Zwift Workouts: A beginner's guide

The best Zwift workouts can help you get fit for riding and racing, while providing an immersive, interactive experience along the way. Zwift and other indoor cycling apps offer a virtual environment in which indoor cycling becomes far more interesting than just staring at the wall. 

Zwift offers a huge number of workout routines in its training plans, which you can follow on any of the best smart trainers. It's a lot easier than trying to follow a workout routine outdoors where traffic, terrain, weather and other variables can get in the way.

With so many options, choosing the best Zwift workout to meet your fitness goals can be difficult, so to help, here's our pick of the best Zwift workouts to address specific aspects of your training and fitness. 

Threshold builders

Sweet Spot and threshold intervals to help build up your aerobic engine. Ideal for building overall fitness, and for climbers and time triallists targeting sustained race efforts. 

SST (Short) – Sweet Spot Over/Under Intervals (50min)

• Warm-up: 5 minutes building to 85% FTP (Functional Threshold Power)
• Intervals: four sets of 5-minute intervals alternating between 5 minutes “Over” Sweet Spot (96% FTP), and 5 minutes “Under” Sweet Spot (88% FTP); no rest in between sets
• Cooldown: 5 minutes decreasing to 55% FTP

The SST (Short) is a quick and effective Sweet Spot workout that is a bit more engaging than 2x20-minute efforts. The varying power targets will help keep your mind engaged and your legs guessing. Experiment with cadences at these Sweet Spot intensities for a bonus training effect.

2x20min FTP Intervals (1hr 20min)

• Warm-up: 10 minutes building to 85% FTP
• Intervals: two sets of 20-minute intervals at 100% FTP; 10 minutes rest (50% FTP) in between sets
• Cool-down: 15 minutes degrading to 55% FTP

I know I just bashed 2x20-minute efforts, but here’s the thing: they work. There’s no better way to train for a long, sustained race effort than to do them in training. This classic two-by-twenty workout is as tough mentally as it is physically, but it is the perfect preparation for climbers and time trialists who target long, sustained threshold efforts. 

Over-Unders (1hr 5min)

• Warm-up: 15 minutes building to 65% FTP, followed by 5min rest (52% FTP)
• Intervals: two sets of five times alternating between 30 seconds “Over” (115% FTP), and 2 minutes “Under” (100% FTP); 10 minutes rest (52% FTP) in between sets
• Cool-down: 10 minutes degrading to 45% FTP

Straight from the Zwift Academy, this workout is a demanding Threshold Over/Under interval session that targets both your VO2max and FTP training zones. This session is perfect for punchy race preparation – steep climbs, mountain bike racing, or cyclocross – when you are required to surge above threshold for short periods of time, and then settle back into a hard but sustained threshold effort.

Race simulation intervals

Lung-busting intervals that simulate the real-world effort of racing and breakaways.

Mat Hayman Paris Roubaix 1 (1hr 20min 30s)

• Warm-up: 5 minutes building to 62% FTP
• Interval Set #1: two sets of 10-second sprints (278% FTP) with one minute recovery (64% FTP)
• Interval Set #2: three minutes at low Tempo (75% FTP), then 20 minutes Tempo (81% FTP); 5 minutes rest (50% FTP)
• Interval Set #3: two sets of six sets of two minutes at Sweet Spot (88% FTP) and 20 seconds at high VO2max (140% FTP), then one minute at Sweet Spot (88% FTP); 5 minutes recovery (50% FTP)
• Cool-down: 10 minutes degrading to 25% FTP

The story of Mat Hayman’s 2016 Paris-Roubaix win is one of the most epic and memorable in the history of professional cycling – often lost in the story is the fact that Hayman trained almost exclusively indoors in the weeks preceding the race after breaking his wrist in a crash. Nevertheless, Hayman rode up to twenty hours a week on the indoor trainer and went on to win Paris-Roubaix over Tom Boonen in the final sprint. 

This very tough session, it is simulating Paris-Roubaix! Beginning with three sprint efforts, the session then goes into a long tempo effort meant to build up fatigue at just below threshold. 

Next is two sets of Sweet Spot efforts punctuated by VO2max surges every two minutes. If you can make it to the end of the session, I recommend throwing in one more sprint effort as if you’re rounding the final corner of the Roubaix Velodrome. 

The Famous 40/20's (1hr) 

• Warm-up: 10 minutes building to 73% FTP
• Interval Set #1: two sets of 12x one-minute efforts consisting of 40 seconds at VO2max (120% FTP) followed by 20 seconds recovery (55% FTP); 5 minutes rest (66% FTP) after each set
• Interval Set #2: one set of 6x one-minute efforts consisting of 40 seconds at VO2max (120% FTP) followed by 20 seconds recovery (55% FTP)
• Cool-down: 10 minutes degrading to 25% FTP

A classic high-intensity interval workout, straight from the training plans of Tour de France pros and into your pain cave. Be ready to hit this workout full gas – this session requires you to spend lots of time pedalling at your VO2max power, with just enough rest between each interval that your heart rate should level out to 90-95% of your max heart rate. Pros use this interval session in the final stages of race preparation, preferably on a climb, to simulate the conditions of racing and following 500W attacks. 

Strength and explosive power

Intervals to help build both leg strength and speed.

Low Cadence Zone 3 Steps (1hr 28min)

• Warm-up: 10 minutes building to 65% FTP
• Intervals: five pyramiding sets (8/10/12/10/8 minutes) of low cadence (50-65rpm) Tempo (88% FTP) intervals, each effort 4 minutes recovery (52% FTP) 
• Cool-down: 10 minutes degrading to 45% FTP

Another one from the Zwift Academy, this session targets the neuromuscular system and increased muscle recruitment using low cadence Tempo efforts. Focus on keeping a strong and smooth pedal stroke during the Tempo intervals to maximise performance benefits and increase overall pedalling efficiency. 

Phosphate Sprints (45min)

• Warm-up: 9 minutes building to 83% FTP followed by 3 minutes recovery (55% FTP)
• Interval Set #1: five minutes at Sweet Spot (93% FTP) and low cadence (70rpm) followed by 6 minutes recovery (55% FTP)
• Interval Set #2: two sets of five, 10-second accelerations (200% FTP) followed by of 50 seconds recovery (55% FTP); 7 minutes recovery (55% FTP) in between sets
• Cool-down: 5 minutes at 55% FTP

A quick session from the Zwift Academy, Phosphate Sprints can be a great pre-race ride, or a sprint interval session. The sub-threshold effort and quick accelerations prime the body for a bigger effort coming soon, but you can also make this into a sprint workout by hitting the 10-second accelerations a little bit harder (250-350% FTP). 

This session is less about peak power than it is about repeatability – the ability to recover quickly and accelerate at the same 10-second power five times in just five minutes, similar to a punchy race effort, such as sprinting out of corners in a tight criterium.

Ramp Test

• Warm-up: 5 minutes Free Ride
• Ramp Test: 1 minute at 100% FTP, increasing by +20% FTP on the minute until failure
• Cool-down: 10 minutes

While not exactly a “workout”, the Zwift Ramp test is the perfect avenue for testing, and re-testing, your aerobic fitness which is measured by FTP. This is a very tough session that will push you all the way to failure – so be prepared to suffer! But don’t worry, the suffering only lasts a few minutes. Push as hard as you can for as long as you can, and when you can’t push any longer, Zwift will pop your new FTP right up on the screen. 

This version of the Ramp Test is meant for experienced riders, and may last only 5-20 minutes. Less experienced riders, who perhaps have never done a ramp test before, can try the Ramp Test Lite, which begins with 1 minute at 50% FTP, and increase by +10% FTP on the minute until failure.