It can feel difficult to get excited about going for a bike ride when you’re not actually going anywhere. Indoor trainers can cause discomfort, drain your motivation levels, or simply bore you as you spend hours stuck in one place, making it impossible to stay on the indoor trainer for longer than you can manage.
Your relationship with your indoor trainer shouldn’t suffer, though. Depending on your indoor trainer will get you to that spring century and/or help you maintain your fitness during the winter season. Riding inside can also help you stay safe on dark winter nights, avoid bad weather, and amp up the intensity.
So if you’ve ever cut an indoor ride short, it might be time to switch things up. We spoke with cycling coaches to compile a list of eight tips for staying on the indoor trainer for longer, plus some information to keep in mind when it’s time to ride indoors.
8 Tips for Staying on the Indoor Trainer for Longer
1. Change Your Position on the Bike
While the bike needs to be stationary, you don’t have to be. Ryan Kohler, exercise physiologist and USA Cycling level 1 coach, explains that whether you’re riding on a Peloton bike or bringing your outdoor bike indoors, you’re more likely to experience discomfort, which might make you shy away from indoor rides.
“I've found over the years that people are less likely to move around on the [indoor] bike, and they tend to get stuck in very static positions,” he says. That static position often involves arms extended and shoulders pulled upward toward their ears.
You can combat this static positioning by intermittently moving and standing, and not being afraid to pause your rides to do so. Kohler suggests pedaling while standing up out of the saddle for 30 to 60 seconds every 10 to 12 minutes. “It’s going to get you to move differently, not be stuck in a static position. And the bonus is that you get to become more proficient at your out-of-saddle technique,” he says.
2. Turn to Entertainment
The good news about riding indoors is that you can catch up on your watchlist by setting up your trainer in front of a TV or screen. Getting in an episode of your favorite TV series or turning on a new movie can help you zone out while simultaneously crossing off a session of easy spinning.
Kohler points out that tuning into some form of entertainment can help you take your mind off the ride, which can be helpful during easy spins and recovery rides. He also suggests using headphones to listen to music and tune out any distractions from other noises around the house or in the gym.
3. Connect With Others
Time flies when you’re with a friend, and the same can be said for your indoor rides. Riding alongside another cyclist or chatting with a friend while you’re on your indoor trainer allows you to engage with other people and can help you take your mind off a monotonous ride, Kohler explains.
If you can’t physically ride alongside a friend, try calling them up to check in on their day or joining a group ride through platforms like Zwift, Rouvy, or TrainerRoad. Some indoor riders will connect through Discord, Kohler explains, which makes it easy to simulate riding in-person with a friend. With an app like Discord, you can organize group rides and communicate with friends during rides and virtual races, so you’re less likely to get bored.
4. Use Chamois Cream or Anti-Chafing Gel
“Because you’re in such a static position, it’s easy to get heat and friction built up down there,” which can lead to chafing, Kohler explains. He recommends applying a chamois cream or an anti-friction gel right before your indoor rides to stay comfortable.
“Following a ride though, you always wash it off, which is easy with the postride shower,” he says.
5. Tackle an Interval Workout
Splitting up your ride into incremental time goals rather than having a monotonous staring match with the clock can engage your mind. Interval workouts bring structure to a ride and give you something to focus on.
Andy Applegate, pro-level coach at CTS, recommends hitting threshold intervals to improve cycling efficiency and make the time fly by.
Why it works: Doing specific intensity for specific amounts of time is a great way to make parts of the ride harder—by challenging your lactate threshold—and make the overall experience go by faster, explains Applegate.
How to do it:
- Warm up with 10 minutes of easy spinning.
- Ride for 10 minutes at threshold pace (zone 4), then recovery for 5 minutes of easy spinning (zone 2).
- Repeat this cycle 3 times.
- Cool down with 10 minutes of easy spinning.
6. Practice Breathwork
Incorporating a breathwork routine into your ride is another option of what to do on the indoor trainer so your rides don’t get so repetitive. Focusing on your breathing during a ride can make your rides go by a little quicker by giving you a task to complete and a skill to improve upon.
Research shows that breathwork can also improve respiratory endurance and cycling performance. A study published in 2023 in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology took a group of three women and seven men in their early 20s and had them follow a six-week inspiratory strength-training program, which consisted of repeated breath exercises.
The researchers tested the participants’ breathing before and after the training program and found that respiratory endurance levels significantly improved after the training program than before, noting that the breathwork may help improve athletic performance and maintain cardiorespiratory fitness.
Why it works: Kohler recommends breath training intervals, where you reduce your breath rate slightly for about a minute each time.
How to do it:
- Find your breath rate by counting the number of breaths you take in one minute while you’re at rest. (A normal respiratory rate for an adult at rest is between 12 and 18 breaths per minute, according to Cleveland Clinic.)
- Reduce your breath rate by about 3 breaths per minute, for one minute of easy spinning. For example, this might look like going from 20 breaths per minute to 17.
- Pedal at an easy pace for four minutes without concentrating on breathwork.
- Repeat this cycle for a 30- to 60-minute ride at an easy pace or around zone 2.
If you want to progress in this workout over time, start by lengthening the duration of the breathwork intervals from one minute to 90 seconds, then up to two to three minutes. Kohler recommends doing this workout more than once a week.
7. Prepare Everything in Advance
It’s the worst feeling when you start riding on your bike and realize you forgot your water bottle in the other room, or your fan malfunctions. It can make you want to quit, and abandon the indoor trainer before you finish a long, quality ride.
Applegate’s guide to avoiding this is to lay everything out beforehand. If you plan on staying on the indoor trainer for an hour in the morning, gather everything you need—a fan, your chamois, your water bottle, your kit—and lay it out the night before.
“You get everything ready so that you can just get on the bike when it’s time to get on the bike,” says Applegate. Having your systems in place will help guarantee that you’re ready to stay on the trainer for longer and pedal on without a second thought.
8. Add Elevation
Both Kohler and Applegate recommend adding hills to your indoor rides to change things up and challenge yourself. This could be as simple as having climbs to tackle on a Zwift or Rouvy route. It’s sort of like interval training in that you have to work through those tough moments, then cruise down the hills.
When you set up your indoor trainer, you can also consider elevating your front wheel to better mimic climbs. Use a block that holds your wheel in place, and stack some blocks below it. (Some companies even have specific climbing attachments so you can do this securely, like the Kickr Climb Indoor Grade Simulator, which will automatically adjust to Zwift routes.) Kohler suggests splitting the ride up in increments of 20 minutes, alternating between riding flat, riding with an elevation, then riding flat again.
Kohler also points out that some cyclists might even find a longer elevated ride more comfortable. “It might feel a little bit more like you’re climbing. You’re not feeling like you’re sort of falling over the front of the bike,” he says.
What are some things cyclists should keep in mind when using the indoor trainer?
→Ventilation Is Important
Maybe you’re riding in a garage where it’s colder, but there might not be a ton of airflow. A crucial part of a sustainable, successful indoor ride is making sure there’s proper ventilation wherever you’re set up. Kohler recommends using fans to help prevent you from getting uncomfortably hot on the bike, and to provide plenty of airflow.
→Set Up Your Indoor Trainer Properly
You may use a Peloton, a Wahoo Kickr, or you might bring your outdoor bike indoors. However you ride, Kohler offers some tips to check that your indoor trainer is set up properly.
1. Check Your Chain and Cassette
“If the chain is pretty worn you may be better off transitioning your outdoor cassette to the trainer so they play nicely together,” Kohler says. Or do a full chain and cassette swap.
2. Skip Shifting
For cyclists who mix indoor and outdoor rides over the winter, it might be worth investing in a Zwift Cog, Kohler suggests. “This will eliminate the need for shifting by using virtual shifting only, and using only a single cog. That way, you’re not slamming a chain through two different cassettes,” he says.
3. Keep Your Bike Clean and the Chain Lubed
Regular bike maintenance still applies, even when you’re riding indoors. Sweat—as well as chamois cream—can accumulate on the bike and lead to corrosion of bolts and aluminum handlebar, and over time, potentially break, Kohler explains, so remember to clean your bike after every ride.
It’s also important to lube your bike chain after you clean it so you can spin freely indoors. “Just because you’re not riding through dirt, water, and grime doesn’t mean the chain won’t dry out over time,” says Kohler.
→Fueling Still Matters
If you want to stay on the indoor trainer for longer, you have to fuel like you would for any other ride, especially if you plan to ride for more than 90 minutes. “Think about fueling very similarly to what you do outside,” Kohler says.
He explains that your core body temperature is still going to increase when you workout, so you’re still going to burn a lot of energy and carbohydrates. “We may not be coasting down hills, but we’re pedaling the whole time, so we have to be really aware of that energy intake portion,” he says.
Kristine Kearns, a writer and avid runner, joined Runner’s World and Bicycling in July 2024. She previously coached high school girls cross country and currently competes in seasonal races, with more than six years of distance training and an affinity for weightlifting. You can find her wearing purple, baking cupcakes, and visiting her local farmers market.
