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Effective Indoor Training

This article is about indoor cycling training and ways to make your training indoors as effective and positive as possible.

Cycling is an outdoor activity and, therefore, most of the training takes place outdoors as well. To be as good as you can possibly be and avoid injury and soreness, you’ll be doing strength training, cross training and circuit training.

Indoor CyclingAlthough the ideal place for this training is outdoors because that’s where you’ll be doing your riding, it is possible to do these types of training indoors as well. In fact, not only is it possible but it may be necessary if weather conditions are not agreeable or you live in areas of extreme cold winters.

You should make every effort to spend as much of your time training outside as possible. But in the situations where you can’t be outside, you can have some effective training indoors as well.

Making Your Indoor Training Effective

If you’re in a position where you’re forced to do your cycling training indoors, make the most out of this training. It’s very important that you use the same bicycle that you normally use outdoors and in competitions. A very effective way of continuing your normal training is to attach a stationary trainer or rollers to your bike.

These trainers can be attached to the back wheel on your bike. Trainers are excellent for allowing you to perform the normal training methods you would use if outside. The negative about a trainer is that it will increase the wear and tear on your tire. In fact, if you spend a lot of time training indoors, you may find yourself replacing your rear tire more often than you’d like. To ensure that you are in the correct riding position, make sure you prop your front tire up so it’s the same height of the back tire.

Training Varieties

There are many varieties of trainers available today. A very popular trainer is the wind trainer. It has blades that you attach to the roller that’s attached to the rear tire. This causes a resistance for your training, but the resistance can be adjusted by switching gears when riding. This makes it very similar to outdoor riding. Because they have fewer parts than other trainer, they are less expensive.

The one thing that many don’t like about wind trainers is that they are noisy. What many people use are hydraulic trainers, which use a break pad and fluid. This helps to add some extra resistance. Not only are they easily adjustable but they’re also very quiet. Another choice of many is magnetic trainers, which work great for adding resistance. You’ll have to choose the method that works best for you based on your skill level and budget.

Written by alastair · Filed Under Training