Pre-Season: How to Maximise Training Off-Feet

Pre-season is where foundations are built, where future wins are shaped and where smart teams separate themselves from the pack. For professional teams, this period isn’t just about “getting back to fitness”, it’s a precise window to test, build, condition and optimise. In 2025, this means utilising the most advanced data-driven tools and protocols available.

At Wattbike, we work with elite teams across rugby, football, cycling, and more. Based on real-world use and expert feedback, here’s how the smartest teams are approaching pre-season, on and off their feet.

Be Ready, Be Equipped: Why Pre-Season Demands the Best Kit

In elite sport, every session counts. Starting pre-season with outdated, inaccurate, or non-specific training equipment is a risk no top team can afford.

The Wattbike AtomX and Air-Pro have become go-to tools for high-performance environments because they deliver reliable data, are robust, and are highly responsive to athlete output. With tools like real-time power monitoring, live cadence tracking, and seamless integration to third-party apps and performance platforms, our bikes enable teams to:

• Accurately assess athlete readiness
• Monitor daily adaptations
• Fine-tune intensity in real time
• Train in multiple formats, high intensity, endurance and recovery
  
  

Off-Feet Conditioning: A Smarter Start to Pre-Season

In the lead-up to pre-season, we caught up with Scarlets Rugby’s Head of Performance, Shane Carney, to discuss how they integrate Wattbike into their preparation. Here’s what he had to say:

“Pre-season is always a high-risk period for soft tissue injuries—especially when players go straight back into pitch-based work,” 

“That’s why we, like many top teams, now start with off-feet conditioning. It allows us to target cardiovascular and muscular adaptations early on, without the impact stress that often leads to injury.

The Wattbike plays a key role in this phase, it reduces joint loading, lets us train at intensity, and helps athletes build volume safely. It doesn’t replace on-feet work, but it sets the physical foundation before we reintroduce running.”

Shane Carney - Scarletts Rugby Head of Athletic Performance

Using the Wattbike in this phase helps:

• Reduce early-season joint and ligament loading
• Maintain high training intensities without mechanical strain
• Allow for volume accumulation safely
  

Programming For Off-Feet Conditioning

Once a players FTP is established, conditioning can be dialled in precisely and coaches can use a players FTP to ellicit specific zones of training. Some typical off-feet sessions based on FTP might look like this:

Aerobic Builder

• Duration: 30–60 min continuous @ 70–75% FTP
• Cadence: 85–95 rpm
• Goal: Base fitness with low neuromuscular strain 
• Can progress sessions weekly with duration

Aerobic Tempo Sets

• Duration: 45 minutes
• 10 minutes warm-up (gradual ramp from 60–70% FTP)
• 4 x 8 minutes @ 80–85% FTP, 2 min spin recovery
• 5 minutes cool-down @ 50-60% FTP
  
  

Anaerobic Conditioning

• Duration: 30 minutes
• 6 x 30 sec @ 150-175% FTP
• 4.5 minutes active recovery @ 60% FTP
  
  

Pre-Session Primer

• Duration: 10 minutes
• 5 minutes ramp up each minute increaseing FTP by 5% @ 60–80% FTP
• Rest 2 minutes
• 3 x 10 sec high-cadence, moderate resistance sprints (95–110 rpm)
• 2 minutes flush @ 40-60% FTP between sets
• Ideal before skill or speed sessions
  

Active Recovery Protocol

• Duration: 15–20 minutes @ 55–65% FTP
• Cadence: Light and smooth (80–90 rpm)
• Optional: Include short neuromuscular “primers” (3 x 6 sec fast spins) to stimulate CNS without fatigue

This is especially effective 24–48 hours post high-load training or match simulation days, preparing the body and getting it back to baseline.

All of these sessions can run concurrently with rehab, technical drills, or early tactical blocks, delivering aerobic and anaerobic benefits without competing for central fatigue.

Win the Season Before It Starts

Pre-season is where champions are made. It’s the opportunity to individualise, test, build and refine with Wattbike. Meaning that teams who take a smarter, more data-driven, and safer approach will be the ones flying when it comes to the big games and matches.

With tools like the Wattbike Air-Pro and AtomX, coaches can deliver elite-level programming tailored to their team’s demands, without any compromise.

Ready to power your pre-season?

Speak to our performance team today to discover which of our elite-grade commercial bikes is the perfect fit for your club. Let’s build your edge before the season starts. 

https://commercial.wattbike.com/pages/distro-uk