How to Prevent Indoor Training Boredom (8 Tips To Make Riding Indoors FUN)
ZWIFT COMMUNITY | on December 15, 2025 by Zwift
Are you stuck in a rut with indoor training? Looking for ways to switch up riding indoors? Well, it doesn’t have to be a grind. With a few small tweaks, you can turn indoor training rides from something you dread, into your favourite sessions of the week.
Whether you’re looking to train through the depths of winter, fitting a session into a lunch break, or just want a reliable way to keep fit, there are lots of ways to turn cycling indoors into something enjoyable and engaging.
So let’s get to it. Here are 8 tips for conquering turbo training boredom for good:
1. Go For A Smart Trainer (Even Better If It’s Zwift Ready)
To overhaul your indoor cycling experience a great way to start is by investing in a smart trainer. They don’t have to be expensive and are key to switching up training indoors.
A smart trainer can communicate with indoor cycling apps (like Zwift), using the power you put through the pedals to control your app.
If the road gets steep on Zwift, then your smart trainer will increase resistance. If you’re going downhill, you guessed it, resistance will back off – you can even freewheel down virtual descents. Isn’t that a nice thought?
The changing resistance matches what cycling is actually about, therefore making indoor cycling more immersive and engaging.
If you’re looking for a smart trainer then a Zwift Ready model comes with everything you need to ride with Zwift straight out of the box. This includes virtual shifting (through the Zwift Cog and Click). There’s no complex setup, almost any bike is compatible, so just plug in and ride.
2. Ride With Other Cyclists
With a smart trainer the possibilities are quite literally endless. Through Zwift you can schedule your Saturday morning coffee ride and ride together in a virtual bunch. This is the perfect antidote to the winter blues.
When you ride together virtually you’ll see each other’s avatars and can even chat using the companion app. It brings the coffee ride vibes to your home.
If you want to meet new cyclists, you can do that too. A great way to meet others is through joining a Zwift Club.
The GCN club, for example, has over 80,000 members from all over the globe, with regular club rides. Or maybe the Zwift Women’s Training Club is for you? With social workouts every 3 hours, twice a week, you can get fit and make friends with like-minded cyclists along the way.
Social rides come in all shapes and sizes. Some are at a casual pace, perfect for chatting and catching up. Others are faster paced group workouts or races that push everyone to their limits together. The beauty is you can meet cyclists from every corner of the globe, all from your living room.
3. Try A Workout
One way to beat watching the clock when you’re riding indoors is to try a structured workout. A workout will break your ride up into smaller intervals. These are time periods at specific intensities that cause riding indoors to be much more mentally manageable.
You’ll also improve your fitness much quicker than just riding to your favourite TV show (although that can have its place too). With a structured workout you’ll work specifically on all the energy systems required when cycling, you’ll build strength and see progress. You’ll also add incredible variety to your riding. One day you might practice standing climbs and cadence variations. The next session might focus on explosive sprints. All helping you become a more complete cyclist.
On Zwift you can choose from hundreds of workouts. Whether that’s training like the pros or choosing a 30 minute workout for time-crunched sessions – the variety of workouts will mean you’ll never run out of new challenges to tackle.
4. Go One Step Further and Follow a Training Plan
Structured training is often the difference between hitting your cycling goals, and the other parts of life getting in the way. When you have a cycling training plan, you’re much more likely to build fitness safely. It can also keep your motivation high when you feel like you’re hitting a wall.
With a Zwift training plan every ride has a purpose. Whether that’s increasing power, working on your technique, or simply building a routine and getting fitter. You’ll find something for cyclists at every level – from the FTP Builder plan to the TT Tune Up. Some plans are targeted at beginners (requiring just one hour of training per week), other plans are more specific and designed for advanced riders (requiring over eight hours of training per week). Whatever your ambitions you’ll find something for you.
5. Turn Your Indoor Sessions Into a Game
With a smart trainer and an app like Zwift, you’re turning cycling into a game: with constant achievements, rewards, or levels to unlock. You’ll want to come back, ride after ride.
Achievement badges recognise your accomplishments, big and small. Milestones, whether that’s hitting a new top power, riding consecutive days, or completing new routes gives you mini-goals throughout every ride.
6. Explore New Roads and Trails from the Comfort of Home
Riding indoors on Zwift opens a whole new virtual world to explore. Maybe that’s Watopia, Zwift’s flagship world, where you can ride mountain climbs like the Epic KOM, the Volcano Circuit, through the Fuego Flats desert, and more.
Beyond Watopia, France brings the beauty of the French countryside to your trainer. You can pedal through picturesque villages and tackle challenging mountain ascents. There are a dozen entire worlds to explore on Zwift. Plus access the Climb Portal to conquer many of cycling’s most iconic real-world climbs.
This variety matters more than you might think. When every ride offers different scenery and terrain, your brain stays engaged. It’s not just slogging through an hour of training. You’re exploring new routes and conquering climbs.
7. Tweak Your Setup For Max Comfort
Where and how you set your environment up to train will affect whether you want to ride again. You don’t need a super fancy paincave to ride indoors. But these few upgrades will mean your time indoors on the bike is much more enjoyable:
- A Fan: Cycling indoors can be hot. And without airflow, you’ll be dripping within minutes. A cheap fan will keep you cool and help you push harder for longer.
- A Mat: It protects your floor from sweat, dampens vibration, and makes riding indoors much more comfortable.
- A Screen: You can use your phone, however a cheap tablet or screen enables more immersive and engaging sessions.
- Bike Fit: Things like numb hands or feet, and a sore back, won’t help. So check your saddle height is correct and you feel like you can ride comfortably throughout your session. This quick guide from GCN is a great quick look at making your bike more comfortable.
- Hydration and Nutrition: Running out of energy is a sure way towards indoor training boredom – don’t forget to fuel up before you ride. Hydration is also key – so keep your water bottles within reach.
8. Use Headphones to Enhance Your Experience
Listening to music while riding indoors is a top way to stave off boredom. Research has also shown that listening to music can boost performance too. Especially high-tempo music which can distract us from the pain of hard efforts.
Slower music can help with pushing through longer intervals or endurance rides too, giving us a beat to sync our cadence and breathing to. So creating the perfect turbo playlist, for every type of session, is a fun way to keep yourself engaged on the indoor trainer.
A good pair of headphones makes a huge difference. You can go with basic earbuds that get the job done, or invest in quality wireless options designed for sports. These Zwift x RIPT Ultra headphones provide sweatproof durability, active noise canceling, and powerful over-ear sound – designed specifically for the demands of indoor training.
Make Indoor Cycling Fun with Zwift
Hopefully we’ve shown you that you don’t need to resign to staring at your walls when training indoors. Especially with the help of Zwift, you have a whole indoor training universe to explore.
From unlocking the power of social rides and indoor racing, to taking your cycling to the next level with workouts and training plans designed by professionals. You can make indoor training boredom a thing of the past with Zwift.