According to sport scientist, Chérien Roux, the past two years has seen a marked increase in the popularity of the Wattbike (an air- and magnetically-braked indoor cycling trainer) among athletes from numerous sports, becoming a standard equipment in gymnasiums and rehabilitation centres.
"The biggest benefit of using the Wattbike is its ability to measure power output of both legs separately, giving an athlete the chance to ensure a balanced, scientific workout," Roux says. Below she outlines how (and when) to incorporate the Wattbike into your training regime:
CROSS TRAINING
Cross-training is fundamental to any athlete whether you are a novice or an elite athlete. Over the last decade more athletes and coaches have incorporated cross-training into their regime, realising that the inclusion of a variety of workouts, allows those muscles that are worked during one workout (such as a running session), to recover while activating other muscle groups during the next workout that is different, like a swim workout.
MORE ABOUT CROSS TRAINING, HERE
The Wattbike is great option as an alternative with such cross-training programmes. I recommend incorporating a session twice a week into your training regime. Novice athletes can aim for 30-minute sessions, while competitive athletes can cycle up to 120 minutes, depending on their training goal. Cycling duration and intensity settings can be gradually increased. *Various gyms have Wattbikes as part of their equipment set.
Example of a novice runner’s weekly regime:
- Monday would be their usual run.
- Tuesday would be a 30 minutes Wattbike session.
- Wednesday would be a 45 minute resistance training session.
- Thursday would be the second 30 minutes Wattbike session.
- Friday & Saturday would be their usual run.
- Sunday would be a recovery day.
RECOVERY
The Wattbike has both a fan and magnet setting, making it an ideal tool to be used by rehabilitation therapists. Stationary cycle ergometers place limited strain on joints and muscles while performing exercises. The Wattbike's ability to adjust and measure both sides of the cycle ergometer separately is beneficial in monitoring the improvement of orthopaedic patients recovering from hip and knee surgeries.
I recommend recovery sessions of 30-90 minutes at a very low setting (easy to pedal). For people who is recovering from surgery I would recommend that you start with only 10 minutes at a time, at the lowest setting and then every two weeks increase the duration. I highly recommend consulting a physiotherapist specializing in the use of Wattbikes for rehabilitation after surgeries.
No matter what sport you do, if you have an reoccurring irritation in a certain muscle or joint, I would suggest that you take some time off from performing that sport and rather climb on the Wattbike to give that muscles chance to recover. Wattbike cycling can be combined with rehabilitation exercises to assist recovery. The session ensures that your muscles are adequately warmed up, so it will be easier to do the rehabilitation exercise and prevent further strain on that joint or muscle.
GYM TRAINING
The Wattbike is ideal for warming up prior to leg workouts. A quick 20 minutes cycle will reduce chances of injury, especially when performing with heavy loads like during squats. The onboard computer also offers various workouts, like high intensity interval cycling, which guides the athlete as to what magnet and fan settings to use, when to push hard during the workout and when to rest. Furthermore, the Wattbike offers fitness tests to monitor your progress over time, such as the 30 seconds and 6 seconds tests for measuring power output. From personal experience I would suggest the six second test, but if you are a sucker for torture go for the 30 second test.
*A note on Wattbike settings:
When conducting one of the tests, you will enter your height and weight. The Wattbike will provide you with fan settings on the left and magnet setting on the right. For example a female weighing between 50-60kg will have a fan setting of 2 and a magnet setting of 1 when conducting the tests.
During the first 6 weeks of your Wattbike training I suggest keeping your magnet setting at one while gradually increasing the fan setting. The magnet setting creates resistance such as the feeling of pedalling harder when going up a hill.
