10 tips to make the most of your turbo trainer

Once the indoor trainer was seen as an instrument of torture, but armed with our turbo trainer tips, you can use it to prime you for your big rides.

The likes of Zwift and Rouvy have seen impressive uptake over the past few years, helped in no small part by lockdown, where sales went through the roof.

A couple years on and it’s clear that indoor training and gaming are here to stay.

This can only serve to help your cycling performance, according to Professor Daniel Mestre. Mestre and his team told 12 subjects to exercise on a static bike while first watching a cycle simulator, then doing the same but with added music.

Not only did the video feedback/music combo encourage the subjects to work harder, but they also kept going for longer.

A further study by Dr Jim Annesi showed ‘adherence’ to a 14-week training plan was greater in a virtual-reality bicycle group than a standard bicycle group. And with that academic endorsement, onto the turbo trainer tips…

10 indoor cycling tips for outdoor success

1. All the gear

To tap into online cycling games, you’ll need the basics of a bike, computer or smartphone, and a set of rollers or a turbo trainer.

It’s this last one where, increasingly, the magic happens, as smart trainers like those from Wahoo wirelessly sync to an app for terrain-specific, real-life-mimicking changes in resistance.

If you don’t have a smart trainer, an ANT+ or Bluetooth speed-cadence sensor should do the job.

2. Big-gut ride

You’ve signed up for Ironman Leeds 2025 and don’t think training indoors will help you refine your nutritional strategy? Fair point. No one wants to spend eight hours on a turbo slurping gels.

“Few people are going to ride 180km on a turbo, so you need to challenge your gut in different ways,” says sports nutrition scientist Asker Jeukendrup.

“Instead, ride a shorter session at a higher intensity and increase your carb intake by around 10% compared with your event nutrition plan.

“This’ll help train your gut to consume more carbs. Try this around 12 weeks before your big event.”

3. Sim or Erg?

The two most common ‘resistance modes’ for your smart trainer are Erg and Sim.

Sim mode is simulator mode and is used in all Zwift activities other than workouts. In this mode, an application like Zwift tries to replicate the feel of the VR environment via its resistance on your drivetrain.

Erg mode, on the other hand, enables you to hit and hold a pre-determined wattage, forcing you to work at a certain level. This is particularly useful for pacing.

4. Fan your furnace

Whichever gaming system you’re riiding to, our tip for staying cool on your turbo trainer is to use cooling fans to mimic the air chill you enjoy from outdoor training.

If you’re using just the one fan, choose one that’s at least 15 inches in diameter so you receive the air coverage needed.

It’s also worth the extra outlay for a remote-controlled fan to adjust speed as intensity rises.

5. Magical ride

High-tech prep isn’t the preserve of the pro cyclists. You too can tap into cutting-edge recce work, this time via the training app Rouvy.

You can tap into a number of real-life cycling courses, like Alpe d’Huez, which will not only pay off for fitness, but also as reconnaissance if you’re planning to race next year’s Alpe d’Huez Triathlon.

This turbo trainer tip helps you understand the physical and psychological demands of a course. You’ll need a smart trainer or respective sensors to harness this feature.

6. Find your FTP

An FTP (functional threshold power) test will help you to set your training zones and will pay off for subsequent efforts in Erg mode. Your FTP is your average power over an hour.

There are a couple of workouts on Zwift, the most popular of which is the ‘FTP Test’, which starts with a warm-up, a few intense efforts and a 5min moderate effort.

After a short rest, you perform a 20min maximum ride. Zwift then subtracts 5% from your average power during this test interval to extrapolate it for an hour.

For instance, if your average is 250 watts, your FTP would be 237.5 watts. Now you’re ready to train at different intensities for a variety of physiological and performance adaptations.

7. Fuel your effort

What should you drink and eat during your indoor session?

“If exercise is longer than 45mins or so, I’d advise a carbohydrate drink with some electrolytes, but the carbohydrate may be more important than the electrolytes,” says Jeukendrup.

“Interestingly, there’s plenty of information around electrolytes but not a huge amount of evidence. Yes, we lose them in sweat, but that doesn’t mean we need to replace them immediately during exercise.

“And not many people would spend that much time on a trainer that they’d develop an ‘electrolyte deficiency’.”

8. Charge up your cadence

Single-leg cycling drills improve your cadence pedalling technique, helping you to avoid fatigue.

Choose an easy gear that you can pedal with one leg. The other leg is unclipped and bent back to avoid the pedal hitting your shin. Cycle smoothly; don’t fall into the trap of a power on-and-off jagged cycling action.

Make big circles with your feet and experiment with dropping your heels when pushing down. Ride for 30mins as a 1min drill, 1min normal.

9. Keep it social

Use online communication tools such as Teams and FaceTime to add competition to your workouts. Race a friend head-to-head over a 10- or 25-mile time trial. Why not throw in a banging soundtrack for added enjoyment?

10. Make core the king

During the long daylight hours of summer, fitting in core work can be tricky. Not so much in winter. Turn a negative into a positive by paying more attention to this area.

The reasons are many: you’ll be able to maintain a more aerodynamic position for longer on the bike and you’ll maintain your posture when deep fatigue kicks in. Planks, side planks, press-ups and glute bridges are key to your core training.