Guest blog: below my friends Barry and Angela reflect on their experiences having borrowed my turbo trainer:
With winter approaching the number of times we will be commuting to work will be tailing off, particularly for Angela, and the thoughts turned to how to keep the fitness levels up over the winter. Angela persuaded Doug to loan us his turbo trainer to see if it was worth investing in one.
Doug’s turbo is a fairly standard Magnetic model made by Tacx, with the ability to adjust the resistance over 10 levels. Anyway it was duly delivered by Doug and Rachel and we set it up in the lounge. This was pretty straight forward, however Doug had forgotten the special skewer that you are meant to use on the bike, nevertheless our Whyte’s fitted ok.
We set it up in the lounge and over about a week we both did a couple of 20 minute sessions. this gave us a good opportunity to see what it is like, and in reality is probably the sort of time you actually want a session to be.
The biggest thing that came out of it is it is a bit boring, yes you can listen to music or watch telly but it is still pretty dull. As you are stationary you don’t get the feeling of how fast you are going or how steep the hill is, so it is very difficult to rate how you are doing. For both of us I think this made us turn up the resistance to make sure we were getting a good workout. On a turbo you only work your legs and don’t get the core exercise from having to balance, so would need to be supplemented by other exercises like Pilates.
So, are we going to buy one? Well the short answer is “No”, primarily because we are members to the local DW gym, and find we prefer the spin classes, even though the bikes are pretty wrecked. With all the other people around and the leader shouting away there is always something to stop you getting bored.
On the other hand if we didn’t go to a gym then we would probably get one.
Related:
Review: Tacx Blue Matic turbo trainer
Managing turbo training boredom
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