by John | Nov 2, 2013 | Instructor Tech Help, Instructor Training, Spotify
Click Image to learn more about training for ICI/PRO Members.
We're planning our second live Spotify training for this Sunday 11/3 @ 5:00 central time.
The training will be conducted over Skype.
My preference is to keep the group small so we have time to answer everyone's questions = this is open to the first 8 Instructors who've emailed me a conformation – or you can leave a comment below.
We are planning to repeat these on multiple Sundays this Fall, as long as we have interest, so if you miss this week we'll get to you soon – use this link to join the notification list.
Some homework for you 🙂
- Create a free Skype account if you don't already have one.
- Sign up for the free trial of Spotify premium – I strongly suggest using FaceBook when you sign up. There is an option to register using just an email, but you'll be missing out on the ability to share music between friends and your class participants.
- Download and install the free App for your iPhone/iPad or Android Phone.
- Spend some time playing with Spotify so we can answer your specific questions during the training.
NOTE: you'll need the latest version of Skype (learned this last week) to see my screen and video. Existing Skype users check by going to: Help > Check for Updates
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by John | Oct 31, 2013 | Music
As an experiment this morning, I taught Dennis Mellon's ICI/PRO Podcast 287 A little Bit of Everything Audio Class PROfile and used his harmonically mixed playlist. They appeared to like it and two members asked for the playlist after class. I realize that it's a small sample, but it's rare that that happens in my class.
I didn't follow Dennis' profile exactly – I let each song play out to the end, rather than manually transition mid-track. This had a few of the intervals flowing through the song transitions – which actually worked to my advantage. The difference was subtle, and yet I'm now realizing quite profound. Even though there was a song change, it didn't appear (or sound) disruptive. I use the full 12 second cross-fade feature in Spotify and, because most of the transitions were in compatible keys, they flowed together nearly perfectly. Or as they say; “smooth like butta.”
Love to know your experiences with harmonic mixing if you've tried it.
Tonight I'm dusting off my PeeWee Herman costume (complete with the 70's white shoes and obligatory shoe mirror*) for my 5:30 class. I'm going to use both the profile and playlist from ICI/PRO Podcast 231 “The Gate” Halloween Mixed Ride Audio PROfile From Kim Moody
*In case you're wondering, Amy hates my costume 🙁
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by John | Oct 28, 2013 | Big Box Instructor, Zone based Heart Rate Training
Bring your Garmin or other Ant+ compatible HR strap
Updated 10/30 below
Short notice… it's tomorrow night.
Here's the email invitation I received:
EDGE Cycle kick-off with Bahram Akradi & quests
This will be the 1st class offering in Minnesota of our “new” EDGE CYCLE signature Indoor cycle format!
Expect to have an experience that includes results, heart rate and community all with the future technology of LT Connect
Class time: 5:30-6:30pm
- First come, first serve.
- We kindly ask to arrive by 5:00pm for individualized LT Connect set up. Everyone who wants to experience this must have a heart rate strap (Garmin or Motorola).
- Music will be provided by DJ Dan; guest instructors to get you pumped and a party at Rare to follow the hard yet fun work! J
We look forward to seeing you there~
What's being launched is the new EDGE Cycle class format that integrates with LT Connect – Life Time's branded heart rate display system. Similar to MYZONE or Polar's system, but no power like Performance IQ 🙁
Fun none the less as both Amy and I teach in the same room!
I'm planning to attend and will relay the details when I know more.
Update post class:
I took the class last night. If you teach at a Life Time, you might be excited if/when this gets to your club.
First stop when I got to the studio, was to check in and get my Garmin HR strap connected to the system. They had a desk setup and the person manning it asked for my name and if (and how) I knew my personal HR Zones. “What's your top of Zone one” was his next question – I couldn't answer, but I explained that I have been tested multiple times and my AT (VT2) was 162. My and base of Zone 3 (VT1) is… but before I could say 146, he had hit the button that auto-populates all the other fields and showed 145, close enough for me.
Next I was handed a little black box, a little bigger than an iPhone, that I pointed at my HR strap. This identified my unique Ant+ signal which connected me to my profile. And there I was “John” up on the screen with the others.
Suggestion: this isn't the time to puff your chest out and give the highest possible threshold you can imagine, with the intent of impressing others in the class. The accountability that comes from having your name up on the screen becomes very real, so I suggest being a bit conservative. So when the 3 minute effort is supposed to have you at the top of Zone 4 (and you're sitting one over from your Dept Head) with the last minute pushing into Zone 5, you don't find yourself wishing you have said 160. Pushing hard enough to add that one BPM that causes your gauge to go RED, is every challenging. Especially while you're convinced everyone in the room is watching to see if you can do it.
More when I have a chance to teach with LT Connect.
by John | Oct 28, 2013 | Your Fitness Business
We're seeing a crazy number of new small/independent/boutique studios opening all over the world – which is awesome. I love being part of a growth industry, not to mention how all these new studios need Instructors!
But what's driving all this growth? I know that a whole bunch of studios have opened, who's owners will tell you that their initial motivation came from hearing my first interview with Bill Pryor/Spynergy Consulting; Start Your Own Indoor Cycling Studio from 2010.
But there has been another force at work in our industry; SoulCycle.
Google Trends is an interesting service where you can observe the popularity for a particular subject over time. The data is based on mentions in prominent media and Google searches. You plug in a few search terms and Google displays a trending line to show the popularity of the topic and easily compare with other searches.
So here's a comparison between the search terms; Soul Cycle and Spin Class – with apologies for omitting the ® which isn't normally used in an article or search.
Through the wonders of technology, Google makes it possible for you to see and interact with the results.
Admittedly, I needed to try a few different search terms before I found this one that I feel most accurately reflects the impact SoulCycle has had on the popularity of Indoor Cycling. “Spinning” alone doesn't work as there are too many uses of the word that don't apply. I did try to add Flywheel into the mix, but there are very few mentions of searches.
Google's data only goes back to 2004 – it would make this more interesting if we could see back before then. The graph does show “Spin Class” as relatively flat until the first mention of SoulCycle in the fall of 2005. I'm not sure we can draw a direct correlation (but I'll try anyway) to the noticeable uptick around the time we launched ICI/PRO in the fall of 2009 and then again around the time of Bill's interview in 2010 🙂
Love them or hate them, SoulCycle has had (at least by this method) a hugely positive effect on the visibility of Indoor Cycling and small studios.
by John | Oct 28, 2013 | Instructor Training, Latest News, Your Fitness Business
I attended Club Industry last week. The show was pretty small this year, compared with my last visit in 2011. There were no rides being conducted this year and only Star Trac, Schwinn, Keiser and Matrix had Indoor Cycles on display – only a few each.
Here's what I saw that was new, dumb or otherwise note worthy.
“The 1990's called and wants it's Maximum Heart Rate chart back.” I was in too good a mood to confront explain to this vendor as to why the promotion of discredited myths, like age predicted maximum heart rate charts, is a real detriment to our industry.
I’m not sure peddling this nonsense is in any way creative 🙁
Tae Yoo from Performance IQ was exhibiting with Schwinn. His system connects wirelessly via Ant+ with the AC Performance's M-Power console and displays it on the screen.
You wouldn't have noticed it walking by, but this AC Performance Plus has a Gates carbon drive belt. Not sure when it will be available – you'll need to check with your distributor if you're planning a purchase. In case you're wondering, this belt system (same as on the FreeMotion S11.9) would be my choice if I was considering either brand of Indoor Cycles.
Matrix was displaying the new version of the ICG Indoor Cycle. It was kind of sad not to have Jim Karanas there to ask him about it. There's a bunch of changes, but I couldn't get anyone's attention to explain them to me…
And last, but not least… how about taking a class lead by a Holographic Instructor? I took some pictures of a scaled down display of a company called HolograFit, but they didn't turn out. Keying off the “Virtual Instructor” craze (which I'm not seeing as being overly successful so far for anyone) HolograFit's display system projects a holographic 3D image in the front of the room, for everyone to follow. Like multiple other virtual Instructor systems, they provide a catalog of classes that can be shown between live classes or some enterprising studio owner could purchase the $80,000 system and eschew Instructors all together.
Here's a pic from their website.
Is it me, or is she riding without cleats or cages?
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