If you do not have time to go out riding your bicycle, in this post we are going to show you some of the methods and exercises that you can do to keep in shape without leaving home.
Training at home when the weather conditions are bad or if you do not have enough time, depending on the intensity, a roller session can be a great substitute for a short ride.
Depending on the purpose, training exercises can be different, since they can range from anaerobic training sessions of maximum intensity and short duration as a sprint, to maximum efforts and stamina, to aerobic exercises with a lot of oxygen consumption
There are 3 different types of rollers that will help us train.
- 3 roller training rollers.
- Exercise bikes.
- Training rollers with variable resistances and the latest model with virtual reality.
The 3-roller training roller.
This roller is used to acquire round pedalling. Here, the gear change is what determines the quality of the effort and its intensity, which can result in a rapid increase in heart rate and heavy sweating and exertion.
It’s true that the resistance is practically zero, although lately 3 roller training rollers with different degrees of resistance are becoming available. In relative terms, training with this type of roller is good to practise pedalling and technical development due to the constant need to balance.
The Exercise Bike
Good for exertion and stamina. Today, the spinning bike type of exercise bike offers the option of adjusting the handlebars and the saddle to adapt it to your morphology in a similar to your normal bike.
Training rollers with variable resistances.
It is much better to use a training roller with your own bicycle, road or mountain. If you use the mountain bike, we recommend you change the rear tyre for a road bike tyre or have an old spare tyre to do roller exercise as it tends to wear out the MTB tyres more quickly.
The rider is in the correct usual position on their bike and the exercise should be considered as a specifically to help to achieve and maintain shape when its not possible to go outside for a ride.
This type of training has undergone major changes in recent years. The cycling roller has gone from being considered as only an accessory for recovery training, which would be a training in emergencies, to be considered one of the most effective training systems used both to lose weight and to practise series and specific cadence work.
How many calories can I burn in an hour on a roller?
There is no exact data showing the calories burned in an hour of training on a stationary bicycle. The value will depend on different factors such as intensity, the athlete’s age, weight or physical condition. There are a lot of formulas that can give an approximate calorie expenditure. The calories burned in an hour of cycling can range from 300 that we will burn in a really smooth session and 900 that we canburn in one session with varying intensities.
Before you start the roller session? Basic advice
Before starting it is important to keep in mind a series basic tips that will allow you to do the session more comfortably.
It’s necessary to keep the room where you train ventilated and the air circulating, to avoid high temperatures and bad smells. Ventilation is also important so as not to sweat too much and slow down the pace of dehydration
Correct hydration
Another extremely important issue is hydration. The roller sessions are usually indoor so the chances of dehydration and sweating are much higher. Always have water or salts minerals to drink from time to time and the ideal amount would be to drink 0.5-0.75 litres of water for each hour of roller training.
Towel and equipment
Dress as if you were going to go on a real bike, your culotte, your trainers and a towel to wipe the sweat from the forehead and prevent the sweat from falling on top of the frame, be careful the sweat is very corrosive due to the salts it carries,
Also, a chair or table to leave the mobile and things you may need to keep in your reach.
Ah! And put on music to give rhythm to the session.
Entertainment
Rolling has been very boring for years, while now thanks to a series of plugins you can make a rolling session fun thanks to different kind of devices you can use during your sessions for example; smartphones, televisions, tablets or computers. Laptops can also be your entertainment in your sessions. Take advantage of the training session to watch a TV series, do a little zapping or even train with friends or other cyclists using any interactive indoor cycling platform.
Improve your cadence
Roller training whether it is with rollers or adjustable intensities will contribute to improving pedalling cadence and efficiency because it can be done without stopping. Maintaining high cadences around 80-85 rpm on the road is sometimes complicated and the roller is a tool that clearly favours this aspect and it will allow you to improve the cadence of pedalling as a fundamental aspect for your performance improvement.
Losing weight
If you do a roller session before breakfast is often recommended as a system to lose weight and the truth is that although the opinions of specialists on the subject differ it is clear that rolling activates the body and to do it first thing in the morning allows you to activate metabolism faster. The roller in winter is good to heat up the body and eliminate toxins.
Time optimization
The time on the roller much better than in any road training where there are traffic lights and roundabouts. It means that one hour of road training is rarely the equivalent to 1 hour of roller training, where you never stop pedalling, this results in more calories being burned and more effective training in a shorter time. Usually it is said roller training is twice that of road training, with which a good 1-hour roller session could replace a session of 2h road training.
Improves mental strength
Enduring roller sessions will strengthen you not only physically but also mentally. Mental strength in endurance sports is sometimes as much or more important than physical strength and having a strong and especially stable mentality is very important to achieve your goals. Get on the roller and prove to yourself that you are able to last longer than you thought. This part is the most difficult to get.
Roller training on an empty stomach (Fasting sessions)
More and more people join the trend of fasting training to lose weight. A training methodology that in the field of Cycling is used on the roller. Initially fasting training is aimed at those people who seek to lose weight but who do not have much time to do it.
Fasting training should always be done first thing in the morning, In the moment in which the reserves of sugars and glycogen are sufficiently low to burn fat faster and more efficiently. The body will use fats as an energy source and you will also speed up our metabolism early in the morning, It is important that fasting workouts should be low intensity and not exceed more than an hour.
You can also include some exercises without a bicycle in your routine. Here we give you some examples.
The Best Exercises for the Cyclist
Do these exercises two to three times a week. They won’t take you long time and the improvement you will get on the bike will be great.
1.PLANKS
Trunk aligned with the lower body, do 3 repetitions of 30 “in plank”, with 15 ” between each repetition.
- SQUATS
A classic and very beneficial exercise. If you do it at home and you don’t have weights grab a heavy bag with each hand. Three sets of 15 repetitions
- CONTRALATERAL SUPPORT
We continue working the core, the middle zone, with this exercise, which at the same time has a component of balance. Keep the leg and arm up. Count 10 ” and change supports. Do 10 repetitions with each side.
- HIP LIFT
3×15 repetitions keeping the posture elevated 10 “.
- SIDE PLANK
Raise the trunk laterally. 5×20 “in the elevated position of the photo, resting
15 ” between each repetition of descent and lateral rise.
- DIPS
Core work and also triceps and pecs. Three sets of 15 repetitions.
- STRIDES
Good movement to work leg power with a high intervention also from the buttocks. Three sets of 15 repetitions.
- DORSAL PULLEY
The dorsal muscles are little worked on the bicycle which produces decompensations and back pain. If you don’t have access to a gym machine or gym pulley change this exercise for dorsal elevations, with a heavy object keeping the trunk horizontal.
