HONE FROM HOME
Indoor-cycling workouts are good for fitness, but by adding a few functional-strength drills into your at-home routine, you can transform your turbo trainer into a gym on wheels. From leg strength and core stability to explosive power and speed endurance, road cyclists need a broad spectrum of physical strengths. But not all of these strengths are addressed by traditional indoor-bike workouts. What you need are some dedicated on-bike strength sessions. You can build your glute strength with big-gear intervals, boost your hamstring power with high-cadence work and crank up your fast-twitch muscle fibres with acceleration efforts. Sprinkle a few cycling-specific core and upper-body drills into your indoor rides and you can train your balance and control too, without going near a gym.
“Bringing some training indoors to work on specific physical adaptations will really elevate your training and provide the foundations for success,” says Chris Stanton, master trainer for Wattbike (wattbike.com). On-bike conditioning sessions will build your physical strength in a more functional, cycling-specific way, without adding unwanted muscle bulk, and you’ll boost your fitness too.
Read on to find out how to turn your indoor bike into a home gym, so you can pedal your way to a stronger all-round cycling performance.
