On the Inside Looking Out: How to Use Indoor Cycling to Become a Better Outdoor Cyclist

By Roy M. Wallack

Published in City Sports Washington and City Sports Florida, March, 2000, then later in City Sports and Competitor California.

In 1998, when triathlete Ruben Barajas of Torrance, CA finally qualified for the Hawaii Ironman after many years of trying, he credited his success to one major change in his training:

Spinning. Specifically, Spinning taught by cyclists.

That qualifier is critical when serious cyclists analyze the benefits of the popular pedal-to-the-music health club classes.

"I learned from instructors who were real bike riders—people who knew about proper body position, sprinting, hill climbing, using hamstrings and calves, not just quads" says Barajas, 35, the director of the Scott Newman Center, a drug prevention charity. "You don’t get that from converted aerobics instructors."

The point is well taken. Most spin-class teachers are indeed aerobics teachers in clipless pedals. Many have never even ridden a bike on the road. They know how to select good music and exhort their followers through a killer 45-minute workout. But can they make you a better cyclist?

Emilio DeSoto says yes— and no. "Yes, you’ll get a great workout and see some increases in leg speed [due to the momentum of the 44-lb. flywheel of a Schwinn Johnny G Spinner]," says the president of De Soto Sports triathlon clothing, a former pro triathlete and popular twice-a-week instructor at La Jolla’s Personalized Workout. "But no, you won’t "learn" much cycling."

"Instructors who don’t come from cycling often will stress things like ‘Jumps’ (popping up and down off the seat) and doing pushups on the handlebars—things that have nothing to do with real cycling," he says.

Be Your Own Teacher

For that reason, you have to be your own coach if you are an outdoor cyclist on the inside, according to Chris Kostman, the teacher of triathlete Barajas and hundreds of instructors nationwide through his instructor workshops (www.adventurecorps.com).

"While you can’t rely on the instructor since few are real cyclists, you can easily build outdoor cycling skill in any class with a little knowledge and discipline," says Kostman, a one-time Race Across America finisher and founder of the RoadRacers indoor cycling program at the L.A.-based Bodies in Motion fitness chain.

"Spinning classes are an ideal place to work on classic, old-time technique—a traffic-free laboratory environment that can go a long way toward replacing the on-the-road instruction once handed down by veteran riders," he explains. "It’s a great place for cycling novices to improve two aspects of cycling that will quickly make them a better rider: climbing and speedwork/turnover.

"By the same token, it’s a great place for the vets to refresh their technique—as long as they remember NOT to ride an indoor bike the same way they do their ‘outdoor’ bikes."

Here’s what Kostman means:

1. Climbing

Face it, there is no greater confidence builder—and time saver— than good climbing. That’s why it is crucial to learn how to use all the muscles of the leg—not just the quads. There’s no better place to focus on this than indoors.

1. SEATED CLIMBING: Most outdoor cyclists know that they should pull up on the pedals on the upstroke, which activates your calves and reduces the load on the quads—but they rarely do it for long outdoors. Here’s the technique for indoors: Suck in your lower abs to help push your butt to the back of the seat, then drive the pedals down with your heels lower than the toes. Keep the heels low when you pull up, too; as soon as you lift the heel above the ball of the foot, you turn off the calf muscle. Most outdoor cyclists sit too high on an indoor bike and don’t hinge their torsos forward enough, says Kostman, keeping their heels up and pulling up with their shins and quads, not calves.
2. STANDING CLIMBING: To cultivate the hamstrings, glutes and back muscles as you would outdoors, you must adjust your posture for the lack of angle, says Kostman. On an outdoor climb, the front end of the bike is tipped up. To replicate the position on an indoor bike, hinge at the hips, keep you back straight and parallel to the ground, and push your nose down to within a few inches of your handlebar.

In addition, since a stationary bike cannot be rocked beneath you, simulate the effect by moving your body side to side.

2. Speedwork

Road cyclists are locked into a "90 rpm mentality" says Kostman. While the spin bike’s weighted flywheel will push any rider’s cadence higher, huge gains can be had with specific techniques.

1. STANDING SPEEDWORK: To build explosive power and raise your lactate threshold as well as rapid turnover, stand straight up and "run" on the pedals, says Kostman. The key to is put the entire weight of the body on the quads. The technique: Stand tall, with ears, hips and bottom bracket in a straight line, the upper body stabilized by tensed abs, with no hand pressure on the bars (using only fingertips for balance). Then blast your cadence up to 200 rpms—which blows away the 150 rpm most top cyclists can manage outdoors.
2. SITTING SPEEDWORK: Ideal for building rapid turnover, this technique is easy: Use very little resistance, sit forward on the saddle, suck in abs to stabilize hips and upper body, and go like hell. Again, shoot for 200 rpms.

3. Gradual Warm-Up

A big problem indoors is that many classes redline from start to finish. "That shoots your heartrate up—and once it’s up, it’ll never come down (the rest of the session)," says Kostman. "Consequently, you never train for recovery—allowing your heartrate to drop— a key to cycling endurance."

What that means is that a truly fit person will see his heartrate drop by as much as 50 beats on a 30 second downhill. That is important because it allows the body to rest. The problem with charging out of the gate and freezing your heartrate at a high level is that you never train your heart to rest. "You’ll burn out," says Kostman.

Warm-up goal: Warm muscles in conjunction with a gradually rising heartrate. Never do speedwork until 12 to 15 minutes into the class. Regardless of what your class is doing (unless you’ve done your own spin warm-up before class began), ride the first two songs seated with light resistance, followed by a seated and standing climb for one song each. Then, go for it.

To read Ruben Barajas' personal report about his Ironman experience, click here.

More Indoor Cycling