With the winter weather starting to close in and the cold and wet days turning into early dark nights it’s important not to let your fitness suffer. If you enjoy cycling the best option is to start using an indoor bike trainer and using a range of bike trainer workouts to keep your fitness up and using your bike.

By purchasing an indoor bike trainer you give yourself the freedom to train when it suits you and not just when the weather is good, you can also train while watching TV or using your tablet. This piece of equipment allows you to use cycling trainer workouts that suit your own personal needs.

Before you start any workout make sure you complete a 10 minute warm up of easy spinning to get the muscles and body ready for the exercise you are about to do.

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Long Slow Continuous Training (LSCT)

The first and easiest type of bike trainer workout is long slow continuous training. This involves maintaining a steady pace for a prolonged period of time. For example completing a 30 minute cycle at the same speed or resistance setting and not stopping or slowing down.

The benefits of this type of cycling trainer workout is that it allows you to pick a pace that is comfortable for your ability and can complete for a long period. Also it burns a lot of calories and is particularly useful for beginners who want to watch TV or be distracted while burning fat. The disadvantages of this bike trainer workout are that if the pace is not challenging then the results can be limited, and also it can get boring to stay at the same speed.

Speed Intervals

An alternative to continuous training is a bicycle trainer workout using intervals of high intensity or speed to push the body to it limits, interspersing with periods of rest/recovery. For example complete one minute of high cadence (100rpm) at a low resistance followed by two minutes of slow spinning at a low resistance for recovery and the repeat the work and rest four to five times.

Another interval workout could be to complete ten 30s intervals using a high resistance or gear and trying to cycle as fast as you can. Ideally the gear should only allow you to spin at approximately 70-80rpm to make sure you are pushing your heart rate up. After each 30s bout of intense speed recover with a 90s easy spin.

The biggest benefit of this cycle trainer workout is the high intensity forces the body to torch through its fat stores to provide energy as quickly as possible, also the increased intensity pushes the heart rate up into the cardio workout zone to improve the stamina. The downside to these workouts are you need to have a good ability on the trainer to keep your balance when cycling at speed and potentially out of the seat.

Hill Climbs

The last type of bike trainer workout that is effective is to simulate a hill climb. To do this you gradually increase the resistance on the bike every two to three minutes as if the gradient of the hill is getting steeper. This is a great workout for more advanced cyclists as it will improve muscle tone in the legs by trying to remain in your seat at all times.

Try to set a target which will be your “peak” for example gear 15, once you reach this gear pedal hard and fast out of the seat for 30s and then switch back to a low resistance and spin for 10 minutes to boost recovery of the muscles. This is a great workout for burning fat as you are progressively increasing the intensity and making the body burn fat as a fuel. The downfall of this bicycle trainer workout is you need to have a good muscle tone prior to completing and is not really suited to beginners.

Cooldown

After any of these workouts make sure you complete a sufficient cool down to get the lactic acid out of your muscles and lower your heart rate slowly. Spinning at no resistance for five to ten minutes will be sufficient. If you have worked for longer than 30 minutes aim to complete a good ten minute cool down and some stretches afterwards.

You don’t have to pick just one type of workout, switch it about and use different workouts on different days because keeping to the same day in day out will only give you results for so long and then you will not improve any further.

Picture: Shutterstock.com / Kzenon

Bell is the market leader in bicycle helmets and was founded in the 1950’s, after achieving huge success in the helmet industry Bell branched out and started to make a cycling range and at present has over 1000 cycling products available. It produces well priced products without compromising quality and I actually own a bell helmet myself. Bell is an international company which sponsors athletes in a range of cycling sports.

The trainer offered by Bell is also a magnetic resistance and it includes a single adjustment which provides progressive resistance which increases with the speed of the rider. This means you cannot adjust the resistance and if it is too low for your ability then there is no way to change it. It does boast having a double adjuster to center the bike on the trainer which is a major plus as quite often when you have a road bike it can slip to one side while riding. It has a 5 year warranty for parts and materials which is great and coming from a leading company in the market it instills confidence in the product. It weighs twenty pounds which is quite high and its dimensions are average which means it will fit in most rooms.

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Personally I think this unit weighs quite a lot and could be difficult to move. It is also not foldable which can cause problems if you wanted to use it in one room and then store away. Its main selling point for me is the name, by knowing it is made by Bell you assume a level of quality and it appears this is true from the customer reviews. I think it also looks good and the colors used are stylish. It doesn’t say whether it comes with the quick release bar but the picture leads me to believe it does. However the biggest thing that lets this trainer down is the single resistance, from personal experience, when using a single resistance trainer once you are able to cycle easily at the top speed there is nothing to push you harder so it becomes useless. However it would suit a beginner very well who isn’t looking to increase speed but simply to enjoy exercise.

All our reviews are independent of any manufacturers or advertisers and if you buy anything through our posts we may get a small share of the sale.

What the users say

Customer reviews are quite positive, the common themes show it is easy to set up and practically turns up ready assembled. The quality of the materials and bearings are very good which shows it is less likely to break down and the height ratio from front to back wheel is minimal so it is easier to adjust. Many other trainers have a much higher back tire from the front and don’t come with a wheel raiser. The resounding negatives are the noise it produces and the single resistance being poor. I give this 3 wheels out of 5 as personally I would not buy a single resistance machine.

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The manufacturer of this trainer is Bike Lane, a relatively small company that only offers 2 main products; the bike trainer and a bike hoist. So it brings into question either it is solely concentrating on 2 products to make them perfect or they lack experience to develop a wider range. It seems to be the former as this product is definitely up there in terms of the best indoor trainers I have seen.  This trainer boasts a fantastic range of 7 different resistance settings allowing riders to alter it depending on their experience or level of training.  It also claims to have the finest materials with proven reliability, this is something our customer reviews back up. It claims to be the strongest unit on the current market and is very light to allow storage and movability which is a key selling point. As when purchasing a trainer a customer wants to be able to fold away and move the unit but without compromising quality. And this trainer certainly does that. It also comes with a quick release skewer and uses the magnetic resistance system. Also, it comes with separated legs to improve the stability and a quick release pedal system to keep the tire pressure equal.

> Click here to see our #1 choices per trainer type <

All our reviews are independent of any manufacturers or advertisers and if you buy anything through our posts we may get a small share of the sale.

Positives

Personally I love this trainer, it looks great and it looks extremely stable and the bars are thick to aid this. The fact it has 7 resistance settings is a real bonus to the system as it allows beginners and advanced riders to set the trainer up to meet their needs.

Negatives

The only down side to this product is the size, it is relatively large in comparison the others and I prefer fluid trainers as magnetic resistors do not always give a truly realistic outdoor feel. But for a beginner it seems perfect. I give this trainer 3 wheels out of 5!