It sounds like Spinning® studio owner Mike Porter is crushing it in Vancouver BC at Cadence Cycling Studio!
Mike's studio was visited by radio personality Margaret Gallagher from CBC Radio One.
This is the month many folks vow to “get back into shape” after a season of indulgence. Cycling can be part of a healthier lifestyle. But the winter weather can be a deterrent for many when it comes to hopping into the saddle.
Indoor spin classes are a popular way to get fit using stationary bikes. Spinning is an intense cardio workout, set to music and led by an instructor. We checked out a class at Cadence Cycling Studio.
You can hear Mike's interview and a discussion about his studio below 🙂
iPad users can click here if the player doesn't show.
In Tom's previous post he talks about watching yourself on film to identify non-verbal movements / behaviors that if changed, could improve your class.
But what if the whole camera setup and production is too much of a hurdle for you right now… how about this baby step?
Get in front of a mirror and ride…
Most of our studios are full of mirrors, and yet many of us can go weeks or even months without seeing ourselves on the bike. Why not go in to your studio early and practice teaching your class where you can see yourself in a mirror? I suggest a head-on view and then at an angle like Christine suggested. Go through all your typical motions and movements and then ask yourself:
Do I look like I belong on a bike?
Do I appear relaxed & comfortable?
When I'm faking it, does it show?
Am I setup properly? (see tomorrow's post)
Most importantly: Do I have a lot of excessive upper body movement that indicates poor pedaling technique?
If you want to appeal to cyclists I suggest that you learn to look like you ride outdoors, even if you don't. Cyclists have an eye for other cyclists that I'm guessing comes from riding thousands of miles behind or alongside other competitive cyclists. Excessive side to side movement of your head, which corresponds with each down-stroke, screams I DON”T KNOW HOW TO PEDAL CORRECTLY. The same can be said for a lot of up and down movement of your body while standing. I see this as the most importantly thing you should work to correct because I see excessive movement as a sign of poor pedal technique that will brand you as a non-cyclist.
Here's an example of what you should look like as demonstrated by the Great Eddy Merckx!
I asked Amy and she had a completely different take on the usage of mirrors:
Many of us teach facing our classes. As we consider how we look this week, I want to talk about a teaching technique called “mirroring”. Simply described, mirroring is showing our class what we want them to do in opposite. For example, if we are coaching a right turn ahead, we would indicate with our left hand, as their right is our left.
Mirroring shows a maturity in teaching and eliminates confusion to our class. At first, it takes some thought, as it is not natural to indicate a cue in opposite. I find it most challenging when I’ve got my class in a race situation and we are passing, or even when we are in a pace line and I am coaching them to the front of the line to take their turn pulling. As I coach them to, “Pull out to the left of the rider in front of them, pull up alongside, give a little wave and take the lead”, this is all done with me physically cueing on the right side of our body. I get so into it, and feel myself on the road that I have to remember to cue for them, not like it should be on the road!
So, the next time you are in front of your class, try mirroring a few simple moves. It can even just be a lean right (your left), or left (your right) to start.
I've struggled with this for years – maybe it's a guy thing, but disconnecting my body from my brain is very difficult for me. If you have any coordination I would suggest taking a few Step Classes or some other choreographed class from a good instructor to watch and see how they do this. I've watched in amazement as Amy actually mirrors Step movements, while facing her class.
Another random thought on “How you look.”
Riding out of the saddle, with your forearms resting on the bars, (aero-position) has no place in your class. Beyond being completely contraindicated, it has you looking like a dork or worse, like one of the defeated obese people you see wandering around Wal-Mart 🙁
I use this mental image to remind students that our forearms aren't designed to support us.
I had to ignore the Instructor whose class I took this week. He insisted on having us all “Up and Aero” while we climbed. No real Cyclist or Triathlete climbs in an aero position out of the saddle; you're either down low in your aero position or standing with your hands spaced wide on the bars.
Your students are watching you… and I dare say judging you in large part by what they see.
Make sometime this week and consider how you look, because that's what your class is seeing 🙂
“The trouble with becoming dependent on technology… we're then completely at the mercy of something we have near zero little control over.”
Anonymous
I learned a valuable lesson this past Thursday night > check your device to ensure your make available offline/downloaded Spotify playlists are in fact available offline/downloaded before you leave your house!
I teach two classes on Thursday's; 6:00 am and 5:30 pm and use my iPhone 4s to deliver the music via Spotify. I like to use the same playlist for both classes and teach a similar class, even though the morning class is only 45 minutes. The morning class when off without a hitch but when I tried to cue up the same class that evening – it wasn't showing as available offline. In fact none of my Spotify playlists showed as playable 🙁
Quickly thinking back to another Best Practice post > when something isn't working, your first move should be to reboot (power down) the device. No help at all. Thankfully I still had a few playlists in iTunes and was able to carry on with a class I wasn't ready to teach.
Then this morning Amy had the same problem on her Android phone. This problem isn't limited to just iPhones. Thankfully she had checked this morning and was able to download her class before heading off to teach.
The Spotify forum has a number of posts describing the problem, but no solutions. I spend some time trying to replicate the problem without success. So beyond what I've listed below, my advice for Spotify user's is to check and confirm that the playlist you will be using is in fact ready for offline use.
Always have an alternate form of music ready and waiting!
For years I had a “Rescue CD” tucked into my personal folder in the Dept Head's office. It's long gone. Today I'm burning a new one as I type this.
Have an old, unused iPod laying around? Add a few of your old iTunes playlists and throw it into your gym bag, along with a charger cord and wall transformer. I just bought a few spare cord/chargers from Amazon.com for about $5 each.
Subscribe to IndoorCyclingMusic.com‘s music podcast. These hour long mixed tracks on my iPhone have been lifesavers in the past. Because they're the actual mp3's they will be there as long as your device will turn on.
Don't forget that Indoor Cycling DVD's include a soundtrack. They might not be to your taste, but could do in a pinch when everything else fails.
As a last resort (say the studio's sound system fails completely) be mentally prepared to coach a class without music. Coach Troy Jacobson has made a fortune walking around with a clipboard and stopwatch. Sure they add a soundtrack to the finished Spinervals Cycling DVD, but there was no music playing during the taping of the episode I participated in.
You may even go so far as to prepare for a future disaster by choosing to teach a quiet class where it's just you, doing your best impression of Coach Troy > except you would be prepared in advance.
Dave Santiago's Racing with Pro's class profile may have the structure you'll need to look prepared and sounding professional.
is there any way you can listen to a podcast and cruise the ICI website at the same time? Often I am tempted to hit a link while listening and then I am thrown off the podcast. Frustrating.
I hate it when PRO members are frustrated, I can help…
When you are on a web page (what you are reading right now) and click on a link, one of three options can happen:
The link replaces the page in the existing Window (that's when you lose the Podcast)
The link opens a new Window (which hides the original Window and keeps the Podcast playing)
The link opens a new Tab in the existing window (keeps the Podcast playing and the new page opens as a Tab in the existing Window) Looks like this:
I feel tabs are the best choice
So, what decides what happens?
The setting of the Link can decide (Open in this Window? or Open in a new Window?) This is set by whomever built the web page.
The settings in your Internet Browser can decide (The links at the top of this article take you to the Help pages for each browser)
Or, you can decide 🙂
The power of the “Right Click” – it puts YOU in charge!
Whenever you want to click a link, and retain the page you are currently viewing – Right Click the link and you will see your choice of options. Note: Might be slightly different depending on what version of Windows you are running. MAC users see something similar.
Right Clicking Gives You The Power!
Did this make sense to you? Let me know if you need more.
* The other option would of course be to listen in iTunes.
Schwinn Cycling Master Trainer Denise Druce presents our latest class profile; Lead The Pack!
About Denise:
Denise Druce is widely considered one of the leading health and fitness professionals in the state of Utah. She is the producer in a series of 28 home workout DVDs, she teaches and trains athletes at the University of Utah, and is a Master Instructor for 24 Hour Fitness. Denise was featured as a trainer in SELF magazine, inspiring over 500,000 women to participate in the SELF Fitness Challenge. She and her husband, Michael live in Salt Lake City with their three boys.
Question from a PRO member:
Schwinn Cycling Master Trainer Denise Druce presents our latest class profile; Lead The Pack!