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!

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…

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…

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!

Ten Easy Steps to Teaching Your Indoor Cycling Class About Nutrition – Part 10: Stress & Sleep

It doesn’t matter how much you exercise, how well you eat, or how strictly you control your caloric intake – your body is constantly stressed or your sleep is inadequate, you will constantly fail in pursuing your health, wellness, or performance goals. But if these barriers are removed, you will vastly improve your ability to gain maximum benefits from a good nutrition plan.

As you explain the importance of stress and sleep to your class, here is what to tell them:

The body has several neurotransmitters that are actively involved in control of appetite and mental motivation. Dopamine, one neurotransmitter, is your body’s pleasure molecule, acting to significantly affect desire for activity, eating satisfaction and food cravings. Inadequate dopamine increases the chances that you will have a decreased drive to exercise and be less effective at regulating your nutritional intake.

Read more…

Ten Easy Steps to Teaching Your Indoor Cycling Class About Nutrition – Part 8: Supplements.

So if your indoor cycling students eat your fruits and vegetables, expose yourself to adequate sunlight, get plenty of sleep, and stay well hydrated, their body shouldn’t really need a supplemental source of vitamins and minerals, right? Wrong.

Here are 5 powerful reasons that you explain to your students about why they need to take a multi-vitamin, no matter how healthy their lifestyle may be.

• Nutrient depletion in the soil. Modern farming techniques utilize fertilizers that actually deplete the soil of essential nutrients. Agriculture relies on the elements in the soil for absorption of proper amounts of minerals, and when this process is interrupted, the plant does not contain essential minerals and cannot form essential vitamins. And if the plant doesn’t have it then you’re not going to get it from eating the plant!

• Your ability to absorb nutrients from food actually decreases as you age. So while growing children should absolutely be taking a multivitamin to support healthy tissue and bone formation, supplementation becomes equally important for the older population. Sure, you could just eat more food, but this introduces a problem with caloric balance. Beware that many medications also interfere with proper nutrient absorption.

Read more…

FREE TACOS !!

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It worked for Subway so now Taco Bell has launched their “Drive-Thru Diet” complete with a spokesperson who supposedly lost 54 pounds eating at Taco Bell. What began with Subway Jared will be continued by Drive-Thru Christine.

As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet® menu is not a weight-loss program. It’s about making different choices. For me, I didn’t want to cut out my fast food so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet® menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day, and, after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds! These results aren’t typical, but for me they were fantastic!

I’m guessing that 100% of the participants in your class are there for some form of weight management. You may want to recommend to your class that if they really want to reduce their weight they should consider; packing their own lunch with healthful food, eating it as multiple small meals and then take a walk (or better an Indoor Cycling class) over lunch. Here’s the link for the free taco.