Indoor Cycling Instructor saves endangered turtle

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.

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…

International Indoor Cycling Instructors Invited To Compete

(MMD Newswire) July 30, 2010 — Dedicated “Spinning®” students or those who attend any Indoor Cycling class, know what a difference a great instructor can make.  Now local fans can prove just how great their favorite instructors are by urging them to enter the first contest of its kind: The World’s Top Ten Indoor Cycling Instructors Contest.  In an unprecedented move to identify the best of the best, Cycling Fusion has put together a contest to find top shelf talent for teaching what is arguably the most popular group exercise class in the fitness industry – Spinning® or Indoor Cycling.

“For three years now, we have been working on finding ways to share all the great things about this indoor activity with the entire cycling community – whether they ride indoors our out.  This contest should help us find the people that are going to ultimately be the next driving force for change and expansion of the indoor ride.”  Gene Nacey, Founder of Cycling Fusion.

Ten instructors will be judged from a group of 40 finalists by a panel of Spinning(R) and Indoor Cycling experts, as the World’s 10 best at their craft.  The panel will score each instructor on a number of categories, with the highest rated woman, and the highest rated man each earning the top prize of a Keiser m3 power bike for their home.

All 10 Winners will also have their registration to the Indoor Cycle Instructor PRO Conference reimbursed, and be offered an opportunity to teach at the conference in October.  Most importantly though, all ten winners will receive a formal invitation to join Cycling Fusion’s Instructor Faculty where instructors are paid for recorded classes that will be shown all over the world.  Scoring will begin on June 1st with final submissions due by August 31st, 2010.

The contest is open only to participants eighteen (18) years of age and older, who are Spinning(R) or Indoor Cycling Instructors currently teaching in a commercial fitness facilities.

Spinning(R) is registered trademark of Mad Dogg Athletics, Inc.  Mad Dogg Athletics is not involved with the contest.

Registration for the Indoor Cycle Instructor PRO Conference is now open!

6/17  7:32 CST Update – We have a huge storm here. Before my Internet fails I thought I should post the links! Jennifer and I are excited to meet everyone!

ICI/PRO Conference links

Link to the Sessions Descriptions
http://icipromedia.s3.amazonaws.com/ICIPROICIPRO_Conference_Sessions_Descriptions.pdf

Link to register for the conference
https://www.regonline.com/ICIPRO_conference

Link to reserve your discounted room at the hotel

https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_gi_new&groupID=2645474

Link to a 25% discount to the COCO Key Water Resort

https://shop.accesso.com/clients/coco/affiliate/index.php?m=4522

Discount codes to the Water Resort:

User Name Cycle 2010 and Password Cycle 2010 to access the discounted rates.

ICI Podcast #103 – Are You One Of America’s Top 10 Indoor Cycling Instructors?

Announcing a contest to correspond with The Indoor Cycle Instructor PRO Conference.

America’s Top 10 Indoor Cycling Instructors Contest

Watch the video and then listen to the Podcast below. Visit www.cyclingfusion.com to submit your application.

Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using or

Ride for a Reason – 6 hour ride in Burlington Vermont

Six hours on a bike…phew! Usually I’m not timid about spending that long on a bike saddle, but prior to this ride I have to admit I was having doubts about both my fitness and my ability to sit on a saddle for six hours. With vacation and other obligations in the month prior, I was too busy to squeeze in the required (and desired) saddle time.

The event was the 10th annual Ride for a Reason, originally started by longtime former Spinning Master Instructor Joey Adams in Burlington, VT. Joey passed the torch to others who have continued this awesome event. This year, riders raised $25,000 for the Vermont Special Olympics! ICI medical expert and Star 3 Spinning Instructor Melissa Marotta invited me to be a part of the instructor team and it was an honor to be there.

I don’t recommend doing a six hour ride with this little training, but I made it (or maybe you can say, “I faked it” well)! Read more…

ICI/PRO members: Teleseminar Tonight!

The Teleseminar on “Are You Alone in Keeping it Real” is tonight. 8:00 EST

Dial-in to (402) 237-2015
Access Code 638844#

Just so you know, when I say “Keeping it Real” I am referring to an instructor who refrains from doing things in class that go against what we know to be proper, effective, productive and safe techniques in an indoor cycling class.

It doesn’t mean you have to be a cyclist, just that you understand that this still IS a bike and we shouldn’t pretend it isn’t. An instructor who understands that high cadence with little to no resistance doesn’t work and is in fact counterproductive (I would even say, it is “lying” to the students if they believe they are getting a benefit). An instructor who refrains from those silly circus tricks (contraindicated, unsafe moves or techniques) and sticks to the basics. Yet an instructor who is surrounded by other instructors, even management, that employ and even condone these things.

What’s an instructor in this position to do?

Judging by the number of emails I’ve received on the topic, it’s a very pertinent issue to many of you. Hope to see (hear) you tonight!

Remember, you can email me a question you’d like me to cover if you can’t make it tonight. (The recording will be available in a few days).

jennifer@indoorcycleinstructor.com.

April Teleseminar – Are you alone in Keeping it Real at your Club?

Instead of trying to squeeze in an ICI/PRO teleseminar in the next week to make up for when I was gone, we are going to announce our April topic early to get you excited for it and to start preparing early. I apologize for not being able to make the March one work out, but it’s more important to me to have time to prepare and have a quality discussion with a lot of attendees than to try to rush one with very few people on the call. Do you agree?

You’ll see that it’s a topic that is near and dear to me – those of you who have known me for years through Funhogspins and/or Spinning and WSSC will know this to be true! I believe it will be a VERY important and interesting topic, and we hope to have as many of you as possible on the call with us to discuss this very relevant issue:

• Are you alone in Keeping it Real at your club?
• Do you feel like you are the only instructor who doesn’t do contraindicated, unsafe moves?
• Are the other classes wrought with aerobics-on-the-bike moves and super-high intensity, and are they the most popular classes?
• Do you lack the support of management when you do try to keep your classes safe, effective and relevant to real-life cycling?
• Do you feel pressure from the members or management to add crazy moves to your profiles?
• Are you known as being too “easy” at times because you vary your intensity and don’t push the members hard in every class?
• What are some solutions to these problems?

I’m not going to discuss the actual contraindicated moves  themselves – that will be the subject of a different podcast and/or teleseminar. Also, most of the physiological and biomechanical reasons why one shouldn’t do them are explained in detail in my eBook Keep it Real. Instead, what we will discuss is the following:

• What can you do about it?
• How do you stick to your guns and do what you know is right?
• How do you diplomatically explain it to your class the reasons why you don’t do pushups or popcorn jumps and more without alienating your peers, putting anyone else down, and still remain proud of what you do?
• How to stay professional and appear confident when discussing the above.

After I give you my take on these issues and more, we will open up the discussion to your questions. I also hope to give some real-life examples from those of you who ave encountered this situation and the steps you have taken to Keep it Real and do what you know is right. If you cannot make it to our teleconference on Sunday, April 4th at 8pm EST, then please email me with either your question or your story on how you handled the situation. jennifer@indoorcycleinstructor.com

As usual, the audio of the discussion will be posted the following week for ICI/PRO members.

2010 Ride of a Life Time Fitness Registration

I'm planning to ride this. Are you?

Life Time Fitness is planning an Indoor Cycling world record attempt on March 7th 2010 in Minneapolis MN.

Here is the link for more info on how to register so you can join me there.

Monthly Teleseminar to answer your questions on threshold

This Sunday at 8pm EST we are planning to hold our monthly teleseminar. The topic is any question you may have about lactate threshold and field testing. This is very timely, especially as I continue to feed you with more training information on threshold, more science, more ways to teach your students about testing and threshold-based heart rates, modifications, training zones, etc. I can answer your questions by email or in the comments section, but what better way than to have an interactive discussion on a subject that is potentially confusing? This will be awesome and we really hope a lot of you will join us. I’d love to grow our teleseminar numbers each and very month and encourage you to call in if you’ve never tried it out.

However….there’s some eeensy-weeensy sporting event that decided to schedule itself that same evening*…

Now, we’d would prefer to keep it on schedule if possible, and aside from one person who has told us she’s going to a Superbowl party and cannot make it, we haven’t gotten any feedback even from our regulars about not being able to make it to the call due to the football game. So we’re leaning towards doing it anyway. You can always email me your threshold or field testing question and I’ll answer it on the call and you can listen to the audio later on.

On the other hand, if only 5 people are going to make it, it might be wise to postpone it a week. We’ve had some good turnouts the past couple of calls and this particular subject is very important to almost everyone (judging from the comments and emails I’ve gotten). It is one of the cornerstone’s of ICI’s philosophy of teaching.

What do you think? Speak up now or forever hold your peace! If we don’t hear from you, we will stay on schedule and will assume you’re going to join us this Sunday. But if by Sunday morning a lot of you let us know how much of a Saints or Colts fan you are, then we’ll put it off one week.

Either way, check your email sunday for an update and the call-in number. (By the way, the call-in number and code are the same every month).

* can you tell neither John nor I are football fans? Although I kinda like this guy Peyton Manning. You’d never know my brother is a well-known winning high-school football coach in San Diego!

Spinning® Nation 2010 2/27/10

Will you be there?

Here is the link for more information Spinning® Nation 2010 2/27/10

ICI/PRO Members Giving Back

ICI/PRO Member Linda Hollinshead wrote me to explain that she couldn’t be on the monthly Tele-Seminar call yesterday because she had some community service planned. Linda was one of Santa’s Elves making cat beds for a shelter near Asheville, NC. Maxx, my 4 lb Yorkie, would fit right into one of those baskets.  If you are involved in a service project like this, send me some pictures and I will post them.

ICI/PRO November Tele-Seminar call with Jennifer Sage

My Great Grandfather, circa 1890

November’s call with Jennifer Sage. We discuss Cycling Specific classes; what they are and how to teach them.

We Record these live via telephone. The quality is kind of crappy but the content is good.

The next call will be on December 6th. If you are not a member what are you waiting for? CEC’s are coming in January and we offer a no risk money back guarantee. Not for just 30, 60 or 90 days. Our guarantee is for the total duration of your subscription. More info here.
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Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using iTunes or Zune.

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I have created a page with pictures of my Great – Grandfather; Ernest Macgowan here. Ernest raced bicycles near the turn of the 20th century. I never knew him and found these pictures only after my Grandfather died, so these pictures are all I have.

The Next Teleseminar is on Cycling Specificity – is it important and why

Our monthly teleseminar for ICI/PRO members will be on a topic that I think everyone will want to hear.We’ll be discussing why it’s important that your classes are cycling specific – whether you or your students ride a bike outside or not. I will give you many reasons why, and will dispell the belief by some instructors that cycling-specific means “boring”. It doesn’t mean you have to stay seated for the whole time, and it doesn’t mean you can’t still have a lot of fun! My classes are fun, and they are cycling specific. Come find out what I mean by that.

However…we have to postpone the regularly scheduled first Sunday of the month by one week, if that’s OK with you all, due to John’s long-scheduled trip to Jamaica to teach at a facility down there. We did try to find a way to make it work through Skype, but the honest truth is, we’re fairly new to this technology just as many of you are. Johns’ the tech guy and I’m the content gal, and the tech stuff just throws me for a loop! I would have had to be managing the teleseminar software, and he’d call in on skype from jamaica.

It just made more sense in the long run to wait until he gets back. I hope that’s ok with you all! It also gives you a little time to come up with some questions on why cycling specificity is important in your classes. You can ask them directly on the call, or email them in to me if you aren’t going to be able to make it. The telecast recording will be made available afterwards to ICI/PRO members in the days following the call, so don’t worry if you can’t make it!

Save the date: Sunday November 8th, 8pm eastern time.

We need a day of of our own

Wouldn’t it be cool if we, indoor cycling instructors, studios, enthusiasts, etc, had our own Indoor Cycling Day?

A special day where we would celebrate the move indoors as the days get colder and shorter?

Daylight Saving Day is the first Sunday in November (Nov. 1st this year) here in the USA, one week after our European friends (Oct 25th). This change in time and weather has always triggered the change in my own personal training schedule; except for an occasional ride on some odd nice weekend day, this is when I make the move indoors.

What if we celebrated Daylight Saving Day as our own “Indoor Cycling Day”. Does that make sense to you?

Perhaps you could plan a long endurance ride to welcome back everyone you haven’t seen in months; maybe we could tie it in with a fund raising event?

Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments box below. And, if you feel inclined, may you could volunteer to help with creating the actual event that we can promote right here on ICI.

Our Master Instructor is off to Interbike in Las Vegas

Our favorite Master Instructor is at Interbike this week promoting her VivaTravels Bicycle Touring Company.

Interbike on www.indoorcycleinstructor.com

Interbike is a huge trade show all about Bikes! Everything and anything relate (even remotely) with bicycles is on display there.

Jennifer will be reporting in soon as to all the cool bike stuff she saw and people she met.  Then Jennifer and I are meeting in the Denver Airport Thursday night as the start of a long weekend of, recording, Podcasting and writing the Audio PROfiles that our ICI/PRO members will be teaching the following week.

30 Year High School Reunion Day

Hard to believe but 30 years ago this summer I was heading off to college with my great hair.

To celebrate in my class this morning I used my favorite climbing song;  Strangle Hold (live version) from Ted Nugent. 8 min+ at 74 RPM.

I asked the class to visualize sitting in a smoke filled (don’t ask what kind) basement in 1979, listening to this record for the first time and knowing that 30 years later you would be climbing with it in a Indoor Cycling class.

I didn’t make any of previous reunions….I wonder how my old girlfriends look?

20 Years of Step Aerobics started with Gin Miller

What Johnny G is to Spinning & Indoor Cycling, Gin Miller is to Reebok Step Aerobics. This year at IDEA they are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Gin’s creation.

Gin’s story is very similar to Johnny G’s. They both needed to train differently, created a prototype, developed programing and through force of will and enthusiasm they changed the world!

Amy has a very fun interview with Gin over at Group Fitness Talk Radio where Gin tells her story.
Listen to the Amy’s interview with Gin below.

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Hip Openers for Cyclists – Summer Series of Yoga Video from ACE

Here are some great stretches you can use in your class. I found this over at the ACE site and thought you might find it interesting.