Biking Indoors, By Jay Marschall

 

Now that its fall and the winter months are around the corner its time for us bike riders to consider the indoor options for our cycling fitness. This can be a daunting thought if you have spent a lot of time on the bike this year and are not real motivated to get on the indoor sweat machines. In that case I would first suggest that you take some time off the bike and get your motivation back to spend quality time on an indoor program. I like to spend time having fun with other activities that I don’t have time to do during the cycling season. Try mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing, etc… to get a fresh attitude and a relief to your cycling muscles, it will pay dividends later in the year.

Now that you are ready to get back on the bike its time to choose which indoor cycling program is best for you. The decision you make will depend on your fitness level, goals, time, convenience, and what atmospheres you enjoy. There are so many types of indoor cycling programs now available I thought I would break them down and give you my thoughts on the major ones. With any of these ways of cycling indoors if you plan on getting better through out the long outdoor season or peak for an event next year, you should use methods of periodization and a gradual approach to your offseason training. That means start out easy during your winter training and gradually increase your intensity and duration, working too hard during the winter will leave you burnt out this summer.

Spin classes- The newest craze is Spinning TM which uses specially designed bikes in a class atmosphere. The class is set to music and trained spinning instructor guides the students through 45 min to 1 hr of intervals using a variety of intensities and techniques. Spinning is taught in most of the majors health clubs now and the bikes are very adjustable to fit most everyone. You can even use your clipless pedals and shoes in most of the classes. With the instructor taking you through the movements choreographed to music the session goes by quickly and is motivating for many levels.

I did find the classes pretty intense so using a heartrate monitor and adjusting the tension knob would make sense when starting out. Every instructor is a little different so finding a class you like and fits your plan might take some time.

I do find some negatives when it comes to spinning. First of all the bikes have a very heavy fly wheel, about 30 lbs., when you get pedaling fast the fly wheel carries your crank arms around with a lot of momentum. The result of this is an unnatural firing of the major cycling muscles, (quads) and almost no use of the Hamstrings. If you combine this with fact that you are not training on your bike and that the critical dimension elements are different, your muscles are not being trained specifically for real cycling. It is my contention that this one reasons why the heartrate or intensities during these classes are very high. Spinning classes also use very high rpm levels at times, sometimes as high as 140 rpms. Unless your are training for sprint type cycling events such as track cycling, this type of speed has almost no value.

The other part of spinning I find to be unnatural is the manner in which the instructors organize the intervals. Many times you are told to get up and down from a seated position to an out of the saddle position quickly and numerous times in a row. This is just not done while cycling in the real world and can cause extremely high heartrates.

Although interval training is a proven training method, in Spinning classes most of the intervals are uncontrolled by time and don’t have a measurable system of intensity and recovery. This makes the intervals indiscriminate and without systems of measurement in areas such as Time, Power output, cadence, and heartrate it would be impossible to determine your improvement over time. With the use of a pace clock, cadence references, and heartrate monitors new Spinning formats are being introduced to better suit more cyclists.

In short, the introduction of spinning has increased awareness to cycling and for many it has put a new twist in their workout regiment. It is fun and has taught many new people the benefits of interval training on a bike. It is a harder workout than most people are used to and will do a lot to improve most peoples fitness. On the other hand for the more experienced cyclist, Spinning does not show me enough specific, proven cycling protocol to be your major off-season training method.

 

Windtrainers- A windtrainer is a device that attaches to the back wheel of your bike and resists the wheel when pedaled. There are three basic types of resistance used on these trainers; fan, magnet, and fluid resistance. The fluid and magnet units can come with an adjustable resistance dial, which gives you a wide range of intensities to choose from. While the fan unit has no adjustments and the intensity is limited to the gears on your bike. There are both pluses and minuses to training with these devices this winter. First the pluses, the main advantage to training on a windtrainer is that you are on your bike and the form and technique is specific to your bike. The second advantage is the convenience and flexibility since the unit is at home and you control the time and place. You also can chart the progress of your training plan through the use of a heartrate monitor, clock, resistance dial/gears and cadence computer at your pace without outside pressures.

However, there are some obvious disadvantages to training on a windtrainer. One of which is the sweat abuse that occurs to you bike. If you have a second bike and can set it up like your number one bike do so and sweat away, otherwise you need to cover the key areas and clean thoroughly after. Motivation is also tough on windtrainer because by ourselves not many of us can push through as tough a workout as you can in a group. That’s why I use music and videotapes to help dull the pain. I would also suggest a windtrainer class taught by a knowledgeable instructor with motivational skills. The classes offer a variety of intervals and skill works often helping the rider organize their training and racing year. The only negative about these classes is the hassle of bringing your bike and trainer to a location and time in which the classes are being held. The classes also cost about $10 a pop.

Computer windtrainers- if you have the bucks you might want to consider a computerized windtrainer to do your indoor cycling this winter. The most popular is the computrainer TM. It is basically a regular windtrainer with a computer interface, which controls your workout and displays visuals and data on a TV monitor. You can read power output, cadence, heartrate, and efficiency of your stroke all on your screen. There is even a program, which allows you to race someone over the Internet! Its all very good and many of the pros use them. However the cost is about $1200.00 and its hard to share the fun with your friends. There are other products like the one from Ultra Coach where you use your PC to adapt a regular windtrainer into a computerized windtrainer for about $500.00. Cyclops has developed a computerized windtrainer as well. These units are great for the sophisticated cyclist.

Rollers- rollers are three drums, which you balance on, and ride your bike free of attachment. It is the most difficult to do if you are not a skilled cyclist. However, I find them the most beneficial for improving proper cycling technique. To ride rollers with out falling off, and you will if your not careful, you are forced to ride smooth and with a sound pedaling stroke. However, if you want to do hard intervals rollers do not provide a lot of variable resistance but with the addition of a resistance unit, rollers will give you all the intensity you can handle. Rollers typically do not have any modes of data, so again it is hard to track critical training info like power output and cadence. It is also very uncomfortable to ride rollers because of how still you have to be and the difficulty in getting up and out of the saddle to relieve your position. But for the most part rollers are a great way to train indoors for the experienced rider. The cost for a good roller set is between $200- $400.

Life cycle/ tetrix- The most common indoor method of cycling is the stationary bike at the health club. They come in many different makes with the most popular being the lifecycle. The bikes are easy to use and have a variety of programs and data readouts to provide feedback to the user. They can be used by all levels and are even found in hotel workout rooms for people who travel. The negatives are the radically different geometry of these bikes as well as the limited adjustability in positioning. I find that the bike made by Tetrix is more like a real bike and puts the rider in a more cycling specific position. There is also the by yourself challenge of motivating your workout. One for home will cost around $2000.00 or you can go to the health club and sweat on theirs.

 

 

All of these types of indoor cycling are right for someone and different criteria will determine which one you choose. Below I have rated some criteria for each indoor cycling method. A = very high, B = high, C= average, D= low, F= very low

 

Motivation/fun specificity convenience/flexibility difficulty cost

 

 

Spinning/Cycle A D C B C

Reebok

Windtraining class A A D B B

Windtrainer( Fan ) D A A C C

Windtrainer(mag,fluid) D A A B C

Rollers C A+ B B C

Rollers with resistance C A+ B A D

Computer trainer B A B A F

 

Life Cycle C F B B C

Tetrix C D C B C

* The Bikes typically in health clubs rate a C on cost because the memberships at clubs vary in price, to buy one of these machines the rating would be a very low= F