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Defined:

FTP is often used as the most accessible measure of fitness – when combined with weight and ideally heart rate data.

If you’re training for an event, you can measure FTP every four weeks to track progress. If the number goes up without your weight also increasing, you should have become fitter.

The ideal situation is that FTP has gone up, weight has gone down and heart rate to produce the same power is lower – but unless you’re starting from a fairly low level of fitness it would be incredibly hard to manage all three.

Coaches and athletes will usually focus on a range of power figures – for example, 5 seconds, one minute and 5 minutes as well as FTP numbers when determining a rider’s program – however, FTP still holds a very strong significance. Of course, if shorter efforts are more important to your goals, you may wish to focus your attention there, instead.