Gamify Indoor Bike Training (for Cheap): ‘Smash Your Fitness’ Review

Indoor bike training morphed from simply pedaling indoors against artificial resistance to an all-encompassing digital domain. Modern smart trainers linked to virtual riding and racing platforms deliver all the metrics fitting professional cyclists.

Indoor training can be very serious. WorldTour teams have plucked riders based on indoor riding data or indoor competitions, all done via smart trainers and platforms like Zwift. And the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the international governing body of competitive cycling, crowns a yearly World Champion in virtual cycling.

In short: Smash Your Fitness brings all this seriousness, data, and focus on performance down several notches and “smashes” the price barrier to entry (sorry, I had to do it). For a fraction of the investment, you can ride and race with cyclists from around the world in a variety of virtual landscapes.

Smash Your Fitness Review

Most cyclists equate indoor bike training to a “pain cave” filled with “necessary” equipment. At the very least, this means a smart trainer (usually $500+), a heart rate monitor, a computer or TV, and a strong fan.

You can easily double or triple the number of related items and the cost. “Ultimate Pain Caves” for seriously competitive cyclists have even meant building a separate structure to house it all. Of course, you need a subscription to Zwift, Rouvy, MyWhoosh, or another virtual platform.

Smash Your Fitness dramatically minimizes both the initial cost of gear and the ongoing costs of the subscription.

How Does It Work?

My package for Smash Your Fitness was humorously tiny. Any prior review related to indoor bike training came in several huge boxes totaling several hundred pounds. This was a tiny little box weighing nothing. It contained a small “Smashometer,” a roughly 1″ x 3/4″ x 1/2″ rectangular bit attached to a 1-inch-wide Velcro strap, and it weighs 0.4 ounces.

To use the Smashometer, strap it around your ankle.

The only thing you need other than the Smashometer is a simple resistance trainer. You will also need a resistance trainer — basic options are available for as little as $50 on sale, while those with adjustable resistance are as low as $100. There is no need for a smart trainer, as Smash Your Fitness doesn’t care about watts or FTP. You can also use a stationary bike.

Other than this minimal setup, the only things left are the Smash Your Fitness app and a computer. It is compatible with PC and Mac, and will soon be available for Android and iOS.

Other than this minimal setup, the only things left are the Smash Your Fitness app and computer. It is compatible with PC and Mac and will soon be available for Android and iOS.

Smash Your Fitness uses a subscription model, but the monthly fee is a fraction of others. The brand offers bundles that include the Smashometer and a 3-, 6-, or 12-month subscription, and they range from $55 to $95. Afterward, renewing for the same period ranges from $50 to $90 a year, which equates to as little as $6 a month.

Additionally, Smash Your Fitness offers a $90 bundle that includes a resistance trainer, the Smashometer, and a 3-month subscription. The Smashometer alone is $50, and the service is $10 on a month-to-month basis.

Setup, Controls

Smash Your Fitness gamifies indoor cycling to provide distraction and motivation to an activity that can be mind-numbingly boring and laborious.

The Smashometer straps to your ankle and senses motion. It syncs in real time with your cycling avatar through a Bluetooth connection to your computer. Your computer should be accessible while training, as you can use it to “navigate” virtual worlds on your stationary setup.

You can connect a heart rate monitor or a power meter if you have them. All the pertinent information is displayed on the screen as a personal dashboard.

Smash Your Fitness does have switchable options to “steer” and “control” your bike. Cornering speed can be managed by pedaling slower. Riders can also “turn the bars” by using keys on phones or computers. The system can also connect to smart bikes with handlebar controls.

You and your avatar can ride through various virtual worlds, and the system “neutralizes” differences in fitness so you can stay up with others while still being challenged. Instead of using a measure of aerobic power to dictate your avatar’s speed, Smash Your Fitness simply uses leg speed. This means a less fit user can keep up with someone fitter by reducing the resistance and pedaling faster.

Smash Your Fitness Virtual Cycling Platform

You can ride with others in real time, ride with bot pacers, or race and live chat with those around you.

There are also motivational challenges to provide longer-term goals that aren’t based on racing. Smash Your Fitness can track and notify you of breakthroughs in consistency, time, mileage, and other challenges. And, like other platforms, you earn “coins” that you can spend on virtual equipment and apparel.

Smash Your Fitness can also provide coaching. An AI “coach” describes structured workouts and advice and can base effort levels on power, heart rate, or perceived effort.

You can also upload your own ride files, and Smash Your Fitness will replicate them so you can enjoy some local routes in the virtual world.

In a nutshell, Smash Your Fitness provides most of the features of other more expensive and involved virtual cycling platforms, but with an egalitarian twist of normalizing fitness levels and drastically lowering the financial barrier to entry.

My Experience With Smash Your Fitness

I am fortunate to be able to use high-end indoor bike training equipment and services. So, my expectations were lower for something that costs as little as Smash Your Fitness.

Right away, I noticed that the graphics were not as refined or immersive due to a relative lack of details and smoothness. But I only noticed it because I have strong reference points. It didn’t at all reduce my enjoyment. It was like playing old video games. Asteroids, Defender, and Galaga are still fun to me, even though my kid’s phone apps have 1,000x better graphics.

I was immediately thrust into a virtual group, and it soon became apparent that pushing harder on the pedals to generate more power didn’t matter. I could generate huge wattage numbers (I was not syncing my smart trainer to the platform), but this ability didn’t put me out front. Only leg speed mattered.

As much as I felt this didn’t reward my decades of consistent training, I clearly saw that this was much more motivating to general fitness enthusiasts. It was the opposite of other platforms I use that directly penalize you for not creating as much power as those around you.

This took the motivation away from trying to attack someone, but I never got dropped. So, if I was looking for motivation for high-intensity bursts or intervals, it wasn’t nearly as prevalent with Smash Your Fitness; it was more up to me. But I could stay in the pack regardless of others’ abilities. I did see how this would be particularly beneficial to those new to riding and fitness.

Only because I use smart trainers and other platforms did I notice the obvious lack of power data. But again, I was aware that a general fitness participant wouldn’t care, and heart rate is plenty to monitor exercise intensity for this crowd. If a power-based trainer is synced to Smash Your Fitness, an algorithm provides the same equalizing effect to level the playing field.

Although the platform can connect to my smart trainer, I didn’t feel it necessary for what the product does. It is a low-cost, simple, inclusive, and entertaining way to help motivate someone to climb aboard the bike to promote compliance with an exercise routine. I also kept the steering and control options switched off, as it was awkward to steer using my computer.

Final Thoughts

Only What You Need for Fitness

I have the best of the best for indoor cycling training, and I’m grateful for all of it. But I do realize that most of my friends would not consider my setup. Unless they are at least recreationally competitive, they wouldn’t be able to justify the costs of other platforms.

Honestly, even though I can test, constantly see, and analyze metrics like current FTP, watts/kg, etc., the biggest reason I use things like Zwift is for distraction and entertainment. Occasionally, I do need power-based metrics. But it’s getting less important as I age and as I’ve moved away from racing.

If you are cycling for fitness and wellness, none of those things are necessary — maybe they are even detrimental. There is no need for comparisons against others, nor do you need to ride at your limit every time you get on the trainer. Riding for fitness doesn’t need or benefit from comparative metrics with others. The only comparisons that truly help are those with yourself.

Other platforms can compare you with others on purpose. Your watts/kilo or FTP is on screen in real time. You choose what group to ride with based on these metrics, and even if it’s just a “group ride,” it is a race much of the time. When a rider passes you, that cyclist’s watts/kilo or FTP is there to tell you how much fitter they are. Or, you get dropped and the smart trainer ups the resistance since you fell out of the “draft.”

Yes, these are motivating to the competitive sect. But maybe that’s not you.

Democratizes Indoor Bike Training

The beauty of Smash Your Fitness is that the system puts everyone on a level playing field. A brand-new, out-of-shape cyclist can ride with the group and never get dropped. There is no power reading, no FTP testing, and nothing from which to draw comparisons. It’s all geared to motivating you to get on that bike and join the group. It’s truly a “no-drop” ride, and there is no way of telling who is fitter or not as fit.

Plus, many more people can afford Smash Your Fitness than a smart trainer and power-based virtual platform. The cost differential between this and other options is astronomical. You can be all in, including a trainer, for $90 for 3 months to get you through the winter. And much less if you already have a trainer or a stationary bike.

Did I miss the advanced graphics, handlebar steering, or the climb simulator of my ultimate pain cave? Sure, if I thought about it. However, I strongly felt that Smash Your Fitness was completely adequate for the health and fitness crowd.

If you have deep-section carbon wheels and suffer for hours in an aero position to gain watts, this isn’t for you. If you want some motivation and distractions to help you comply with your cardiovascular exercise regime, this is great.

My one-phrase wrap-up: Smash Your Fitness is the people’s champ of indoor bike training systems.

Editor’s note: Smash Your Fitness is in the beta phase. Currently, most of the other virtual riders are bots, but the number of “real” riders will increase as the platform exits beta.