How to create your own indoor cycling studio

Indoor Cycling Studio

While indoor training is a means to an end for many riders, with a few tweaks to your indoor set-up, it can quickly become more engaging, inspirational and, from a performance angle, beneficial.

Our top tips below will help with creating an indoor cycling environment that you’ll love riding in.

Performance is key

Indoor training can be brutal, as it allows you to do shorter but more intense workouts. Our indoor set-ups are called ‘pain caves’ for a reason!

Which is why your turbo trainer is the most important piece of equipment. With technology having advanced drastically in recent years, it’s time to go smart.

Smart trainers alter the resistance for you automatically, provide live power data and work in conjunction with multiple apps to provide tailored training plans and virtual cycling worlds. Nothing will improve your indoor cycling studio more than a high-quality turbo trainer. 

Entertainment

Perhaps the hardest aspect of indoor training is the lack of excitement. There’s no wind racing through your hair or adrenaline as you weave down a windy descent. Without the right set up, your pain cave can become a bit boring.

Luckily, there are plenty of apps available to keep you engaged while riding. The days when you set your resistance level and pedalled away are long gone. Now you can ride in virtual worlds, up iconic climbs and even compete in races. Finding the right app for you will help make turbo training interesting and more importantly, enjoyable. There are plenty of apps available and you can discover more with our guide.

If you don’t have a smart trainer, you can still find other ways to entertain yourself while you’re in your pain cave. Getting a high-quality sound system so that you can pump out the watts to the rhythm of your music works for many. Having a TV is also an option.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s something that helps motivate you for your training, and isn’t a distraction!

Inspiration

You’re mid-way through a high-intensity work out. The sweat is dripping, your legs are on fire and you’re deep into the world of suffering. In need of inspiration, you look around your pain cave only to see blank walls. No inspiration in sight!

There’s no denying it, indoor training sessions can hurt. A lot! It’s therefore important to deck out your indoor cycling studio with lots of inspiration. So that when the suffering is unbearable, you have that motivation to carry on.

Decorate your walls. It could be posters of your favourite pros or climbs, artwork or even cycling memorabilia. Maybe even a large training plan with the end goal displayed large and clear. You’ll have no problem remembering what all the suffering is for then.

Comfortable training

Indoor Cycling Studio

Get a fan! If there’s anything you take out of this guide, it must that you need a fan.

Remember, when you’re training indoors, there’s no air flow to cool you down. You’re essentially pushing your body in a static pool of warm air. Doing so is not ideal for training and could be preventing you from maximising your training performance.

Not only that, but it can be dangerous. If you’re pushing really hard, your body will struggle to regulate its temperature.

So if you haven’t already invested in one, and we hate to repeat ourselves, get a fan! 

Help your family and neighbours

Reducing turbo trainer noise and vibration is important, and your family and neighbours will certainly thank you for it.

One of the first investments when creating an indoor cycling environment should be a training mat. There are plenty of options available and these will help reduce noise vibrations as well as protecting your floor.

Training tyres also effectively reduce noise compared to using standard tyres and will protect your regular road tyre from unnecessary wear.

Ease

Indoor Cycling Studio

Interrupting training halfway through is never ideal. You’ll therefore want to make sure you have a table or shelf near to your indoor trainer, so that you have everything you need nearby. This can be a spot to keep snacks, a towel and your phone, which will often be needed to operate training apps.

If you plan on using an iPad to control your app, get an iPad stand to place nearby.

This saves having to hop on and off the bike unnecessarily. Life’s easy when everything’s within reach. 

Follow these tips and you’ll soon have an indoor cycling studio that will be the envy of your cycling friends. To discover many more upgrades for your pain cave, visit Halfords.com.