills and form sprints. Endurance workouts, like this one, are important in an indoor cycling training plan because they serve as a way to increase fat utilization and aerobic fitness with minimal needed recovery. Carson is a Sweet Spot workout designed to expand your aerobic base fitness and increase muscular endurance.

Sweet Spot workouts like this are vital for an indoor cycling training plan because they allow you to get faster in less time. Sweet Spot workouts are tough but doable, and require more recovery than an endurance workout. However, they need far less recovery time than a more intense Threshold or Sprint workout. Hubbard is a VO2 Max workout that improves your maximum aerobic power and the ability to repeatedly operate near it.

Workouts like these are included in indoor cycling training plans because they drive aerobic adaptations that increase your FTP. However, these workouts are tough and require a good amount of recovery.

As a result, they should only be done a few times a week at most. Training indoors offers tons of benefits in comparison to riding outside. Perhaps the biggest advantage to indoor training is the sheer efficiency. Training indoors means that you can precisely hit your power targets without wasting time waiting on traffic.

For many beginners, one of the most significant differences to indoor cycling workouts is constant pedaling. Typically, riding outdoors offers numerous small breaks from pedaling, but the pedals are always turning on the trainer. This can be a challenge to many beginners. Soon, constant pedaling will be a strength that transfers to performance outside. Before you get started with indoor training, you need some equipment first. At the very least, you need a bike, trainer, sensor, and a device to run the TrainerRoad app.

The choices for trainer and sensor will depend on your budget, but the good news is that there are plenty of options. The lowest cost option is to use VirtualPower with a trainer and a speed sensor. That way, you can get the benefits of power-based training without the cost of a power meter or a smart trainer. VirtualPower supports nearly every trainer on the market. The best indoor trainer for a mid-level budget is one of the trainers listed above and a power meter.

This is a lower-priced option if you already have a trainer. Buying both a trainer and power meter will cost more, but the versatility allows you to take your training outdoors with Outside Workouts. Here are our recommendations for mid-level power meters. For the best indoor trainer experience, a smart trainer is the way to go.