UPDATE 6/2017 – this app has been discontinued by Schwinn and is no longer available.
We're totally consumed here at IHRSA this week. So instead of a free track, how about an awesome and FREE Instructor iPhone App for building classes with cues instead?
This new iPhone App from Schwinn is called Class Tamer.
This is a crazy busy show and popular Master Trainers are… popular. After waiting a for a very busy Julz Arney to free up and show me the new App on her phone, I decided to install it and give it a try myself. Fantastic – it even has a crossfade with adjustable duration đ
Despite my fascination with new technology, my personal preference is for simple and easy. My biggest test is; when I turn it on, will I know instinctively how to make it work? This App is super easy to figure out. Even if you've moved to Spotify or Deezer, I'd encourage you to download it and give it a try. Who knows… you may get excited about iTunes again. There's also an easy to use tutorial if you get stuck.
Here's Schwinn's description of Class Tamer.
Designed with input and insight from SchwinnââŹâ˘s global team of Master Instructors, Class Tamerâ⢠is the premier music player for group exercise professionals. The app intuitively organizes âwhat to say,â âwhat to playâ and âwhat to do,â with large, easy-to-read fonts and controls, creating a tool that helps keep you organized â and your class energized.
Class Tamer features include:
– Ability to easily create and save ride playlists by accessing your songs, playlists, albums and artists directly from iTunes
– âWhat to sayâ and âWhat to doâ scrollable notes pages, which allow you to input and save your cueing notes, music tags and BPM to specific songs
– Instructor-friendly, full-screen display
– Easy-to-read song timer, displaying time elapsed, time remaining, and prompting for next song
– Easy-to-navigate play/pause button
– Easy-access, oversized volume slider
– Ability to easily modify tempo of songs during a ride
– Customizable cross-fade setting
– Stopwatch that operates independently from the song timer and can be used while music is playing â perfect for intervals
– 10 sound effects to help add excitement to your classes – Adjustable font size for optimal readability during rides
– Demo and tutorial screen
Here's the player screen showing call-outs for some of the key features that have me excited to use Class Tamer in my next class.
Love those BIG NUMBERS!
NOTES:
The BPM displayed in the top RH corner comes from the metadata (get info) of the track – the App doesn't compute the BPM or will the number change if you use the slider to change the tempo.
For songs you purchased from iTunes that are “Protected AAC” – cross fade and tempo adjustment are disabled.
Cues you've pinned to a song are manually chosen by swiping – they're not tied to any specific place in the song's time place.
A compendium (plural: compendia) is a concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of knowledge. A compendium may summarize a larger work.
Gene Nacey with Cycling Fusion knows Training with Power – indoors and out. The Indoor Cycling Compendium for Power Training is a new ebook resource that Instructors can purchase to be well informed and comfortable communicating the finer points of Power Training into your classes.
Here's an excerpt from Sally Edwards' Forward to Indoor Cycling Compendium for Power TrainingÂ
âPower TrainingââŹâ˘ is the first book to accomplish that goal. Everything else you read is focused on the outdoor rider, but Gene knows that it is the combination of the two that builds fit cyclists. His unique approach targets the IC rider specifically, as he shows you how the principles he uses inside also work outside. Training with power meters was once reserved for only the elite cyclist, but Gene has demystified it, creating a tool and a program that the average recreational rider can easily understand. He accomplishes this feat using an agnostic approach, inviting you to apply the information in this book to every manufacturerââŹâ˘s power meter on every power meterâequipped indoor bike. As long as you have the data from the power meter, you can follow his comprehensive system. YouââŹâ˘ll love the charts and the workout tools in the book â each provides a way to translate the numbers on an IC power-meter bike into something tangible and easy to use for both the IC instructor or you, the rider.
Listen to our discussion below and then leave your thoughts about bringing this level of detailed knowledge into your classes.
Here's the link to pre-order either an iBook or eBook version and save $10.00
Bill Pryor has an interesting article in the latest addition of Club Industry's online magazine.
Indoor cycling isn't what it used to be, and for traditional health clubs, as well as the hundreds of brand new dedicated cycling studios popping up around the world, this is turning out to be a good thing. Technology and innovation, especially in electronics and fabrication, are revitalizing the venerable indoor cycling workout in dramatic ways while reducing the headaches and costs that club and studio owners dread.
Using Technology to Measure Performance and Motivate
Outdoor cyclists have long had access to tools such as Computrainers that allow them to measure and analyze their efforts. For indoor cyclists, these kinds of tools are a recent addition, and club and studio owners are finding them to be an effective way to build and grow attendance. Dozens of studios are using performance metrics technology in their group exercise cycling programs, and many more are coming online soon.
Performance Metrics for Cycling Classes
In just the past few years, most major bike manufacturers have started offering metrics capabilities or consoles as a built-in feature or as an add-on option in their top bikes. These systems provide the rider with some combination of performance-related metrics: pedal cadence, heart rate, power (watt) output, calories burned and estimated mileage. In some cases, this information also can be automatically transmitted and stored for later viewing. Several third-party suppliers and web developers have built systems to measure, present, store and track performance data. In essence, this information can now be viewed in several important ways:
On each bike. With this, individual class visitors can view real-time data, and class instructors can coach to that data.
In front of the class on a monitor. Classmates can see their own performance data as well as data on fellow class participants.
After the class on the web (data tracking). Performance data can now be stored online so riders can view and compare historic performances.
In some cycling studios, the instructor uses this data as a primary tool for coaching and motivation. In others, the data is there purely for the user to review, and they often can choose the metric of their choiceâheart rate, watts, calories burned, etc. In any case, just having this information available is a far cry from the traditional cycling class. Music and cult instructors remain the primary draw for most classes, but performance technology has added an appealing new dimension to the mix.
Take away their common language and destroy a great team. Wikipedia image
In the biblical story about the Tower of Babel, God wanted to prevent Man from building a tower that reached into the heavens. Construction of the tower was going along very well as everyone was working efficiently toward their common goal of reaching into the sky. Now I'm sure God could have just sent a storm to knock down the semi completed tower… but then Man would have simply started over. So instead he wrecked their construction team by causing everyone to speak a different language. Confusion was rampant since no one understood what the other's were saying. Construction halted and the team disbanded. Problem solved.
The recent survey we conducted included a number of questions about Teaching with Power – to get some understanding of “how's it going?” and the impact power has on your classes.
I see Instructors as bright people, who understand the root of many of the problems they encounter in class. So I asked the question:
It's DĂŠjĂ vu!
Back during the Spring of 2011 we surveyed Instructors, asking the exact same questions – only about Heart Rate training. Unsurprisingly we got similar results.
So what can you do?
First you need to decide; “how much do I care about this issue?” Are you content to ignore it? Or are you someone who sees a problem and then looks for a way to solve it?
At the risk of sounding simplistic, all you need to do is create a common language between you and the other members of your Instructor team. Easier said than done, but don't make it too complicated.
And don't wait for Management – or expect them effectively solve this even if your Dept Head is 100% committed to the cause. Anything imposed on you and your team, without the voluntary buy-in from each team member, is guaranteed to fail. If you're in a Big Box and have experienced multiple new branded class formats, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Two weeks after the “big change”, everyone is back to their old style of teaching đ
My suggestion is to discuss this amongst yourselves. You could lead off by asking the question in an email with the intent to find a few other Instructors who see the problem:
Hi Team,
Do you feel like I do… that our class communication would be improved if we all spoke the same language around; Heart Rate and/or Power – Watts?
And then see what happens. Nobody wants to be forced into changing – but a few maybe willing to hear more from you. If you find some like-minded Instructors try to get them together – you might even offer to buy coffee. Present a simple solution; “my vote is we agree to only use 3/4/5 HR or Power Zones.” Just pick a number that everyone will agree on. Then discuss how do you decide the actual personal numbers that form the zones; Metabolic testing, Threshold tests, etc… Again you're looking for agreement, not who's right.
IHRSA is the big fitness equipment show held each year in the USA. Last year the show was in Las Vegas and I spent a bunch of time riding and comparing a number of new-for-2013 Indoor Cycles with power, including the SpinnerÂŽ Blade Ion and Freemotion's belt driven Carbon Drive S11.9.
There's more cool stuff coming out this year. I'm excited to see the new power bike from ICG pictured above:
The IC7 Indoor Cycle and its Coach By ColorÂŽ Power Program brings optimal performance and opportunity to group exercise, team coaching, personal training and even individual use. World-class technology and member-centric coaching will make your program more colorful, more powerful and definitely more original. That means better experiences and better results for your customers to keep them coming back.
Displaying colors connected to zones (Heart Rate or Power) isn't new – but having the console glow where everyone in class and you (the Instructor) can see what zone they're in is very interesting. Zone based colors brings accountability, without the judgement of actual wattage amounts that some riders and Instructors dislike in other group display systems. My hope is that there is a very quick and easy setup process to input the rider's personal zones or thresholds that are tied to the different color zones. If you're concerned that all those lights = frequent battery replacements, you needn't be. The IC7 includes it's own charging system. Oh, and they're promising power accuracy of +- 1% and similar consistency between bikes. I'll know much more by next Thursday.
A little bird told me that Keiser will be showing their new M3 power meter console that now features Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) While everyone else is using ANT+ to broadcast rider data, Keiser's engineers have leapfrogged to the new BLE which consumes less battery power and it will connect with your portable device without a ANT+ dongle.
This year the Senior Group Fitness Instructor Amy is joining me and together we're excited to see all of our IC friends that we typically only get to talk to on the phone or Skype đ
Please let us know if you're going to be there and feel free to text me to meetup 612-868-0064
