Cycling outdoors is wonderful but sometimes the weather, traffic and time constraints can make indoor cycling a more appealing prospect.
We’ve rounded up 5 of the best indoor cycling resources to make the inevitably gruelling workout that little bit more bearable! So get our your turbo trainer, put on your Lycra, and prepare to get sweaty.
These videos are a great starting point for your indoor cycling adventures. They introduce vital concepts such as keeping motivated, warm ups and warm downs, setting goals, training zones, cadence, strength, power and more.
BikeRadar have a Youtube channel with some tutorial videos that we can recommend.
Once you’ve got the basics down you can get riding, although sitting alone on a turbo trainer in your garage can feel a little bit bleak. To spice things up a bit you can get videos of real life spin classes where the instructor will shout encouragement (or abuse, depending how Masochistic you’re feeling).
The Global Cycling Network’s Youtube channel has some great spin class videos, like the one below:
If a spin class doesn’t tickle your fancy and you just can’t put the great outdoors out of your mind, there are plenty of training videos that give you the views of the outside world without the bad bits.
These range from GoPro footage of rides that you can ride along to, to specially curated routes that give you cues to adjust speed and cadence.
They have the added benefit of being filmed all over the world and encompassing all sorts of elevation profiles, so there’s likely to be something that fits well with your goals!
There are hundreds to choose from. Some recommended channels are CTXC, TurboTripping, and Indoor Cycling Videos. Below you can see one of CTXC’s videos which gives you riding prompts:
This is a cycling simulator that works with any cycling trainer or stationary bike, and which can recreate any cycling route on the planet in 3D (complete with realtime weather and daylight simulations). It’s quite amazing to see!
This goofily narrated video introduces it perfectly:
Zwift is another cycling simulator develops the concepts introduced by BKool. We’ll be honest: when we saw it, it blew our minds slightly! The nifty software acts simultaneously as a training arena, a social network connecting you with real cyclists around the world, and a record of your accomplishments. Just hook it up to your turbo trainer and plug in the compatible devices, and you’re transported to a virtual world filled with cyclists.
Again, their video sums it up perfectly:
Zwift fans say that it makes indoor training less of a daunting prospect. A reviewer over at Inner Ring said that “normally it didn’t take much of an excuse to end an indoor session before (“maybe I could iron some t-shirts?“; “surely the freezer needs defrosting?“) but with Zwift you often keep going in order to finish a lap, go up another level or show that wheel-sucker who’s boss”.
The concept this reviewer touches on – gamification – is definitely something that helps you stay motivated when training indoors. Incremental rewards – a high score, a new record, etc – make it that much harder for your attention to drift elsewhere.
What are your favourite indoor cycling resources? Do you have any especially good tips, tricks or recommendations? Let us know below!
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