Home-trainer: Getting started with indoor cycling

Bad weather, lack of time, safety: the home-trainer has become the secret weapon of cyclists and triathletes. When used correctly, it's one of the most effective ways to improve at cycling.

Why it's so effective

On a home-trainer, no traffic lights, no descents, no coasting: you pedal continuously. One hour indoors often yields more than one hour on the road. It's ideal for quality sessions (threshold, intervals) where consistency of effort matters.

What equipment?

• Connected home-trainer (direct drive): the most accurate and quiet, measures your power, ideal with apps (Zwift, etc.).
• Roller / tire home-trainer: more affordable for beginners.
• Essential: a fan (you'll sweat a lot) and a towel.

Structure an indoor session

The advantage of indoor is precision: you can follow a session to the letter. Example of a threshold session:

• 15 min progressive warm-up.
• 3 × 10 min at threshold intensity (zone 4), 5 min easy between each.
• 10 min cool-down.

Keep the majority of your volume at easy endurance despite everything (80/20 principle) — indoor shouldn't just be suffering.

Avoid boredom

Structured sessions (not monotonous pedaling), music or immersive apps, and clear goals per session: that's what makes time pass. Better 45 min targeted than 2 hours staring at the wall.

Your sessions pushed to your watch/app

Sports Coach AI generates structured sessions (interval by interval) that you can follow on Garmin or your home-trainer, tailored to your FTP and current fitness.