The 3 Best and Worst Zwift Workouts, reviewed and ranked | 4 part scoring system

I take a look through the Zwift Workout library and pull out the best and worst workouts to review them.
Video was running a bit long so only ended up doing 3 best and 3 worst, not 4.
If you enjoy the videos, consider supporting the channel by buying some merch: www.nero.club/shop
📈 My Cycling Coaching services: www.nero.club/coaching
Follow me on Strava: / strava
0:00 Intro
0:29 Scoring System
1:27 Best workout 1
4:22 Worst workout 1
6:26 Best workout 2
8:39 Worst workout 2
10:58 Best workout 3
13:54 Worst workout 3

[@MoreBoingPlox]

It would be nice if the public could rate the workouts.

[@minchia04]

Thanks for the great video. Couple of suggestions, I preferred the rating out of 5 as it gives more range between bad and good, and maybe turn down the FTP setting for the review (maybe to 200w) to give us mere mortals a better perspective.

[@adamsims6490]

Yeah, I find percent of FTP much easier to relate too.

[@dan0368]

Haha, agreed. Maybe 250 even.

[@judas5951]

Yea :D Talking about a "Low Zone 2" at 222Watts...

[@robj9898]

Great video will definitely give the recommended workouts a try.

[@griffinevo3782]

Did the Expand yesterday, before seeing this video, and found it quite good. What I hadn't expected from the description was the focus on high cadence - those high intensity sections were at a cadence of over 100rpm. I had thought the high intensity blocks looked low but doing the ride they were much tougher than I expected.

[@adamsims6490]

'The McCarthy Special' is the hardest Zwift workout I've tried. So hard. 3 x 9min ramps. (3min @100% + 3min @112% + 3min @125%) x 3

[@dan0368]

That is one that scares me, and I've done The Gorby. :D

[@taylorbrasher4252]

ahhh that one is absolutely brutal!

[@andreal1647]

Done that IRL. It was even more brutal than on the turbo 👌

[@MegaMarkoni]

The only one I haven't finished... Failed at the last interval...

[@DoNuT_1985]

@@MegaMarkoni Same here, I do this once every season and get the same results. Second 125% FTP block gets hard in the final minute and on the third one, I make it about halfway through it, but you can feel my legs getting tired on the 115% segment. I must admit, I only do such workouts once in while because channels like Jesse's are praying that most people are not training enough at high intensity levels. I see more use in this one than in 7-watts-per-kilo intervals that I'll never ever need in my average endurance riding, anyway...

[@mohelu]

That’s was worth the watch! Would you consider reviewing Zwift Plans?

[@lsc5403]

Thanks Jesse. Watched in anticipation for The Gorby and pleased to see you rate it. I did that one a lot with great improvements. The trainer resistance gets harder to make you fail on last two. This is the best part! Beating the machine if you can. It’s like mtb death climbs.

[@cricanwa]

How do you know that the trainer resistance goes up in the last two sets? I've never heard of or experienced this.

[@devidia]

Cool! implemented a few into my database of workouts

[@alessiozanon2179]

Hi, cool video. For the first “Best workout “ I was thinking to reduce to 8 min the recovery from the two sets then add a 16 min recovery at the end, then repeat the two sets. Long story short : 18 min effort, 8 recovery 18 min effort, 16 recovery , 18 effort, 8 recovery 18 effort, cool down… yes not so “short”😅

[@petercallow353]

I’ve looked at the SST(Med) workout myself. If you plot the workout by %FTP and use the Coggan - based definitions, the harder 5-min blocks are on the boundary between sweetspot and threshold and the easier ones are on the lower boundary with tempo, so it looks like sweetspot training to me? Of course, each target has a range around it …. I agree that the short surge in the middle seems a bit pointless and I definitely agree with the point that doing this every day will quickly lead to burnout; so the description needs changing. Also, returning to Coggan, the tougher intervals are shorter than he would recommend (and, as you point out - are the easier ones needed at all?). You may argue that over-unders or threshold intervals are more efficient workouts (I agree), but some people get scared of these - because, as another KZbin channel presenter said “threshold intervals just suck” (not to avoid them, but if they’re done correctly, they are pretty tough). I can’t really comment on the other workouts, but Zwift does seem to have quite a lot of gimmicky ones that don’t really seem to achieve anything (other than getting you on the trainer - which is training, of sorts). Overall a video which made me stop and think a bit.

[@saracen888]

The Gorby aka The Quitter Me - fuckkk that *Jesse Coyle* - It’s a tough workout, I love it; inspirational You’re built different mate 😂

[@svh93]

would you recommend to just bump the percentage up a bit in the 'step by step' workout, so all of the blocks will be solid zone 5 work? Might be a solid workout then, considering your critique on it

[@tobiau2218]

14:40 The range of those power numbers is from 110% to 118% of FTP. Coggan's Z5 is 106 - 120% FTP. So it is entirely, medium to upper Z5. At least as accurate as anyone can guess someones Z5. Zwift thinks the same as expressed by the colour of the bars. Do you use different zone percentages?

[@GrouEEf]

The Gorby is a quite classic 5x5 vo2max tbh... It's slightly low imho, you should do it at 112%-115% from what I understand. That's propably not valid as the zwift ramptest overestimates FTP signifficantly.

[@BarePotato]

Can you do this for Trainerroad? I usually use their workout instead of the ones in Zwift.

[@nbo7063]

Can you do this for Trainerroad?

[@winbrendan]

Can you do best and worst base, build, race workouts -agnostic to zwift

[@dan0368]

ZwiftInsider brought me here, nice video. Could you do a similar video with a workout plan or two in Zwift? I know that will be a lot more work, but doesn't hurt to ask!

[@nerocoaching]

Thanks Dan. I've had a look at the Zwift plans, it's not really something I have too much to say about negatively as they don't proclaim to be something they aren't. They are realistic with what they provide, which is some structure to a few weeks of indoor training to get you closer so a goal. If you are only training indoors, they do a good job of that for a beginner level rider IMO

[@dan0368]

@@nerocoaching thanks! I'm going to give build me up a try this winter. Last winter I was all over the place and didn't really grow my ftp at all.

[@zBordiYT]

The Gorby is definitely too hard for me!! Can't push that power from the 4th set 🤔😱

[@MateusMartinss]

I like the video, In summary: 5x5 @ 105% and 6x3m @ vo2Max and 2x20m sweet spot, that's all that matters

[@DISCOhooch]

Hi. What do u think about Zwf Academy 2021 workouts, Over/Under and Lactate Tolerance. Thanks.

[@nerocoaching]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoeae6qsncegfLM

[@DISCOhooch]

@@nerocoaching lol i choosed 2 high scored workouts :D

[@sebastiankita]

i have not tried gorby but I have done much "harder" workouts like 6x8 min with 4 min recovery at threshold / 105-110% ftp and it was relatively easy. so it seems impossible not to be able to finish it.

[@ronp5615]

The Gorby and The Wringer!

[@MartinOroszi]

Re SST what do you recommend to take as a % of your FTP? I usually go with 88%-94%, however i find there is a big difference between the two ends. (say doing a 4x10) Cheers

[@nerocoaching]

Yeh that's a massive range, I find about 91% to be the "sweet spot" of sweet spot 😛

[@MrTimZoR1337]

@@nerocoaching now all we need is the duration sweet spot of a SST workout :) probably depends on your training goals. But if I want to train for a race that will take me about 90 minutes to finish. Is 60 min the sweet spot?

[@weiwenng8096]

Speaking of this, I believe the Zwift SST workouts are set at 95% FTP. And maybe it’s just me, but I always find them really draining. The tempo blocks seem to leave me really drained. I have liked the ODZwift workouts, but for some reason, those are not always on the list of workouts.

[@jhref]

They give massive recovery intervals because most people on zwift are rolling around with a FTP estimate that is WAYYYY too high. They'd have tiny completion rates if they did the 6-8 min recovery.

[@nerocoaching]

I'd agree with this, especially if using "road" FTP which is usually higher than trainer FTP for most people

[@rz1653]

I have to ride around with an FTP estimate WAYYYY to high because otherwise all workouts would be too easy

[@dropatrain]

but I NEED the tempo bits cuz the sweet spot bits are too haaard ='(((

[@alex9046]

Gorby AKA The Quitter AKA I dont think your FTP is what you say it is

[@lachlan_bakewell]

I can't finish the gorby with my FTP set accurately. The 4th interval breaks me and I can only get through 2 minutes on the last interval. Definitely pushing the limits which is good. Can't imagine the average cyclist doing this twice a week.