Beginner indoor training session: 20-minute sweet spot indoor cycling workout
If you're new to indoor training, this is a good session to start with. No super hard efforts or high cadences, just a good, entry-level session that will burn calories
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GCN's James ‘Hank’ Lowsley-Williams is joined by fellow presenter Manon Lloyd for this easy, beginner’s session for anyone who is new to indoor cycling training. The effort levels in the workout are based on your perceived effort, so that anyone can easily follow the sessions.
At 20 minutes, this sweet spot session is also short, making it perfect for any time-strapped cyclists too.
All you’ll need for the session is a bike and an indoor trainer/turbo trainer or an exercise bike, although it’ll be much more enjoyable if you’re prepared with the right accessories, including a fan.
Read more: Do you really need a fan for indoor training?
Entry-level indoor training session
This indoor session is designed to be an approachable entry point for beginners to the world of indoor training or spin cycling and is based on perceived effort as opposed to training zones, making it easy to follow.
Hank will gradually build up the intensity level and only go up to a perceived effort of 8. If you want to get familiar with indoor training or GCN’s indoor cycling workouts, this is a good one to start with.
As the session is only 20 minutes, it should be easily achievable, although it’ll still pack in plenty of quality in that time, making it suitable for any cyclists who are short on time.
What are the benefits of sweet spot training?
This session will work your sweet spot, which is a term we use to describe the kind of riding where you're at the very top end of your aerobic capacity.
When riding aerobically, your body fuels the exercise using oxygen, but once you go beyond your body’s aerobic capability, you enter the anaerobic zone which is fuelled by breaking down glucose in the muscles. Anaerobic exercise can only be sustained for short periods of time, but aerobic exercise can be maintained for longer, which is why it’s important to train your aerobic abilities through sweet spot training sessions like this.
As you’ll be riding at a higher aerobic intensity, you'll still be pushing the pedals pretty hard, but you won't stray into that lung-busting, thigh-burning realm of anaerobic exercise. As a bonus, a study by the National Centre for Biotechnical Information found that sweet spot training like this had multiple benefits beyond improving aerobic capacity, including enhancing endurance and threshold power, meaning it’s great for boosting that all-important functional threshold power (FTP) number too.
Indoor cycling workout details
- GCN instructor: James 'Hank' Lowsley-Williams
- Indoor workout duration: 20 minutes
- Indoor training type: An easy sweet sport session
- Fitness difficulty: The perfect indoor cycling session for beginners and time-strapped cyclists
- Benefits of this indoor cycling workout: Getting started with indoor training and building aerobic capacity
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Warm up on your indoor bike for six minutes
Whatever session we're doing, it's important to warm up. For this one, we've got a six-minute warm-up, starting with a really easy 2/10 effort, before gradually building up to a 4/10 effort.
Build into the main part of the session gradually
Now we're warmed up, we're going to gradually work our way up the gears, from 4/10 to 7/10, spending two minutes at each intensity. Then, after a couple of minutes of easy spinning, we'll finish off with two minutes at 8/10 just to work the upper limits of your aerobic zone.
Top Tip
7/10 and 8/10 efforts will work that sweet spot zone, which will boost your aerobic capacity.
Cool down for four minutes
Just as every workout needs a warm-up, every workout needs a cool down. It's as simple as bringing the intensity right down and spinning the legs for a couple of minutes. Two minutes of easy pedalling will loosen off the muscles and help your body recover from the session, although a longer spin will be even better.
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