Under Construction This Coming Weekend

ACE Approved! Conference Participants Can Earn 1.4 ACE CECs

I was just notified by our Education Coordinator Heather Sawdey that the  American Council on Exercise has approved the Indoor Cycle Instructor PRO Conference for 1.4 Continuing Education Credits.

If you register by September 7th this will be the best deal for CEC’s on the planet!

What are you waiting for? Register now!

Never lose sight of your passion!

Tuesday morning, three totally unrelated experiences prompted me to do some thinking on passion for this “sport” of ours (indoor cycling), and I realized these three moments ended up having an inexplicable link to them.

First, as I was driving I put on my iPod and dialed in a playlist for a profile I call the Zen of Cycling. It is a profile based on a ride in Italy south of Siena that I dubbed the Zen of Cycling because it’s one of the more beautiful and awe-inspiring roads I’ve ridden and where I love to send my self-guided bike tour clients (some of you may know that I organize bicycle tours to Italy and France in my ‘other life’). It’s not an easy ride, but the overwhelming beauty helps you forget the challenge. I often conjure up images of this road when I’m riding indoors, reflecting on my passion for cycling, both indoors and out.

As a result of this ride, I created a profile in my Spin class called the Zen of Cycling Read more…

Krankcycle at IDEA – Interview with Mike Michaels

I participated in a Krankcycle orientation yesterday at 501Spin in Minneapolis. Part of the training used the Suunto Fitness Solution I will be talking about it on our next podcast but wanted you to see my interview from IDEA.

Small Class? Maybe It Isn’t Your Fault…

What if you discovered, after struggling with a consistently small class, that the problem wasn’t you or your teaching, but that people simply couldn’t find your studio when searching online?

Now you may be thinking; “John, my studio has a web site.” “When someone Googles [indoor cycling class or Spinning class + your city] I’m certain we show up.”

You know what they say about making assumptions…

I teach for a large “Big Box” health club and I always assumed that they were great marketers. They would never make the simple mistake of not being Findable online.

So for fun I decided to try a search for myself. I Googled [Indoor Cycling Eden Prairie, MN] and the results floored me. None of my clubs showed up on the map Google showed. NOT ANY OF THEM! Just two bike shops. Please forgive me when I tell you that my initial reaction was WT_ is this!

Click here to see a map I made showing all the Indoor Cycling Studios missing from the results in Google from my little corner of the world. This isn’t Google’s fault. It’s a complete oversight by my club’s management and/or whoever is responsible for online marketing.

Now if I have you just a little curious, try this Online Findability Test on your studio or club…

Pretend you woke up this morning and decided to take your very first Spinning Indoor Cycling Class. Two questions you need answered are; “where can I find a class” and “what times are the class”

Most people nowadays will do a simple Google (or Yahoo or Bing) search for indoor cycling & the name of your town. Try it now and see what you find. If you also teach another format try that as well.

What did you find? A Map listing? Search results listing? Nothing?

If you did find your studio or club on the (hopefully) first page, click on the link and see where is takes you. Does it obvious answer those two questions; “where is it” and “what time is the class” ???

Leave me a comment with the results of your search.

Now many of you know that I’m all about solving problems for myself and other Fitness Professionals. So I have started a new blog and Podcast all about solving this problem of Online Findability for the studios where many of us teach.

Check it out at Fitness Studio Marketing if you are interested… or maybe forward the link to someone who has some work to do

ICI Podcast #115 – Pain Prevention Expert Leslie Mueller Will Be Presenting at the ICI/PRO Conference

Triathlete and Pain Prevention Expert Leslie Mueller will be presenting at the ICI/PRO Conference this October. Leslie will be teaching two sessions on Body Alignment Exercises for Cyclists.

Instead of just stretching our students and sending them out the door, Leslie will help us to understand how to return Indoor Cyclists to proper alignment through a series of exercises you will be able to bring back to your next class.

You can learn more about Leslie and how you can Train and Race Pain Free

Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using or

ICI/PRO Member Doug Rusho’s Cycling Fusion Top 10 Contest Video

Cycling Fusion is conducting a search for America’s Top 10 Indoor Cyclists and ICI/PRO member Doug Rusho has this video up on YouTube.

Congratulations Doug! I realize that it take’s a special confidence to “put yourself out there” and be judged by your peers!

You can find more entry videos here. Info on the Conference is here.

Rock ‘n Roller Climbs

Inspired by the comments from a previous post on whether to sit or stand on climbs, especially the comments from Tom Scotto adding the element of cadence to the discussion, I realized I need to challenge my own ability to pedal faster uphill. So I put together a profile on higher cadence climbs. It turned out to be a really hard and really fun class – it challenged me, and my students really enjoyed it.

Of course, the profile is now in the Audio PROfile line (which by the way, has become quite long). This profile was so fun that it might cut in line a bit. I can’t promise when it will be, but methinks you will all like this one!

So this post is not the profile of this ride, but the thinking that led to it, as well as the Rock ‘n Roll playlist.

This is a generalism that is mostly, but not always true: A lot of the electronic music with a heavy beat that I love to climb to in my classes tends towards the slower climbing range of 55-70bpm. And coincidentally, that’s the cadence I tend to ride outdoors on the long hard climbs that surround me up here in the Rocky Mountains. Mind you I am often in my smallest gear at that cadence (with compact gearing suited for climbing), sometimes already at my threshold on a 5-8 mile climb. So simply pedaling faster isn’t always the answer. Doing so will bring me to a breathless state with many miles left to go. My goal is to work hard this winter on fixing that through specialized training.

Here is a famous quote I just made up: Read more…

Indoor Cycling Instructor saves endangered turtle

ICI interviewed for Toronto Globe and Mail article on Tour de France Indoor Cycling Programs

Towards the end of July, the Canadian newspaper The Toronto Globe and Mail highlighted several clubs who simulated Tour de France profiles in their indoor cycling classes. They contacted me and interviewed me in depth about how (and why) to create Tour de France profiles for indoor cycling classes. Unfortunately the title they chose for the article is less than desirable, “Tour de Fake”, but the content is actually quite good. Click here to read the article. (It’s not the hapless journalist’s fault – someone else besides the person who wrote the article writes the article headlines. See below for my letter to the editor).

The Toronto indoor cycling facility highlighted in this article is called Cykl. The owner, Kim Donnelly, is an ICI/PRO member and recently followed her dream of opening her own studio. Kim chose Real Ryder bikes for her studio which give the ride a very realistic feel because they allow a side-to-side movement. (We hope to give you an ICI review of Real Ryder bikes soon). She created a 21-day challenge for her Tour de France program and even used it as a promotional opportunity to raise awareness of her new studio. This is brilliant, because anything creative you can do to raise awareness is going to help. To the left is the poster they created.

Kim had a clever way to keep track of each class attended by members. She had a “leader board” and posted yellow, green, or red dots for each class they attended. Yellow was for endurance-based stages, green for interval/HIT, and red for the climbing stages – they awarded prizes in each category at the end of the three weeks. Here is what that leader board looked like: Read more…

Paco Gonzalez – Keiser International Cycling Master Trainer

Paco is one of our featured presenters at this years ICI/PRO conference and there’s still room for you
Click here for more info and to reserve your bike.

Questions from readers: “Quad Isolations”

We received this question from a reader:

First I want to thank you for the tutorials on mixing the music and counting the beats. I have a question -  I overheard some indoor enthusiasts that like “X” indoor instructor because she makes them isolate their quad muscles a lot. My question is; is it safe to isolate quads in a steady bike? Can it cause any knee problems in the future or other injury? Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I really appreciate it.
Cheers, Cristina

Before I tell you my response to her question, let me share with you Christina’s email back to me after she received my answer:

I can’t believe you took time to answer me. “I still can’t believe it!” Yes, “X” trainer makes them run with resistance and then pedaling in slow motion, isolate the quads.  …Once more Thank you for answering my E-mail.

I’ve gotten a few other very surprised responses when I’ve answered questions sent in by readers. Many of those questions have led to blog posts, so it’s been a great way for me to know what you, the indoor cycling instructor, want or need to know.

For example, this was a response to an in-depth answer I gave to a reader on threshold training which led to a series of blog posts on threshold as well as the interval series April through June:

Hi Jennifer
I really appreciate your very thorough answer…thank you. I am a member of ICI and read all of your posts and listen to the podcasts.  I do have one more question…when you do LT repeats,  is there a set work to recovery ratio that you use?  What you and John are doing is really really great! I get information that I use in my classes every week.  Not to speak poorly of [name of a well-known indoor cycling company that will remain anonymous], but to say that the ICI site makes their site look lame is an understatement.
Thanks again,
Lisa

This is one of the things that sets ICI apart from the “big guys”. We want to interact with you. We want to be there to answer your questions whenever possible. It is our goal to help instructors become better at what they do, and one way to do this is through personal interaction. What other indoor cycling company can you contact directly with a question and get a personalized answer like this? Read more…

ICI Podcast #114 – What Was Cool, Notable and Disappointing At IDEA This Year

Keiser's Suzette O'Byrne preps us for a class on the M3

Jennifer interviews me about my experiences at the IDEA Fitness Conference.

Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using or

Changes are a coming!

We are making a number of big changes to indoorcycleinstructor.com and it’s our hope to be ready to implement them (fingers crossed) over the Labor Day weekend September 4th – 5th. The changes include a much improved navigation system, a new community building tool and a better look and feel of the site. Stay tuned…

Hills – Should I sit or should I stand?

This question comes up frequently from Spinning and indoor cycling instructors. How do I know when I should sit or stand on a hill?

The reasons why you would stand on a hill in an indoor cycling class are (or should be) the same reasons you would stand on a hill on your bike outside. Standing allows you to generate more power, so you would stand if, for whatever reason, you needed to generate more power. This could be because the hill got steeper, you wanted to accelerate, you are fatiguing and need some assistance to overcome your gear, or you were really motivated to get up this hill. A race, a personal challenge, a dog chasing you, approaching thunder clouds could all motivate you to want to get up the hill faster. But standing will in most cases raise your heart rate (not in everyone’s case however – some have such great skill that they can keep their heart rates steady when they stand). Increased heart rate may or may not be your goal. If it is, by all means, stand up and power your way through the hill.

Your training objective will also dictate whether you sit or stand. Read more…

New TowelMate™ Fitness Club & Studio Towel Protects Your New iPhone While You Workout

Does your Health/Fitness Club have a sign like this in the locker room? And a similar sign in the parking lot saying essentially the same thing? You shouldn’t leave your your new 4G iPhone or wallet in your car or the club’s locker, so what do you do?

Bring them on the gym floor safe and snug in the waterproof pocket of the new TowelMate™

Watch the video below to see why you might want one for yourself and possibly recommend them to your club.

IDEA’s Fitness Connect

Fitness Connect from IDEA is something I feel all of us Group Fitness Professionals and Fitness Studio owners need to jump on soon. I’m scheduling an interview with IDEA’s head of business development for a future Podcast. In the mean time if you are an Indoor Cycling Instructor with a Spinning® or other certification, Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer or you own or manage a Fitness Club or Studio here are a few thoughts about why I feel you need a profile there.

1) Rise above the noise and be found by standing on IDEA’s shoulders. The internet is an enormous place. Search engines sift through billions of web pages in their effort to deliver a relevant  result to what could become your next client, member or student. Your profile on Fitness Connect has a much better chance of being displayed because www.ideafit.com is seen as a respected source by Google and other search engines.

Read more…

Cool Stuff and Random Observations From IDEA

Here are some of what I came away with from IDEA.   I do plan to expand on some of this with Jennifer as a new Podcast episode soon.

• My biggest takeaway from the entire conference… I saw approximately the same Threshold Power (240 watts) on the Schwinn AC Performance, Keiser M3 and CycleOps Indoor Cycles. I know it isn’t exactly scientific, but I took classes on all three power bikes and I was encouraged to see they all read similar power. This Threshold Power squares with Cycling Fusion’s Power Charts that predict ~ 1.2 – 1.6 watts per pound for a reasonably fit cyclist – I’m 160lbs x 1.5 watts per lb = 240 watts.
• Does the “F” word belong in your class? How about a conference session? I talked with an Instructor who was very upset about the language used in a Saturday 7:30am session.  I’m digging into it more…
• Based on many of the Instructors I saw here in Southern CA  you can never be too fit, too thin or too tan
• I have a bunch of short video Interviews, including Paco Gonzalez who will be presenting at our October conference.
• If you ever get the chance to attend any training where Jay Blahnik is the presenter… GO!
• Everyone needs a profile (Instructor and/or Club-Studio)  on IDEA Fitness Connect . IDEA launched Fitness Connect this weekend as the largest fitness professional directory, connecting more than 16 million consumers to more than 100,000 fitness professionals with credentials verified by the top 14 fitness certification bodies. Completely free and you do not need to be an IDEA member.
  

  Your profile on these sites coming late in 2010

  I have already set up mine (and the two clubs where I teach) here.

• TRX is going to take over the fitness world… it’s only a mater of time…

More to come.

Direct from IDEA

WOW! What an exhausting (but fun and productive) week at the IDEA fitness conference in LA. There is so much I want to share with everyone and I hope to post as much as possible over the next week or so. I’ll start with the best part, meeting some ICI/PRO members who were attending!

Darlene and Me doing one of my self-photos

I met Darlene Levin on Friday and we had a fun conversation until she was distracted by another John. Then I got to play photographer.

Darlene Levin and Johnny G

Then on Saturday I met Kerri Fleisher just before taking a CycleOps Threshold class. Kerri is from Las Vegas and she showed me some of the very cool class videos she makes using clips from Music Videos. She then shows them using her iPad. I need one of those… Kerri also showed me some video clips of indoor cycling classes she does with very young athletes. If we can make it happen I would love to have her on the Podcast to talk more about it.

Kerri Fleisher and Me

Where’s John?

Hold on to your hats everyone because John is at the IDEA conference in Los Angeles this weekend, microphone and video camera in hand. The next few weeks promise to be very enlightening as ICI probes the indoor cycling and fitness industry about new products, current product improvements, programs and auxiliary products and services to improve your life as an indoor cycling instructor. Also, as we inch closer to the ICI/PRO conference in Boston, only 2 months away, we will be talking with everyone involved in the conference, from presenters to sponsors, giving you a little hint of what you can expect to learn and experience when you join us October 8-10th. Some of those people/products are at IDEA this weekend, so John will get a head start with them; others we will interview on our podcast in the next 4-6 weeks.

It is our goal to make the ICI/PRO conference an over-the-top learning experience for everyone. Not just fluff classes, but lectures and profiles based on sound training principles. Not to worry – fun and training aren’t  mutually exclusive – we’ll show you how to have both!

We are busy, busy, busy so we can help YOU get ready for an amazing season as an indoor cycling coach!