Bike trainers are useful tools that everyone who owns a personal bike should have. Bikes can be easily attached to these trainers in order to exercise indoors, regardless of the weather and your physical shape.
Sometimes it seems easier to train indoors using a bike trainer, due to the flexibility it gives you. You can multi-task, you can watch your favorite TV show or talk to your family while exercising.
However, experts say that training passively, while paying attention to something else, isn’t going to help you achieve the best results.
There are many things you should focus on while riding. Your body posture, your breathing and the training itself are extremely important if you want to lose weight or be fit.
What are the best workouts for beginners?
Consider yourself a beginner if you haven’t trained in a very long time, if you are recovering from any kind of injury, if you haven’t cycled until now or if you rode your bike passively.
If you are a beginner, you should follow a few simple rules that will help you get the best out of your training session. Here are the 5 best workouts that you can consider if you are planning to use an indoor bike trainer.
Ride and watch – if you are used to indoor training, you don’t want to immediately change your routine. It might be traumatizing for your body. Here’s what you can do:
Watch a game and pedal normally. When your favorite team has an advantage (like the ball) pedal faster or increase the resistance of the trainer. When the other team gets it, slow down and pedal at a normal pace. Repeat for 30 minutes.
Start with the toughest exercise – beginners often avoid cycling because it seems too difficult. It is easy in the beginning but we all know that it gets harder as you continue to pedal. This exercise is meant to beat that idea.
Warm up for approximately 10 minutes. Then pedal at the toughest resistance for another 10 minutes. Take it slow for the next 2 and then continue to pedal at high resistance for 9 minutes. Rest for another 2 minutes by reducing the resistance. Finally, pedal at high resistance for 8 minutes.
4 on 1 – this workout requires your full attention, as you will have to carefully count down the seconds. Even so, once you get used to it, you will be able to do it while watching TV, too.
- 4-minute warm-up
- 60 seconds of fast pedaling
- 4-minute of slow pedaling
- 60 seconds of fast pedaling
- 4-minute of slow pedaling
Tempo intervals:
- Warm-up for 10 minutes
- Ride 8 minutes at high resistance
- Ride 4 minutes at low resistance
- Ride 8 minutes at high resistance
- Ride 4 minutes at low resistance
- Ride 8 minutes at high resistance
- Ride 4 minutes at low resistance
- Slow down until you are ready to jump off the bike
Stand-up intervals
- Warm-up for 10 minutes
- Ride seated for 5 minutes
- Ride standing for 3 minutes
- Ride seated for 4 minutes
- Ride standing for 2 minutes
- Ride seated for 1 minute
- Slow down and pedal at your own pace for another 10 minutes