The best workout schedule for Indoor Cycling

A good workout schedule for Indoor Cycling can help you achieve your goals. In addition, a schedule makes it easier to stay on track with exercise and provides structure. In this blog, we explain more about building a good Indoor Cycling schedule.

Cycling at home? Use a workout schedule

If you want to exercise at home, it’s good to make a training schedule for Indoor Cycling. This way you will work on your goals and keep structure in your workouts. First, it is good to look at exactly when you want to exercise. If you have a fairly fixed weekly schedule, then this is easier to plan than if you have a job with varying hours. Look carefully at what hours you have free each week and can devote to sports. It can help to make a weekly schedule in, for example, Excel. That way, you can quickly see which evenings or mornings you can free up to exercise.

Define your goals

Complete your workout schedule with short- and long-term goals. It is important that these goals be measurable, so you can track whether you have achieved your goal. For example, a good example of a long-term goal is, “I want to lose 10 kg this semester.” In this case, the time frame and target weight are measurable. This way you can easily track whether you are on track. A short-term goal is also important because a long-term goal can often seem abstract and unachievable at first. A short-term goal can actually provide motivation.

Here we talk more about setting measurable goals.

How often do you follow an Indoor Cycling workout?

Okay, you’ve planned your workout schedule, and it’s clear when you’re going to exercise. But, should you now fill every free moment with hours to ride your bike? No. This is where the personal part begins. We recommend that beginners follow a workout twice a week and build up slowly. Figure out for yourself how many times a week you want to do an Indoor Cycling workout. Be honest with yourself, more hours is not always better. Overload can get in the way of your progression.

What do you do the rest of the day?

For example, do you also practice another sport, or have a physically demanding job? Then give yourself plenty of rest days to recover after a hard workout. Schedule yoga workouts on these days to improve your mobility and prevent injury. Or sit back on the couch with a good book or series. After all, you’ve earned it! Rest days are even more important than the days you exercise. After all, these are the days your body recovers and gets stronger. Are you not allowing your body to recover? Then you will become less fit rather than fitter, and of course you don’t want that!

Find out about the benefits of Yoga for athletes here.

Intensity of the workout

Not only is the frequency of your workouts important, but also the duration and intensity.
Planning the right intensity is best done by trial and error. Do you feel like you have a lot of energy left after your workouts? Don’t be afraid to add a half-hour! On the contrary, do you feel that you are often tired during the day, or have muscle soreness for a long time? Then maybe you’ve gone a little too far and it’s time to dial back the intensity a bit.

Want to make sure you are training at the right intensity? Then you can use heart rate zones and match them to your workout. To do this, you will need a heart rate belt or sports watch, which you can pair with the CycleMasters app. Through a dynamic display, you can immediately see whether you are training in the right heart rate zone and whether you can increase or decrease resistance.

Indoor Cycling to lose weight

Indoor Cycling is great for losing weight. It is a fun form of cardio that you can do at any time of the day. The more and the longer you exercise, the more calories and fat you burn. To lose weight effectively, we recommend that you do an Indoor Cycling workout three times a week, of at least half an hour (excluding the warm-up). Are you just starting out and do not yet have a good basic condition? Then we recommend building up slowly. Start with two workouts per week and aim for 20 minutes per workout.

Again, exercising too much and too heavily detracts rather than contributes to your process. Therefore, become comfortable cycling first by starting gradually; it has to be fun! With the right mindset and motivation, you will find yourself making leaps and bounds quickly.

Read more about losing weight with Indoor Cycling here

Fat burning

Once you’re in a nice rhythm, and you can do longer workouts, it’s time to start training more specifically for fat burning. To do this, you can keep your heart rate in the so-called fat burning zone. This zone is between 50% and 65% of your maximum heart rate. You can estimate this maximum heart rate using the “220-your age” formula. To measure this, you can use a heart rate monitor or activity tracker. You can often connect these to your smartphone or smart bike. The longer you keep your heart rate in this zone, the more fat you burn. After the workout, your body still burns fat to release energy for your recovering body.

Indoor Cycling as fitness training

Do you practice a seasonal sport? With Indoor Cycling you can always keep in shape. Is it getting too bleak outside to run or bike hard? Or are team sports going into winter or summer break? Then it’s time to jump on the Indoor bike. Here, it’s good to mimic your normal training routine. Do you run a lot or bike regularly? Then it’s a good idea to do lengthy workouts.

For a team athlete, interval training, on the other hand, is interesting. Here, you alternate intense sprints with periods of rest. Look carefully at what kind of training suits you and your goals. Give your body time to get used to the bike and slowly build up your winter workout schedule. Is your basic fitness level already very high? Then try a 45+ minute workout three times a week.

Indoor Cycling and muscle strengthening

Indoor Cycling helps strengthen certain muscle groups. Muscles are made up of two types of fibers, conveniently named type 1 and type 2. Muscle fiber type 1 is durable and contracts slowly, and muscle fiber type 2 is powerful and contracts quickly. Indoor Cycling is a form of endurance training and thus strengthens the type 1 fibers in the addressed muscles. Muscle groups trained during Indoor Cycling are particularly leg muscles, but also core and lower back. Cycling makes these muscles stronger, which can have positive effects on your physique, endurance and strength.

Workout schedule for beginners

To get you started as a beginner, we recommend, you work out two or three times a week. Because Indoor Cycling requires a strong core and lower back, we recommend including a core workout in your training schedule now and then. It is also good to do some yoga in your recovery period to keep your muscles flexible and supple. This will help you prevent injuries.

It can be difficult to estimate the right resistance for your workouts. That’s why we recommend taking a CycleMasters workout. CycleMasters’ trainers know exactly what resistance, intensity and exercises are right for a 20- to 35-minute workout.

A CycleMasters workout is broken down into different intensity levels. Level 1 is warm-up and at level 5 you exercise at maximum intensity. These levels are based on heart rate zones. The screen shows the level and what zone your heart rate should be in. For example, level 1 is 50-60% of your maximum heart rate, level 4 is 80-90%. Try to stick to these levels, and you can be sure you are training effectively. For beginners, after warming up (level 1), it is good to train in levels 2 and 3 on low resistance.

Advanced workout schedule

Even for people who cycle more frequently, it is important to have a strong core and lower back. That’s why we also suggest for advanced cyclists to include a core day in your workout schedule. With an intensive schedule, it is extra important to stay flexible, so your muscles recover better and the chance of injuries is lower.

A workout for advanced cyclists will be more intense than for beginners. After the warm-up (level 1), advanced cyclists can alternate between levels 3,4 and even short sprints at level 5 (maximum heart rate). Are you following an online workout? Then you will be guided, and you do not have to think about the correct structure of the training. The CycleMasters trainers use the previously mentioned levels to get the best out of the workouts.

Your ideal workout schedule

In summary, a good training schedule for Indoor Cycling is the one that suits you. What are your goals? Losing weight? Build up fitness? Or maybe you just enjoy exercising, that’s fine too! Plan your weekly training sessions. This will make it easier to stick to your schedule. Adjust your schedule to an intensity that suits you, and don’t be afraid to experiment with it. Working out is always good, whether you do it once or seven times a week. A good workout schedule will give you structure and regularity. This makes it more fun and easier to get on the Indoor Cycling bike.

Extra motivation

While cycling, you can follow CycleMasters’ workouts, guided by a trainer of your choice. Cycle along to the beat, or enjoy the views through beautiful landscapes. Add a yoga workout to your Indoor Cycling training schedule on rest days to get you back on track for your next workout!

You can try CycleMasters’ online classes for free for 14 days. That way, you may not even need an Indoor Cycling training schedule! And for some extra motivation, join the CycleMasters Community on Facebook to connect with other athletes!