If you’ve been circling the idea of getting into indoor cycling but the thought of staring at a garage wall while sweating buckets makes you want to put the turbo trainer straight back in the classifieds, then you’re exactly the person Zwift had in mind. Zwift is the platform that took indoor cycling from “numbers on a screen” to a full-blown game. Think Mario Kart meets a power meter. It’s the pioneer that made indoor training actually fun, and it’s still the biggest name out there.
And for parents, it’s a bit of a secret weapon. When time is tight, when daylight is gone, when bedtime took 40 minutes longer than it should, you can still squeeze in a session that feels rewarding, social, and—dare I say—actually entertaining.
What Zwift Actually Is
Zwift is a virtual cycling platform. You hop on your indoor trainer, connect your bike and sensors to a computer, tablet, or Apple TV, and suddenly you’re pedalling through places like Watopia (Zwift’s tropical fantasy island), central London, or even a futuristic New York. Your power output and cadence move your avatar in real time.
The magic is that you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of riders log in every day. You can join group rides, races, or just free ride through the digital worlds. It’s indoor cycling, but with people, scenery, and goals—so you’re not just counting down the minutes until you’re allowed to get off the turbo.
The Costs
Zwift runs on a subscription. It’s €19.99 per month, or €199.99 for a yearly plan (two months free if you do the maths). There’s no free tier, but you can test it for a short trial if you want to see how it feels before committing.
From a parent’s perspective, that’s a not-insignificant chunk of money. But it’s also cheaper than a monthly gym membership, and if it means you actually train consistently, it earns its keep pretty quickly. Consider it your fitness Netflix: the subscription is the entry ticket to unlimited rides.
What You Need to Get Started
The basics:
Optional but recommended: a fan (yes, you’ll need it), a heart rate strap, and a stable Wi-Fi connection.
The beauty is that once your setup is dialled, it’s plug and play. Ten minutes after you’ve wrestled the kids into pyjamas, you can be riding in Watopia while still digesting the bedtime story.
Why Parents Love It
This is where Zwift really shines. Indoor cycling has always been about efficiency—you get a solid workout without leaving the house. But Zwift adds enough entertainment value that you don’t feel like you’re grinding away in a pain cave.
Zwift essentially creates time where there wasn’t any. The hour you’d normally lose to commuting to a group ride is suddenly a high-quality session, done before you even think about loading the dishwasher.
Worlds and Routes
At first you’ll spend most of your time in Watopia—Zwift’s original playground that mixes beaches, volcanoes, and jungle trails. But there are plenty of other maps: London, Paris, Innsbruck, New York, Makuri Islands, and more. Each world has routes that vary in length and elevation.
The routes matter because Zwift uses them to spice up training. Climbs like Alpe du Zwift (modelled after Alpe d’Huez) let you test yourself against others and yourself. Flat circuits keep the power steady. There’s enough variety to keep boredom at bay, which is key when you’re riding indoors several times a week.
Training Plans and Workouts
If you’re the structured type, Zwift offers training plans and workouts designed by coaches. These range from “get me through winter without losing my legs” to “I want to peak for a race in eight weeks.”
For parents, the real win is flexibility. Workouts pause when you need to. You can adjust training plans if bedtime chaos eats into your schedule. It’s training that moulds around family life instead of demanding that family life moulds around it.
The Gamification Factor
Here’s the part that made Zwift famous. Indoor training used to be about staring at numbers: power, cadence, heart rate. Useful but boring. Zwift turned it into a game.
You earn XP points, level up, unlock new bikes and kits. Drafting works like in real life, so positioning matters. Races are intense, fast, and often surprisingly addictive. That layer of fun is why so many riders actually look forward to indoor sessions now.
For kids, this is gold. They can sit next to you and watch your avatar “ride through the jungle” while you’re secretly doing threshold intervals. Older kids might even want their own account (Zwift offers a free option for under-16s). Suddenly, training is not just tolerated by the family, it’s part of the entertainment.
Races and Events
Events run 24/7. Group rides, social spins, and competitive races are all on tap. You can jump into a five-minute sprint race or a two-hour endurance ride depending on how much family goodwill you have left in the tank.
This is where Zwift’s community really shows. You’re riding with real people, chatting, drafting, and sometimes suffering together. It makes those late-night sessions feel less like solitary training and more like part of something bigger.
Why Zwift Still Matters
Yes, there are competitors now. Platforms like MyWhoosh (detailed review coming soon) have copied the basic formula while others like Rouvy stay true to their different approach (in this case the combination of real-life routes with virtual avatars, detailed review coming soon). But Zwift was the first to merge cycling with gaming, and it still has the biggest community by far. That means more events, more riders, more features being developed.
If you’re a parent looking for efficiency, entertainment, and accountability, Zwift is still one of the first platforms you should pay a visit.
Final Thoughts
Indoor cycling doesn’t have to be grim. Zwift proved that. It made training something you actually look forward to, not just endure.
For parents, that’s a game changer. You can ride when you have time—not when the weather or daylight dictates. You can train hard in an hour, or just spin while your kids watch your avatar race dinosaurs (yes, really). And because it’s fun, you’ll actually stick with it.
So if your evenings are a battle between getting the kids to bed and finding a scrap of time for yourself, Zwift might be the one place where you finally win both.
