By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas

Now that more of your students wear heart-rate monitors (HRM) (see previous post “How To Get Your Students To Wear a HRM”), you must teach them how to use one.

An important first step is sometimes lost when introducing HRMs. Instructors immediately start estimating maximum heart rate and discussing zones. But the first measurement of intensity, how hard the students are exercising, must always be perception.

Relating perceived exertion to heart rate is a fascinating personal discovery for the indoor-cycling student. If it’s done correctly, the student will immediately ask at what heart rate he/she should be training. Then a discussion of training zone estimates makes perfect sense.

The following protocol, developed by Team ICG®, provides a template for a “first HRM experience” that the student won’t forget. Initially, you want the HRM to help the student link a given heart rate with a perception, which enhances awareness. The student feels his/her body go through changes in perceived exertion, along with a visible numerical progression.

Resting HR — 2 minutes

Once the students are wearing their HRMs, have them sit quietly on the bike. No pedaling, no talking, just sitting still. Tell them to breathe deeply, relax and see how low they can drop their HRs. This is not a true resting value, but shows them how relaxation and breathing affect their HR. It also gives them a numeric indication of how prepared the body is to receive training. It may well dictate an alteration of their plan for the day.

Warm-Up — 15 minutes

Roll the legs with no resistance on the bike. Feel the ease of motion, the momentum. Get into a rhythm with it: no effort, just smooth, continuous, even circles. Before taking the HR up, we want to accomplish two things. First, we must shunt blood to the leg muscles. Fifteen minutes of easy spinning will do that. Second, we want the students to sense what’s happening in the body as they get warm.

For the first 5 minutes, set the cadence at 90-100 rpm. Have the students increase the resistance just enough to feel as if their legs are working, without changing cadence. This isn’t much effort. Just bring the HR up slightly.

The first change in perceived exertion is an increase in body temperature. Assuming the room is appropriately cooled, the air temperature initially felt cool or cold. Ask them to notice the change — the air no longer feels cold — and note at what heart rate that occurred. Was it 5 beats up from resting? 10 beats?

For the second 5 minutes, have them make another small increase in the resistance. The second sensation in perceived exertion is awareness of breath. Their breathing pattern has not really changed. Their breathing is not hard or labored. They’ve just become aware that they’re breathing, something we’re unconscious of most of the time. At what HR did they become aware of their breathing?

For the third 5 minutes, bring on a little more resistance without changing cadence and raise the HR again slightly. Two things must happen here. They must notice that all momentum is gone from their pedaling. There’s a distinct point, especially on chain-driven bikes, where the sensation of momentum is replaced by effort. This is very visible to the instructor — the “looseness” is gone from the pedaling — however, it’s still not hard.

The other thing they need to notice is a sudden spike in body temperature. They now feel hot. We experience discomfort just before we begin to sweat because the cooling of evaporation hasn’t begun. What’s the heart rate when this happens?

Settle the cadence down to 90 rpm as they continue to work and begin to sweat. This is the next level of perceived exertion. At what HR did they begin to sweat? They’ll notice the hot feeling leave, then a cool sensation against their skin. They might feel perspiration on the brow, under the arms, or elsewhere.

Their warm-up is done.

As you can see, this isn’t an elaborate or complicated warm-up, just a gradual awareness process for the students. The next step is a heart rate ladder, again to connect the students with their perception of the effort.

Heart-Rate Ladder — 20 minutes

Now that the students are warmed-up, it’s time to take them through levels of greater exertion, while connecting their perception of the effort with the HR at which it occurs. Most of this work takes place seated, so give them periodic breaks from the saddle.

Level 1

Level 1 continues the intensity that they reached by the end of the warm-up. All feeling of momentum has been replaced by a feeling of effort. They’re aware of their breathing and have cracked a sweat.

Their HRs should be consistent. Tell them the first lesson of heart-rate training is stabilization. They should be at a HR that they could maintain for hours. Forget about mechanical difficulties, how the saddle feels, whether they need water, fuel, etc. Ask them to settle into a HR that — in terms of the effort level — they could hold for hours.

Maintain that intensity for 5 minutes.

It’s not uncommon for them to be unsure about whether they’re at the right level of effort. Tell them to check their HR, sense their effort level and ask themselves, “Could I maintain this for 1 hour? 2 hours? 3 hours?” If the effort is too high, they’ll have an internal reaction to the question and should adjust as necessary.

Keep the cadence at 90 rpm; this is important. Let them know that the HR they’re training at is called a target HR. Their job is to maintain that target at 90 rpm.

At this point, it’s helpful to explain what’s going on metabolically. Discuss aerobic vs. anaerobic metabolism and changes in the use of fat and carbohydrate as fuel.

As mentioned above, Level 1 is of the same intensity as the final part of the warm-up. From here, the progression builds to greater levels of effort, which will be covered in the next post.

Originally posted 2012-09-24 05:39:49.

Cameron Chinatti from Stages Indoor Cycling alerted me to this Indiegogo project: BreathAcoustics All-in-One Headset. She was excited by it and I can see why.

I've spoken with the inventor Nirinjan Yee who's the CEO and Founder of BreathResearch and we will be recording an interview this coming Thursday morning – I'll try to have it posted by Friday so there's still time for you to help fund this project.

Nirinjan has some big hitters on her team including Sally Edwards and Dr. Carl Foster. Dr. Foster is conducting clinical research at UW Lacrosse to validate if this headset can accurately identify VT1 (first ventilatory/aerobic threshold) and VT2 (second ventilatory/anaerobic threshold) by measuring the distinct changes in breathing that occur with changes in intensity.

Breath Acoustic All-In-One Headset from Nirinjan Yee on Vimeo.

Here's why I feel this project is worthy of your support.

Perhaps the hardest part of teaching/Coaching Indoor Cycling / Group Fitness classes is effectively communicating your intended intensity.

Effective communication requires a common language between you and your participants.

How hard is HARD? What exactly does MODERATE feel like? Is my perception of an “8”… the same as yours? All of those descriptions are subjective = they only mean what I (me/you) think or feel they mean.

Walk into a Home Depot and ask for a gallon of Red paint – or – visit Amy at the makeup counter and ask for Red lipstick. Both Amy and the paint salesperson will ask; “we have quite a few different Red's… which shade are you looking for?” Then they'll show you a chart with all the different shades of Red for you to choose from.

With out realizing it, you're probably doing the same thing in your classes. In our attempts at getting our classes to work where we want them, we introduce more object descriptors = we'll probably be cuing to breath & breathing patterns; you've first noticed your breathing, need to open your mouth, jaw dropped, lost interest in speaking, sound like a freight train, gasping for air! etc…  to help our riders understand the intensity we're looking for in class.

Next, we try to correlate those breathing patterns to a Heart Rate number or HR Zone; when you feel that early change in your breathing you're crossing your Aerobic Threshold T1… That strong, rhythmic breathing (without feelings of distress) has you in the middle of Zone 3; etc…

So why do we try to tie breathing (direct indication of intensity) to a Heart Rate number? Because it's really (beyond watts) the only objective measurement we can easily (and repeatably) make and we do so by using a heart rate monitor. We then assign a range of HR BPMs to a “Zone”. These HR Zones* become the common language between you and your students. If everyone knows their HR at VT2 (AT/LT) I can simply cue; “I need everyone at threshold” and the class understands.

Is there something magical about a specific Heart Rate BPM? Not at all… your heart is just responding to requests for more or less O2 and energy from the muscles it serves. Those requests are based on intensity and IMO anything that could improve the connection between intensity and Heart Rate BPM will help us to more effectively communicate with all those smiling faces riding in front of us.

Improving that connection (without needing to wear one of those awful New Leaf masks) sounds like something we should be supporting. That's exactly what BreathAcoustics is trying to accomplish with their Indiegogo project.

*I'm continuing my crusade advocacy toward the fitness industry adopting a common HR Zone system and have a number of expert interviews planned for later the Fall.

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Originally posted 2013-09-14 09:02:35.