Many factors contribute to osteopenia and osteoporosis in cyclists. Both conditions are associated with low bone mineral density and a reduction in the bone mass that is sufficient to interfere with its support function.
Osteogenic loading refers to the stress placed on the skeletal system in order to produce bone growth. This article may surprise you.
One of the culprits in cycling-related osteopenia or osteoporosis is the nature of the exercise itself. Cycling is a low-impact sport that puts little mechanical load on the bones. That may be helpful for someone who has joint problems, but it's the weight-bearing aspect of exercise that signals bone to create more mass. Without such stress, bones don't get stronger and consequently become more prone to injury.
A recent study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that competitive male road cyclists had significantly lower bone mineral density in their spines than a control group of men who were moderately physically active while doing other recreational activities. The cyclists were also more likely to have osteopenia or osteoporosis than those in the control group.
I recently discovered that commonly promoted exercise strategies for counteracting bone loss have had fairly limited success, particularly regimens that subject the skeleton to only mild activity, such as walking. I had always thought that, if I complemented my daily cycling with walking and modest strength conditioning, I wouldn’t be susceptible to decreasing bone density. I was wrong.
There’s no doubt that mechanical loading of bone has substantial potential to induce bone formation, but the traditionally recommended exercise regimens for cyclists have met with mixed results at best. What I recently learned is that those options are fairly ineffective for increasing bone formation.
The U.S. Surgeon General states that increases in bone mineral density that are sufficient to prevent or reverse osteoporosis are stimulated by maximum loading on the musculoskeletal system. Such loads are normally associated with impact loading, the kind that occurs with gymnastics. Women gymnasts have been found to have much stronger bones than women long-distance runners.
Conventional resistance training does not typically yield loading at a high enough level to produce more than a nominal increase in bone mass. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that running, walking and resistance training are only minimally effective in staving off the osteopenia that I’m prone to because I love to ride bikes and teach indoor cycling.
Heinonen et al (1996) found that unexpectedly high bone-mineral densities (BMD) occurred in women gymnasts. A typical gymnastic dismount or vault produces enormous skeletal impact (about 18 body weights). Subsequent studies of impact loading showed similar results.
So the research shows — and I haven’t heard this anywhere in the cycling world — that multiples of body weight loaded onto the axial skeleton are what’s necessary to produce significant gains in BMD. Not running, definitely not walking, not conventional strength training, but dismounts off the high bar that slam 18 times my body weight through my skeletal system. That’s what I need to be doing one to two times per week.
Fortunately, as Managing Director for the Indoorcycling Group of North America, I was recently invited to test a new technology at Performance Health Systems in Chicago. It’s called bioDensity™ (www.biodensity.com).
The product is exciting and seems to serve a market need for all indoor cyclists. bioDensityâ„¢ makes possible a safe, self-induced, osteogenic loading stimulation up to many multiples of body weight — the kind of loads normally associated with impact activities, such as gymnastics. DEXA scans have shown an average 4.5% bone mass gain for individuals in the program for 3 years. Regular, proper use of the bioDensityâ„¢ System enables the user to achieve the required maximum loading safely, which therefore helps to combat osteoporosis.
ICG® has no professional affiliation whatsoever with Performance Health Systems. They are producing a product that we feel will help keep our customers healthy.
My sole purpose here was to make you aware of what I was completely unaware of (and even misinformed about by popular literature) and to suggest that you investigate a possible solution that will keep your bones healthy while you keep riding.
Guest post from ICG® Marketing & Product Director Gary Warren
It's just you and the bike.
No carbon fiber to make you lighter.
No high-tech gear shifters to make you faster.
No 29'er rims to roll over rocks more easily, or pro “slick” tires to fast-forward flat roads.
No drafting in the peloton to save you energy and maximize your sprint finish.
No coasting on undulating roads or single track trails with your “free-wheel” drive gear.
No GPS to navigate the fastest route. No tour guide on the trail to give you the best line over the next drop.
It's just you and the bike.
A fixed gear. A fixed altitude. And most true: a fixed attitude of doing what it takes inside to live your life outside.
John Howard (bio’d in Jim Karanas’s post, “Be Your Own Hero”) says it’s “not so much indoor cycling as it is inner cycling.” Not “a poor substitute for” riding on the roads and trails, but a chance to explore technique from a mind/body perspective.
The Indoor Cycle permits training and benefits as nothing else can.
“Why not go indoors,” Howard asks, “for phenomenal cycling efficiency?”
Constant, fluid, nonstop pedaling.
Everyone rides. Safely. Trains together, regardless of skill. Feels the miles disappear.
On a bike that doesn’t answer to temperature, weather, daylight, terrain.
Simplicity. It’s the Indoor Cycle’s greatest gift.
By Team ICG® Master Trainers Jim Karanas and Graham Stoney
Indoor cycling came from road riding and has retained that identity in most teaching systems. The ride positions, the hand positions, the cues and the philosophy follow the “roadie” way of riding. Yet, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, mountain bikes have outsold road bikes for the last 20 years.
So most people ride mountain bikes. But most training programs don’t take that into account when training instructors to teach indoor classes.
It would be understandable — if this were the ‘90s, when indoor cycling was just beginning. Off-road technique is often contrary to what we do on a road bike, so the translation to indoor classes might have been too confusing or challenging to teach. But times have changed.
ICG is a global company with a strong contingent of Master Trainers from Europe, the UK and California, locations where mountain biking is extremely popular. Off-road technique has been included in our education system since the beginning. Our bikes have handlebars that accommodate mountain-bike hand positions, making it easy to highlight off-road riding movements in our teaching. Still, instructors may find it difficult to start introducing mountain biking in their classes.
This article aims to help bridge that gap, no matter which bikes you use.
If the idea of an indoor cycling class is to create an experience, what could be more fun than to take our students on a trail occasionally, as opposed to a road? ICG believes in mountain biking and has dedicated a number of the forward-motion videos on MyrideÃ’+ to trail: fire trails, single track, sand, snow, grass and dirt.
You might be dismissing this idea because your club doesn’t have Myride+. But a mountain biking class is something you can teach without video.
You’ll find that teaching an indoor off-road class is more about your ability to create experience. It just takes the willingness to do something different. Words and music are a good start. Getting your students to “see” the various terrains and road surfaces can add depth, color, even poetry to your classes.
Jim recently presented “Mountain Rider” for first time in North America to instructors at CanFitPro, a major trainer conference held each year in Toronto. The response was overwhelming. Many IC instructors who are predominantly off-road riders showed up to learn how they could share with their students the way they love to ride outside.
Yes, the stunning Myride+ video made the class even more real. The incredible trail footage, accompanied by appropriate cues, brought many of the attendees to the trail for the first time and raised the class to artistry by creating immersion.
But, again, you can run a great class using good cues and music.
We’re going to share some basic class suggestions in this article and follow up with an Audio Profile that Jim is recording with John. The AP will feature a course profile, music and cues via podcast to help you bring off-road riding to your classes.
Mountain Rider coaching points:
Tell your class participants that, for today, they must forget much of what you’ve previously taught them about indoor cycling.
Mountain biking does work with energy zones, power, intervals and threshold, but pure, senseless fun usually supplants that roadie drivel.
Simulation begins with education. Teach them about the trail. Are we on a fire trail or single track? What’s the surface? What are the conditions? In mountain biking, the trail surface and conditions change the experience completely, along with the cues you’ll use and the experience you can create.
Introduce and use off-road terminology: compression's, rollers, washboards, steps, crowns and berms, high-side/low-side.
To begin teaching a class like Mountain Rider, you must move from the mindset of providing a workout to one of having a great time riding the bike. Road riding can be fun but is generally much more serious: grounded in science, training, getting it right in general. Mountain biking is hardly EVER serious. “Feeling alive” on your bike? There’s nothing like off-road.
You’ll want to keep in mind that some standard indoor cycling exercises don’t translate to off-road. You almost never jump, nor do you stand on climbs. This will be covered in Jim’s AP, which will also cover two ICG off-road movements, Wave Riding and Speed Bumps.
Off-road wisdom borrows next to nothing from traditional road-bike discipline. Mountain biking was born in the ‘70s. Hitting the trail with loosened inhibitions affirmed our spirit of adventure. That needs to be emphasized in your class when you go off-road. Well, that and experiencing innocent, down-to-earth cool.
The upcoming Audio Profile will bring life to the concepts presented here.
For an entertaining presentation of the differences between road riding and mountain biking, here are two videos to enjoy, preferably in order:
You can learn to teach MTB free if you’re one of the first 1000 to sign up for CECs on ICG. Take advantage of ICG’s free online CEC offer now.
“Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers (with which) they are graced.” ― Brodi Ashton
It’s hard not to admire the Tour de France riders, or to watch the commercial for the Olympics and Paralympics with challenged athletes alongside able-bodied athletes, without feeling that elite-level athletes are special. They’ve been gifted with physical abilities that never showed up in my gene pool and have the opportunity to create beauty in competition and sport that I’ll never experience.
Even when I think rationally about what many of them have had to overcome or sacrifice to be where they are, I still feel they’re unique and a cut (or two) above me as an athlete. They are my heroes.
Be Your Own Hero® is a registered trademark of ICG®. We registered it because we were inspired by the overwhelming odds some people have overcome through self-belief, drive and determination. To us, the brand represents empowerment.
ICG believes, however, that it’s important to Be Your Own Hero even if you’re not faced with overwhelming odds. You don’t have to be in dire circumstances to benefit from it. Becoming your own hero is a way of liberating yourself and raising your quality of life. When you choose to see yourself as a hero, you wake up and look forward to discovering what excitement the day can bring.
When you’re conflicted, all you have to do is ask yourself, “What would a hero do?”
As a hero, you’d trust yourself. You’d see yourself through the rough times and emerge stronger. You’d do the right thing.
Let’s say you wake up in the morning and feel really sluggish. Your body aches, whether from training, overtraining, or age. You ask yourself, “What would a hero do?” A hero would get up and face the training for the day, even though he/she didn’t want to and would like nothing more than to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep.
One of my favorite cycling legends is John Howard. Born in 1947, Howard was a three-time U.S. Olympiccyclist and the winner of 14 USA national cycling championships. He won the gold medal in the 1971 Pan American Games road-cycling race in Colombia, was a four-time U.S. National Road Cycling champion, and won the 1981 Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii.
Howard was one of only four competitors in the first Race Across America (RAAM), originally organized in 1982 by John Marino and called The Great American Bike Race. In 1985, Howard set a land-speed record of 152.2 miles per hour (245 km/h) while motor-pacing (behind a truck) on a pedal bicycle on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.
After all of that, John Howard now teaches indoor cycling in the San Diego area. About doing what you and I do every day, he says, “For me, indoor cycling is no longer a poor substitute for the open roads and trails, (but) an indispensable ingredient for penetrating deeply into the inner world of body/mind integration (and) exploring the deepest power patterns of cycling technique. (I)ndoor cycling can actually bring benefits attainable in no other way.”
In DIRT!, the book he wrote from his hospital bed in 1997 after a disabling crash, Howard denounced the Olympics as being about nothing more than medals, with no heart nor soul. He said he had more respect for the amateur athletes and fitness enthusiasts who get out of bed every day to face their own training than for any top-level athlete blessed with ability.
At ICG, we believe that being a hero involves treating each day as an adventure, having enthusiasm about the day and what you’re going to do with it. As Howard’s quotation above shows, a hero brings a hero’s sensibility to everything he or she does. Self-belief is key.
I haven’t missed watching the Tour de France in over a decade. Lance is still one of my greatest heroes. I love the Olympics. Having heroes inspires me.
But I also believe in myself and put on my Spiderman suit every day. I teach what I love, teach it with passion, and hope it improves someone’s day.
Be Your Own Hero. What would that look like for you?
Every day, countless products, services, and people provide us with positive or negative experiences. Not long ago, one of my students confronted me to let me know that she was annoyed and frustrated with a substitute instructor I had used for a recent class.
Now, substitute cycling instructors are often well-trained, decent instructors. But however good the sub may be, he/she is not the instructor for whom he/she is subbing. As we all know, indoor cycling students grow attached to their instructors, especially their favorite ones, and are critical of whoever comes in to sub that favorite’s class.
For 30 years, I was a program director in commercial clubs. Instructors sub out an average of 15% of their classes every month. A club that offers 20 cycling classes per week has a monthly schedule of about 87 classes. Taking 15% of 87, we can estimate that 13 classes per month are subbed. At $35 per hour, that works out to $456.75 a month or $5,481.00 per year spent on subs. Multiply that by 20 clubs.
If the students don’t enjoy the class, that’s a lot of money spent on a negative member experience.
The question is whether the cycling-instructor substitute provides a level of service that’s beneficial for the club owner and a sufficiently positive member experience for the cost. Of course, there are exceptions, but consider the market as a whole. How valuable is the current instructor-sub system that’s in place in most clubs? Could it be replaced or enhanced in any way?
My experience in the industry tells me that having an instructor in the room may be necessary for safety reasons. The substitute process is also a great way to check out and train new instructors. Yet, when you look at the cost, the aggravation and time spent dealing with subs, and poor member experiences, is the current system the best solution? Does it remain so in light of current technological advancements?
If you’ve read my posts, you know that my position regarding the use of video and virtual programming in the club setting is very positive. The production of virtual programming for indoor-cycling classes is accelerating and improving. I don’t believe that video will ever replace a quality instructor. But I do feel that a well-constructed video profile can do the job that many substitute instructors are doing. It could certainly leave a more positive impression on the students.
One of the reasons for this has to do with a change in expectation. An indoor-cycling student who sees that the class will be taught by a virtual coach has a completely different attitude about the situation. A sub will inevitably be compared to the favorite instructor, but no one could reasonably expect a virtual class to be as good as, or even similar to, the favorite class.
This “forced” opening of the mind almost guarantees greater satisfaction — or, at the very least, less dissatisfaction. The student’s mind has to go in a new direction altogether. The student will walk away thinking different thoughts. Thoughts like: I liked it. I didn’t like it. That was interesting. It was OK, but “real” instruction is better. That was kinda fun for a change. I can’t wait till ___ gets back.
At least these are a far cry from, “I hated the sub and won’t go to any class she/he teaches anymore.” Or “What a crummy way to start my day.” Or “Why can’t my favorite instructor find better subs?”
So we should still retain subs, but what if they were used in more specific contexts, when video just won’t do? Would this not ease the struggle of the indoor-cycling director, as well as save money for the club owner? Would it not reduce negative member experiences?
Teaching indoor cycling is my occupation and my craft. The time I spend preparing for it and doing it is equaled by some, not equaled by others, and disregarded by still others. My point is not that video is better than a live instructor, but that each sub prepares differently, is liked or disliked by individual students, and will be compared (typically unfavorably) to the regular instructor. If a well-done video can provide a good, solid class that is met with a better attitude for the reasons described above, wouldn’t that make it a better solution to the “subbing problem”?
I hope this topic generates some discussion. I’m interested in your thoughts and feelings. I see this as a real and viable possibility for the future.
