The benefits of indoor training
Few athletes prefer training on a stationary bike, as opposed to being in the great outdoors with fresh air, hopefully, sunshine and continually changing scenery.
That said, stationary bike training has tremendous benefits that are proven to meet or even exceed our training requirements, all achieved without us even having to leave our house.
This scenario can be helpful for time-crunched athletes wishing to not only maintain, but increase their functional threshold, in snowy winter climates, in the off-season, or with family commitments.
For many of us who may be stuck in offices, or behind computers all day with time or environment challenges limiting our cycling time, stationary training is an efficient and time effective way to get in a highly focused session, without external factors like traffic, weather, road conditions, or any other obstacles preventing us from a specific session.
Regardless of the underlying reason, stationary training, if executed correctly, can meet or even surpass the physiological adaptations of riding outside.
I, for one, will be the first to admit that although I have, like many of you, spent far too many sessions in a variety of gyms, spinning classes, hotels and at home, on a variety of indoor trainers, I absolutely love cycling outside and reserve the indoor sessions for ‘emergencies’ only.
Depending upon where you live, the climate, traffic and road conditions, a good stationary set up with a well structured workout can really improvise or enable us to fit in a session, where it may otherwise have been impossible.
Many years ago, I lived in Singapore, a city of 5 million people, measuring roughly 50 km x 25 km.
In those days, I trained for multi-sport events where I needed to complete a 180 km bike, with a swim prior, and a run following. Unless I was on the bike before 5am, traffic in the latter stages of my ride was extremely dangerous to say the least.
I was fortunate to be trained by an Ironman World Champion, Scott Molina, who was known for his high volume approach to training.
I was putting in somewhere between 350 – 500 kms per week, which included a Saturday morning long-ride of 5-7 hours, a Sunday ride of 3-4 hours followed by a 45-75 minute run, and the rest of my weekly cycling sessions, usually 2 to 4 depending upon the week, were indoors on my stationary set up.
Although many pure cyclists far exceed this time in the saddle, combining that with extensive additional training for the 2 other sports, in addition to a 50 hour work week and marriage, was a master’s thesis in time and relationship management !
There is a wide variety of stationary cycling setups currently in use which also go by the names spinning, and turbo-training to name a few. Technology has improved dramatically over the past 20 years. I recall the days when Computrainer was the ’iPhone 14’ of home trainers, it took 15 minutes to calibrate prior to a 75-90 minute interval session !
Nowadays, we have a buffet of tech friendly turbos and spinning setups that we can link directly with our smartphones, music, training apps, etc.
Granted indoor training is not for everyone, we all have our individual preferences. The key is to fit in our training goals with what available time we have.
There are numerous other benefits to indoor cycling we have not yet covered, these include;
Bike prep – tire check, bidons, etc. all takes time prior.
Gear – depending on your cycling environment, this can take 5-15 minutes to get properly ready for an outdoor ride. Indoors, yes you may wear the same gear, if it was a summer ride outside.601
Post ride – we need to wash, degrease and lube a bike before the next ride. Many stationary bikes simply need a damp cloth, or disinfectant if a public set up and they are pretty much good to go.
Simplicity – we can basically jump on and ride a stationary set up anytime if at our home, garage or training ‘dungeon’ or cave.
Entertainment – depending on the training session, you can follow a movie, tv series, podcast, or blast your favorite concert !
Comfort – although I have done 90% of my 25 years of endurance sport training in +30 Celsius with high humidity, it is certainly more comfortable riding when it is warm and dry indoors or in a controlled environment, as opposed to freezing rain (or snow at times).
The disadvantages of training indoors
Although we have covered some of the many benefits of indoor training, there are some major disadvantages.
As cyclists, we know the importance of riding safely and essentially being ‘one’ with our bike.
Training indoors may provide the necessary training stimulus we require from a functional threshold / strength / fitness perspective, but it does not require any technical skill, hence our road skills may become rusty and require further refinement prior to races, especially technical courses.
Depending on how rusty we are, three to five long rides should refamiliarize most of us with a decent feel of the road again.
Skills such as handling cross winds, high grade inclines, technical descents and cornering all require utmost competence which is hard to replicate indoors.
Additionally, acclimatization is crucially important in a race environment, as is becoming comfortable with new gear, or fine tuning your position, especially in time trial events.
Indoor training programs are abundant these days and fully enable athletes to effectively increase their functional threshold with minimal outside riding and results that often far surpass what a cyclist felt she or he could achieve.
Frequency is key to improving.
Athletes that continually follow a well structured training plan will undoubtedly improve.
Sport specific strength is also optimized as all muscle groups used in cycling are loaded and strengthened during training.
Athletes who continually follow a well structured indoor training plan, although it may be considered boring to some, are virtually guaranteed to improve their power output and endurance as per the training program.
