Note: We've added a new category “Correcting Form” to help you identify and correct common form related problems you see or discomfort/pain your students are experiencing.
The problem diagnosing form, discomfort or pain issues while riding, is that they aren't always obvious when you're student is rested and fresh. Here's a good example:
Question from one of my regular students: “John, do you know I can keep my hands from getting numb – going to sleep?” “It happens here in class, but more so when I'm riding outside… any ideas?”
I've experienced this situation myself, as has the senior group fitness instructor Amy – but only while riding “The Bus” our tandem bicycle on long rides.
First I asked a simple question; “do you wear gloves when you're riding outside?”
“Sometimes I do, but never here in class. Because it happens both indoors and out, I don't think that's the problem.”
She went on to explain; “I've researched it online and I think I've eliminated all the potential causes that I found.” “It's frustrating for me because 30-40 min. into a ride, my hands start tingling and then fall asleep.”
“If it's happening both indoors and out and with or without gloves, it's probably not a nerve compression in your hand problem. My guess it's probably your actual hand position on the bars… hop on this bike and let me take a look.”
I had her jump on an Indoor Cycle in class and told her to get comfortable. Once she was in place, her hands were positioned like what's shown in this picture.
Proper hand position has straight wrists
“That would make sense. That wasn't discussed on any of the articles I found.” “But I never ride like that so that couldn't be the problem either.”
“Are you sure certain you never drop your elbows, which causes your wrists to collapse, when you have fatigued?”
I then went on to explain to her how subtle the change is and that when I had her drop her wrists, it didn't require changing her grip on the bars, only her dropping her elbows.
When we're fresh, we all sit up straight and tall. Everything about our form looks perfect. Yet as we fatigue, it's natural to experience small, often negative, changes in position. From my perch upon the instructor bike what I typically see is first shoulders tend to fall forward. This causes a little additional weight on your arms which result in your elbows collapsing in and downwards slightly. Because everything is connected, the lower position of your elbows, with no change in the position of your hands, naturally results in a greater angle of extension in your wrist.
Here are three suggestions you may use in class or on the road:
Identify the problem. Describe the need to maintain a straight wrist and how it will add to everyone's comfort on the bike. Talk about hand numbness and tingling and ask if anyone has experienced it.
Cue frequent hand position changes. If you're Spinning® instructor you're probably doing this already. I would add to your cuing the need to visually check that each new position results in a straight wrist. If you're not or if asking for hand position changes is something that you normally not do, this is a great time to start 🙂
Watch for the signs of fatigue. You may see your student's form degrading, but they may not be able to sense it. Asking them to look down at their wrists, late in class. Asking them to correct it may have the effect of bringing everything else back in line… As I said before; “everything is connected.”
Make sure you add the – spotify:user:__________ part or it doesn't work
She was close to yelling when I walked into the studio. “I'm so excited you came back John!” “I haven't been able to find you on Facebook or Spotify, so I wasn't able to find the playlist you used the last time you were here…”
I subbed last night at the Life Time Fitness corporate HQ club. This participant was there the last time I had covered this class for a friend. I remembered her instantly and how she had approached me after class, asking for the names of two of the tracks I had used. “Are you a Spotify user?” I had asked her. She responded that she was just getting started with Spotify, so I suggested to friend me on facebook and I would show up on her Spotify.
Perfect plan… until she remembered my name as John McCowan and couldn't find me on Facebook 🙁
Which got me to think about an old post I wrote back in 2008. In it, I suggested that Instructors carry and handout a business card (I called it a class promotion card) and showed the card that Amy and printed online. They included our email addresses and class schedules. They worked like a charm, until our classes changed that is.
There are a bunch of websites online where you could quickly create a simple Spotify/Promotional card that you could have available to hand out. I ordered mine through www.vistaprint.com and paid $15.95 with shipping. Because my schedule changes so often, I choose not to include it – but you could easily add yours to the back.
NOTE: this was a previous review from 2013 that continues to remain accurate when applied to any of the magnetic friction Indoor Cycles available today.
Many Indoor Cycle manufacturers claim a connection with cycling outdoors:
100% Authentic – Spinning is authentic. It’s true to its cycling roots, yet refined to a simplicity that makes it the perfect program for any age or ability.
FreeMotion says; Drive System Mimics Outdoor Riding
The Schwinn® Authentic Cyclingâ„¢ Series is based on one simple principle: we believe that riding a bike indoors should feel as much like riding an outdoor bike as possible.
There are of course multiple similarities between riding indoors vs riding outdoors. Beyond the obvious differences, not needing to balance an indoor cycle for one, the claimed connection is that their Indoor Cycle feels like riding a bicycle outdoors.
But what does that mean? A feeling can be pretty subjective after all.
My review of the new Spinner® Blade Ion included a comment that I was a little disappointed that Star Trac continued with a friction resistance system, vs. the magnetic systems used by FreeMotion, Schwinn and Keiser.
I also teased you at the end of the post with:
Later that morning I also tried a little experiment that I’ve wanted to do for years…
What happens to your Power / Wattage when you accelerate from a set point, say; 100 watts @ 60 rpm to 90 rpm on friction based system, as compared to a magnetic system? Do they react the same way?
My apologies for the delay. I'm just getting to this today.
The ” little experiment” I conducted was something that I'd wanted to confirm/quantify for years, actually since I first started teaching on a Schwinn AC in 2010.
My early experiences riding/teaching with magnetic resistance, along with a discussion I had with Keiser's President Dennis Keiser, demonstrated to me that the amount of resistance created by the magnetic (Eddy Current) resistance system increased in lock step with a faster cadence / RPM. The faster you pedaled the harder (more force required) it was to turn the pedals.
Which is pretty much what you experience riding a bicycle outdoors, at speeds over 18mph. As you pedal faster (assuming you stay in the same gear) you and the bike move faster through the air. The faster you go, the more the resistance from the air pushes against you, making it harder and harder to turn the pedals.
There's a handy calculator to compute the amount of work it takes to overcome the resistance of the air here.
The difference in power needed to ride 25 mph vs 30 mph
So it takes apx. 300 watts to ride at 25 mph. To ride at 30 mph (just a 20% increase) you need to create over 60% more power. You can't make the power with additional leg speed – you're probably near your maximum efficient cadence already at 25 mph. To get to 30 mph you'll need to shift to a lower gear and push harder… A LOT HARDER!
Very different from the conventional friction system on an NXT – which (to me) feels like it gets easier to pedal, the faster I pedaled. In fact most of us can take what is a high level of load (at a slow cadence) and accelerate to the point where our legs spin-out and won't move any faster.
Side note: It's extremely rare to see someone riding with excessively high cadence on a magnetic resistance indoor cycle.
I've discussed this concept here in the past, but I couldn't prove or demonstrate it. I even went so far as contacting LOOK and Garmin to see if they would lend me a set of those new pedals with the built in power meter. They wouldn't and the crank arm from my FreeMotion doesn't fit on a NXT. It remained a mystery until now.
So while I was at the IHRSA convention, I finally had the chance to compare the new Blade Ion and the FreeMotion. With both cycles offering “measured power” I felt it would be a fair comparison; Magnetic vs Friction Resistance. Which best replicates riding outdoors?
Although I wasn't exactly “scientific” in my test protocol, nonetheless the results were very interesting.
Fun with graphs!
Here's what I did
My test was admittedly simple. After completing an early AM ride with Josh Taylor, I spent some time riding both the Spinner Blade Ion and FreeMotion S11.9. I began by establishing a steady 60 rpm cadence. Then I added resistance until the power meter showed 100 watts @ the 60 rpm. Then I accelerated to (and sustained) 90 rpm and took notes on what happened. I rode both cycles twice and the results were consistent. The blue Magnetic Watts line is more squiggly than the red Friction Watts line because I used the actual date set I downloaded directly from the FreeMotion's USB port.
I'd already tested the FreeMotion S11.9, so I knew that the 50% increase in cadence would result in a doubling of power. Perfectly consistent with my understanding of how Eddy Currents increase linearly with speed. A 50% increase in RPM = a 50% increase in resistance. Although math isn't my strong suit, it's easy to see how a 50% increase in Speed multiplied by a 50% increase in the amount of force required to turn the pedals = a 100% doubling in power/wattage. While not the same effect as what you'll find chasing down a breakaway at 27 mph, it is enough to force your students to work hard in a way that will help prepare them to hang with the “A” group.
The Spinner Blade Ion reflects the inherent weakness of using a friction pad with a heavy, perimeter weighted flywheel. The graph above clearly shows how the amount of resistance doesn't increase with additional speed – it actually goes down, validating what I had hoped to demonstrate. If it just stayed the same I should have observed 150 watts @ 90 rpm, I only saw 135 watts. So where did the other 15 watts disappear to? That's a math thing I'll leave to others smarter than me to answer. I will offer a guess that if I had continued on to 120 rpm, I would have seen a progressively lower increase in wattage vs what would be expected from a doubling of speed.
So what's this all mean?
Short answer – it's my opinion that magnetic resistance is superior in every way to a friction system. Besides being zero maintenance, the linear increase in resistance is much closer to what your participants will experience outdoors. Combined with the reduced inertia of the aluminum flywheel, magnetic cycles require more work to ride and force everyone to develop better pedaling technique. IMO the net results is that the members of your club or studio will (if they take advantage of it and you coach them properly) receive a more effective workout, that will translate to them becoming stronger outdoor cyclists.
So does that mean you wouldn't recomend the Spinner Blade Ion?
Not at all… it's an awesome cycle and that battery charger rocks. The purpose of this article was to demonstrate the differences so you can make an informed decision on your own. Besides, if you're a Spinning® studio, what other choice do you have?
P.S. If you're going to be at WSSC – I'd love for you to try and replicate my test on a Blade Ion for yourself. Then report back with what you find 🙂
IHRSA recently (April 2009) conducted a survey of 1,000 Americans and asked them why they are attracted to their health club, what their personal goals were, and if they were not members of a health club, what prevented them from joining. The responses were very interesting. When members were asked what attracted them to their current health club, the top 3 selections were made (multiple selections were allowed):
#1. For their overall/health & wellbeing (69% of health club members)
#2. For the variety of equipment, strength and cardiovascular equipment (55%)
#3. In order to get my work out in, rather than to socialize (48%)
The “Barn” as it's affectionately known, is run by first time business owner / Instructor Karen Casler. Karen shares with us a number of the secrets of her success in the interview below:
Her total focus on customer service.
Using technology effectively.
Offering a diverse mix of classes to reach the broadest audience.
Recruiting and retaining instructors.
Some Instructors don't fit – what to do next…
Not all customers fit either…
Studio details:
CB Cyclebarn 372 Camino de Estrella San Clemente, CA 92672
(949)303-3112 Email: karen@cbcyclebarn.com
Indoor Cycles: FreeMotion S11.9 with Carbon belt drive
In class display system of rider performance metrics: Performance IQ
