How Indoor Cycling Benefits Your Performance, Training, & Goals

Indoor cycling benefits your fitness, cycling performance, and offers workouts that you can’t replicate out on the road. With tailored data to harness your pedalling, power, and technique, indoor cycling training can support every aspect of your fitness journey. Our expert guide pedals you through the benefits to your health, training, and the best ways to see results.

Table of Contents:

• 5 Benefits of Indoor Cycling
• 5 Indoor Smart Bike Benefits
• Workouts to Benefit your Indoor Cycling
• How Training Apps Can Benefit Indoor Cycling

5 Benefits of Indoor Cycling

Indoor cycling benefits your fitness training, ability to harness cycling data, and removes some of the hassle of outdoor cycling.Indoor bike trainers offer the opportunity to use your time dedicated to improvements where every pedal stroke counts. Whether you’re anindoor cycling beginner or an experienced cyclist with thousands of miles under your belt, you can see the benefits of indoor cycling:

1. Train All Year Round

One of the core benefits of indoor cycling is of course the fact that no matter the weather, you can still complete a session. Gone are the days of waiting out the rain, avoiding slippery roads and cold, numb fingers. Indoor cycling benefits your effectivewinter training plan, so you can still get your miles in during the off-season.

Not only that, but you can betterplan your training around your busy schedule because your indoor bike is always there. Don’t have time for the gym? Don’t have time to plan an outdoor route? No stress! A short session on your indoor bike benefits your fitness more than missing out on your exercise for the day. With every pedal stroke counting towards your targets, you can still see improvements when you fit in a workout around school drop-off or a day packed with meetings.

2. Health & Fitness

It’s no secret that cycling is good for you, and indoor cycling benefits your health in the same ways. Supporting your physical health throughdedicated cycling training plans and workouts is a key aspect of overall health.

Cycling can support your mental health by providing time for yourself, improving your relationship with your breathing, and helping to reduce stress hormones. Indoor cycling benefits these areas too, and can support you in your health journey by helping you stick to positive habits. Not only that, butcycling strengthens the immune system by maintaining a healthy number of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). Therefore, indoor cycling benefits your whole body, and can help to keep you free from getting sick.

Staying active, and spending time focused on your endurance, can improve how effectively your body uses oxygen to supply your muscles. Wattbike makes it easy to check your health with ourCRF health assessment which measures your cardiorespiratory fitness.

3. Convenient & Efficient

One of the most essential indoor cycling benefits is the convenience it offers. You no longer have to plan your route around the aspect you want to improve. Whencomparing indoor with outdoor cycling: indoor cycling removes the pain of a puncture, and you wave goodbye to waiting at lights and looking out for traffic. Ultimately, saving you time in the long run. The benefits of indoor cycling is that every session brings you closer to your goals.Coach Matt Rowe, of Rowe & King, suggests that an hour indoors “is worth at least 1.5 hours, if not more on the road”.

Not only convenient, but indoor cycling benefits the versatility you’re looking for from your indoor training. With different types ofcycling workouts to try, whether a more intense sprint, or an endurance ride, the options are endless. Whereas out on the road, you will have to be more prepared in order to find a route which allows you to tackle these areas. Not only that, but training indoors will help you see these gains when you do want to set off on an outdoor ride.

4. Prepare for Cycling Events

An experienced cyclist or not, completing asportive may be on your list offitness resolutions for the year. Indoor cycling can benefit your plan by providing the opportunity to train specific aspects of preparing for competing. You don’t have to find appropriate outdoor routes that replicate the conditions of your chosen sportive, instead you cantrain for a sportive from home.

If your chosen event contains a battle of elevations, you canimprove your cycling climbing with an indoor bike trainer. If your route is a test of endurance, you can focus on that goal with longer indoor rides. Ifcompleting time trials, improving speed and distance are your aim, then an indoor bike trainer can help youimprove speed during a time trial. There is no end to the benefits of indoor training in supporting you to complete your goals.

5. Healthy Weight Management Support

Indoor cycling benefits your health and fitness through its offer of effective training. Another element of that may be weight management. With an indoor trainer you can findsessions to manage weight healthily, used most effectively as part of your dedicated training plan.

Indoor cycling helps to burn calories, and how much you burn will depend on how intense a workout you complete. The more intensely you cycle, or the longer you are riding for, the more calories you will burn.High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is one of the most effective methods to see this benefit. Whilst effective at burning calories, cycling alone is not the solution. You need to prioritisewhat to eat after cycling to support recovery and a healthy lifestyle.

Indoor cycling benefits your weight loss journey because your indoor bike is there in your home, a physical reminder of your dedication to train, and is ready when you need to workout.

5 Indoor Smart Bike Benefits

With all of the benefits of indoor cycling to take advantage of, you need the right indoor trainer with which to do it. With theWattbike Atom smart bike, you can harness every aspect of indoor training and reach your goals. The indoor cycling benefits of this unparalleled smart bike are:

1. Remove the hassle of a turbo - Smart bikes are unrivalled when it comes to indoor training benefits. No more fiddling when connecting your road bike to yourturbo trainer, and say goodbye to the added cleaning or risk of potential damage. When you’re weighing up between asmart bike or turbo trainer, the smart bike is the obvious choice - and many who have one, end upupgrading from a turbo trainer. What’s more, your road bike is still ready for when you do want to spend some time outdoors.
2. Data accuracy - TheWattbike Hub connects with your trainer to see how you’re getting on. With ourunparalleled cycling data, every revolution is counted on your smart bike. You can see a real-time record of your left and right legs,improve your pedalling and get to grips with your power output. No matter what type of session you’re after, the smart bike allows you to assess your performance to benefit your indoor cycling.
3. Quiet training - With the help of electromagnetic resistance, our smart bike stays quiet, offering the chance to train at any time. So no matter if you’re a night owl or an early riser, you can see those indoor cycling benefits any time of day.
4. Real-road feel - With the opportunity to select specific rides in the Hub app, andcustomise your virtual gearing, you can see the benefits of indoor cycling without feeling you’re missing out on the outdoors. Instant gear shifters and resistance adjustments means the Atom recreates the elevations and pedalling conditions required of you on your road bike.
5. The comfort of indoors - The Atom offers the benefits of road cycling with the added convenience of anindoor bike set-up. You can say goodbye to rainy rides, cold hands, and hazardous conditions. Instead, you’ll find your trainer ready and waiting, with minimal set up, and get pedalling in moments.

Indoor Cycling Workouts You Can’t Get on the Road

With theWattbike Hub cycling app, you can connect your trainer to adapt your training to all areas of your cycling. Whether you’re looking forsessions to improve your cycling performance or have more specific goals, Wattbike has the answer. Thanks to the versatility of workouts on offer, you can find the benefits of indoor cycling you can’t replicate on the road.

Endurance

If endurance is your target, but you don’t have the time to dedicate to a long day on your bike, then indoor cycling benefits this area of your training. In the Wattbike Hub there are dedicated sessions toimprove your endurance without having to plan a log route which hits all areas of your performance targets. With one of the benefits of indoor cycling being that indoor miles can count for more than outdoors, a shorter indoor workout may help you see more improvements than if you’d spent the day out on the road.

Climbs

While outdoor cycling offers the chance to climb impressive hills, with the bonus of a spectacular view, these might not always be within reachable distance. This is where indoor workouts can help. Whether you fancy trying theTour de France stages from your own home, or to simply find effective climbing workouts, you’ll find these in the Wattbike Hub, without leaving the house.

Cadence

Cadence is all about how many times you make a full pedal revolution each minute. Indoor cycling benefits include helping youimprove your cadence, because you can practise this aspect at any time. Whilst on-road cycling will require the right terrain to target this aspect of your training.

Speed

For those wanting to target their speed, you can unlock effectivesprint training with an indoor bike. While real-road terrain varies, your indoor setup is perfect for attacking your pedals and chasing down a sprint session. The sturdy design of the Atom provides the perfect place to put your all into a speed ride, with dedicated workouts on the Wattbike Hub, you’ll have everything you need.

VO2 Max

VO2 Max is a measure of your aerobic capacity, meaning how effectively your body can transport and use oxygen during exercise.Improving your VO2 Max is one way to support your performance gains. With Hub workouts catered to this very area, you can see real benefits of indoor cycling with each session.

You can even try theVO2 Ladder, created by the All Blacks, made up of 5 intervals to build your aerobic efficiency. Thanks to the data captured by the Wattbike Hub, you can see how hard you’re working in relation to yourFunctional Threshold Power as your pedal.

How Training Apps Can Benefit Indoor Cycling

You’ve got the right hardware to complete your indoor cycling goals with, but you also need the right tools to help you get there. Wattbike is also compatible withindoor training apps which can offer even more indoor cycling benefits. Feel connected to friends and training buddies while cycling indoors with the help of training apps:

• Zwift - Reach goals in a virtual world with an online community.
• TrainingPeaks - Find accredited coaches to support you through a fitness plan.
• TrainerRoad - Achieve your goals with personalised, AI-powered training.
• Rouvy - Complete realistic riding with augmented reality workouts.
• FulGaz - Pedal through real-world terrain with cutting edge coaching.
• Strava - Track, analyse and share your performance through the fitness app.

To make the most of the indoor cycling benefits of these apps, connect them with the Wattbike Hub. Your data is transferred to the hub after each ride, so every session counts towards your training.

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