Not generating watts July 6th, 2024

Hi i am new to using smart trainers and im a little confused. Why can i not generate a good amount of watts even though im pedaling very hard? do i need to raise my trainer difficulty?

Trainer Difficulty won’t help. A higher value just makes climbs feel steeper.

Although that much is certain, the rest is hard to answer without more information about your trainer, and the gearing on your bike (if it’s a bicycle mounted on a trainer)

Hi @Kobe_Riley, welcome to the forums!
I’m Fernanda from Zwift.

Any start is hard, but you are not alone! I couldn’t miss the chance to help you with your watts issues. First of all, Paul is right, the trainer difficulty is not a solution, if you increase the trainer difficulty will only make you feel the hills steeper and you will need to shift more to maintain a healthy cadence.

If you are starting in this amazing Zwifting world, I want you to know that a healthy trainer’s difficulty will be 50%.

I took a moment to check the information of your account, and I can see that you are using a Zwift Hub and the firmware and game are up to date, so I would like to confirm with you the gearing you are using, riding in bigger gears at the same cadence makes for a consistently higher power output. You can apply this tip by spending progressively longer time in a bigger gear during a typical ride, and you will see a change in your watts.

Keep us posted! We want to see you enjoying the App!