FTP stands for "Functional Threshold Power", which sounds complicated, but really just means the highest effort you could sustain for one hour, as measured in WATTS. Instead of leading you through an hour or longer workout to find this point, your instructor in an FTP class will instead guide you through a shorter class to perform a timed effort at a high, but sustainable effort. At the completion of this class, your FTP will be calculated by Stages Studio and updated in your account (unless you have disabled Automatically Update FTP under Settings>Power).

In order to calculate your FTP, Stages Studio will take the average power of your FTP test and subtract a percent. For a 20-minute test, for example, 95% of your average power is used for your new FTP. An accurate FTP will ensure that you are able to get the most out of your workouts with power by setting your zones correctly so that efforts are not too hard or too easy. The longer the FTP calc interval, the closer the average watts are to the actual FTP result. 

The following chart outlines four FTP calc interval length scenarios, where the example FTP calc result is 150 watts. Please note we rounded for simplicity. As an example, the 5 minute FTP calc estimates FTP to be 85% of that 5-minute effort's average watts. So, take 85% of the 177 average watts for the 5-minute effort, and the FTP estimate is 150 watts.

For more information about FTP, check with your instructor at your next Stages Studio class or submit a ticket here.