Training indoors, if well made, can be a fun, effective and rewarding way to stay fit. Though considerable tedious ways to keep yourself fit, indoor workouts on a gym bike are perfect for those in cold environments or living a hectic lifestyle where time is precious.
If you search for inspiration to eliminate the boredom that may derive from indoor training or are looking for motivation and inspiration, we've got some hints for getting the most out of your in-home bike workout.
Training indoors: 9 hints to keep them fun & productive!
1- define goals
Indoor training must not become a chore. Do your best to fo face each session with a positive mental attitude. Make sure to constantly remind yourself what you hope to achieve off your workout and set yourself a goal, such as beating a record. By training with an objective, you'll give your sessions meaning, making them more enjoyable.
2- Build a training plan
Exercising from home brings the temptation to quit earlier or skip a session. Try doing your best to create a training plan and stick to it. Having a well-structured plan from the beginning will definitely pay back in the long run.
Three simple hints for the creation of your personal indoor weekly training plan are:
- Define how many days per week you plan to train for
- Define the duration of each of your training sessions
- Define the intensity of your workouts (possibly as intense as you can, see point 4)
3- the right moment
Get rid of any mental barriers that you could use as reasons to avoid training. One of the most common is the time factor, so set your kit ready for the following day and choose a time when you know you're entirely free. Experience tells early mornings or late evenings work best.
4- use a power meter
Measuring power by using a power meter could be the ultimate way to spice things up during your competitions against yourself, and it gives you something to focus on during your training sessions. Play with your rhythm and see how long you can keep it.
Got a power meter? Do try this at home!!
Begin your ride with your hardest gear and ride for five minutes, keeping a consistent power output. Then, shift to an easier gear and do five more minutes at the same power. Continue switching to an easier gear every five minutes, and keep maintaining the same power output. It's an exciting way to mix things up and to keep engaging your ride towards nowhere.
5- Define Intervals
Keep your sessions fast and intensive. Concentrate on high-intensity, relatively short workouts, as there's time to come for long outdoor rides. Once past 60 minutes, your concentration will likely decline, so define proper intervals and try to structure your sessions to increase your power output and heart rate.
6- Stay fresh!
When riding or running outdoors, the natural airflow assists sweat evaporation, but when indoors, the risk of overheating and suffering from dehydration is not to underestimate. Wipe away sweat from your face and eyes with a towel, and, if training from home, position a fan next to your bike or treadmill to keep you cool and to reproduce a natural airflow. Lastly, drink plenty of fluids, sipping every 10 minutes.
7- Fuel your engine
When getting your body ready for a home training session, "preparation" is the keyword. If fuelled properly along the day, you should sustain the energy needed to perform a 60-minutes session. If you begin to feel hungry or decide to extend your workout, try opting for natural foods like dried fruit or bananas.
Also (we'll never say it enough times), don't underestimate the liquid intake you'll need when training indoors. Try to drink as much as you would during a canonical outdoor session. Good hydration during exercise aids recovery and helps to sleep better. Overlook the hydration factor, and you may feel sore and stiff because fluids aren't flushing out the lactic acid in your muscles. Drink electrolyte drinks to help regulate the body's natural fluid balance.
8- Keep it fun!
Self-competitive training is a great motivation to perform well, so making training indoors a fair competition against yourself is not an idea to discard. A private indoor session shouldn't just be all tears and sweat, so some music, a podcast or a couple of episodes of a TV series could help make this fight against yourself more bearable.
9- use modern-era entertainment
If you are a bit techy, you probably know some apps allow keeping fit by engaging in intensive training while watching a screen. Many of them will enable you to choose between video representation of famous real-life tracks and environments or select a plethora of training plans. You could also participate in virtual group rides, races, and other fun stuff for which we can thank modern times.
We did our best to list down these 9 hints to get the most out of your training indoors. A good life-workout balance mostly depends on the power of will and on your consistency. If you want to create the best workout & nutrition habits, start from Hammer Nutrition's Essential Knowledge Blog. Subsequently, feel free to take a look at our fuels, our recovery products and supplements. We can guarantee you'll find something useful to give you the boost you need when training at home!