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How should you warm up on a turbo trainer?

Updated 2026-10-23 · Sessions and training

Short answer

Ten to fifteen minutes: five easy, then two or three short fast-legged bursts with easy recovery, then a couple of minutes easy before you start. Hard sessions need the full version; easy rides can simply start easy and build. Calibrate your trainer after the warm-up, not before.

Why indoor warm-ups need more thought

Outdoors you warm up by accident. You roll out gently, there is a hill, you ease off at a junction, and ten minutes later you are ready without having planned anything.

Indoors there is no such drift. People climb on, start the session, and are at full target power within ninety seconds of walking in from a cold room. That is the single most common reason a first interval feels catastrophic and the second feels fine — not fitness, just a body that had not caught up yet.

It also matters mechanically: trainers themselves change as they warm, which is why calibration belongs after the warm-up. See how to calibrate.

The standard warm-up

5 minutes very easy, around 50-60% FTP, comfortable cadence. Let your heart rate come up on its own.
3 x 30 seconds fast legs — high cadence, 100 rpm or more, easy resistance, 30 seconds easy between. These wake up your coordination, not your lungs.
2 minutes easy.
1 minute building to around your session's first target, then ease off.
2 minutes easy, then start.

About 13 minutes. For a hard session, do not cut it.

Variations

Before a very hard session (VO2, a test, racing)

Add one 2-minute effort at threshold after step 3, then 5 minutes easy. You want to have already breathed hard once before the first real interval.

Before an easy ride

You do not need a formal warm-up at all. Start at the bottom of your range and build over ten minutes.

When you only have 40 minutes total

5 minutes easy, 3 x 20 seconds fast legs, 2 minutes easy. Seven minutes, and far better than nothing. Then accept the first interval will feel rough and do not read anything into it.

In a cold garage

Add five minutes, keep your knees and arms covered for the first part, and strip down once you are warm rather than starting cold and bare.

Cooling down, briefly

Five to ten minutes of easy spinning at the end. The physiological case for it is less dramatic than people assume, but two practical things recommend it indoors:

It gives the session a defined end rather than a sudden stop, which makes the next one psychologically easier to start.
It gets your core temperature down before you walk into a cold house soaked through, which is worth something in January.

Then get out of wet kit promptly. See what to wear.

Common questions

Can I skip the warm-up for an easy ride?

Effectively yes. Just start at the easy end and build gradually over the first ten minutes.

Should I calibrate before or after the warm-up?

After. A cold trainer has more friction, so calibrating cold gives you wrong numbers for the whole session.

Why does the first interval always feel awful?

Usually an insufficient warm-up. If the second interval feels notably easier than the first, that is the diagnosis.

Still bored of the turbo?

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It is in closed testing at the moment, so there is nothing to play yet. But you can put your name down.

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