There I was, enjoying another instructor's class JRA (just riding along) in my own little zoned out world. I get that way often, when I'm aerobic and don't have to focus on teaching. It's typical for this to happen to me in a class where the instructor tends to offer too much… of everything.
Too much droning, unrecognizable fitness music.
Too much explanation.
Too much encouragement.
Too much talking/chatter… period.
So I tune them out and ride by myself until I hear the Instructor yell “SQUIRREL” and I snap back to reality. OK, they don't exactly say “SQUIRREL” but they may as well have.
I can't repeat them verbatim, but it sounds something like this to me; “Blah blah blah, blah blah Mitochondria blah blah blah. Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah Shoulders blah blah blah.Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah, RPE of 7 blah blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah, blah blah blah Scrape Mud blah blah blah Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah Hand Position Three blah blah Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah RECOVER!!!
My head pops up. Did she just say “SQUIRREL”? “What were we doing?” “Did I miss an interval?”
If you're missing my “SQUIRREL” reference, the Disney movie UP includes dogs who can talk, courtesy of a special collar they wear. A running joke throughout the movie how easily the dogs are distracted by one of them calling out “SQUIRREL”. Regardless of the seriousness of the conversation or situation, inevitably there's a “SQUIRREL” moment where everyone snaps to attention and scans for something furry to chase. Here's a clip.
http://youtu.be/OxYYPziLdR4?
There are certain words you may use in class that are the equivalent to “SQUIRREL” for humans, when thrown out between an endless string of chatter. Many I'll bet you use frequently; Recover, Go, Up, Down, FTP, Zone 3, Add a gear, Attack, Stand, Smooth, Breath and Climb to name a few. Notice that they describe something specific you'd like me to do. Don't get me wrong here, all of these words are perfectly fine to use in your class – just as long as you aren't inserting them into an endless string of blah blah blah's.
So what's the solution?
Please learn to be OK with silence 🙂 Understand that less is more in many situations. I'll bet that your class would be perfectly fine with you telling them to work for three minutes @ threshold and for you to ride along quietly with them until near the end. “Thirty seconds… Just ten… Recover.”
Are you OK with silence? This maybe another great reason to record yourself teaching and listen for times when you don't speak – or maybe discover that you have a little bit too much blah blah blah in your class that ends with a “SQUIRREL”.
This interview with communication expert Alexa Fischer may give you some additional ideas on what you should be listening for, in a recording of your class.
Discount parts for Star Trac Spinning®, Schwinn, Keiser and FreeMotion Indoor Cycles
Fitness equipment replacement parts distributor Sportsmith is offering a 15% discount for ICI/PRO readers and listeners. They have most everything you'll need to tune up all your bikes and have them ready for the fall (is it really coming so soon?) rush of new participants.
I've worked with Sportsmith for years – they distribute my Red Pedal Tool for easily and safely removing the fitness shoe cages from the Schwinn triple link pedals used on cycles in studios around the world.
Here's an old video I made showing how to use the Red Pedal Tool that features younger daughter carly 🙂
Long climbs have you bumping up against your power ceiling.
I prefer to limit the mathematical computations many Instructors typically ask of their classes. For example you'd never hear me say;
“now I want everyone at 85% of their FTP” or… “this next interval is 30 seconds in Zone 5B which is 103 to 106% of your LT/AT heart rate followed by 2 minutes in Zone 3 = 90%-93%”… everybody got that? Then let's GO!!!
I'll admit that part of this is due to my phobia of math. It's also because I recognise that there are a wide diversity of personalities riding in front of me. Sure, I've got a few engineers who could probably spit out the square root of their FTP between pedal strokes if you asked, but it's my impression that the majority of folks in your class would prefer that you leave the math for times when they have a calculator handy 🙂
Just this past Sunday I had two women in my Performance Cycle class cheer when I mentioned that I wouldn't be requiring any percentage figuring that morning.
But we still need to communicate intensities, right? That's where establishing Floors and Ceilings comes in. They're simple concepts everyone will understand – we all know what's below a floor or when we're up against a ceiling!
Master Instructor Dennis Mellon using this same Floors and Ceilings concept in his classes, except a little differently. We discuss how we each use them to (hopefully) communicate effectively, in this ICI/PRO Podcast episode.
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Please let us know your questions.
You can read more about using VT1 Aerobic Threshold and VT2 Anaerobic Threshold to create easy to understand Floors and Ceilings here.
I taught my last class today. My last ride so-to-speak. It all started seven years ago. I had been Spinning® for years. That day our regular instructor asked me to lead her class. She was just too sick.
To me – a pilot – it was like being asked to safely land an airliner because the pilots were incapacitated. Truth be told, I was far more prepared to land a 747 than lead the class. But I did it, and that is where my ride as indoor cycle instructor began.
Penning this post for ICI/PRO is – for the most part – where it ends. A memoire of sorts that highlights milestones of my journey from certified but lost, to Master Instructor, what I learned along the way about our craft and our industry.
Realizing the joy of being in the front of the studio, I took the first of countless certifications the next month. A one day, eight hour class. Leaving that afternoon I realized what I didn’t know.
I knew that to be the instructor I wanted to be, would require more than eight hours. So I did what all red blooded Americans do, a Google search on teaching indoor cycling.
Lucky for me John understands search engine optimization. ICI/PRO was top of the list and my life as an instructor changed.
Back then John was publishing ‘podcasts’ and posts talking about something he called Indoor Cycling 2.0. What?? I was in my car a lot in those days with my iPod plugged into the radio. I listened to it all trying to figure the best way to integrate such wisdom into my teaching.
There were guest speakers who discussed everything from music to very cycle specific training.
There were posts from this guy, Gene Nacey, who had started a company called Cycling Fusion. Gene wrote a book back then about training with power. The forward, written by Sally Edwards. Who were these people and why are they always talking about heart rate, power and cadence?
ICI/PRO offered class profiles with music suggestions. I found these very helpful but they had names like muscular strength or climbing power or aerobic volume training. It was all very overwhelming.
I realized what made it so overwhelming was that I had not really been educated. That my eight hour class hardly scratched the surface of what ‘training’ on an indoor cycle was really about.
My experience taking classes was just the opposite. My favorite instructor never did any of this stuff. I had reached a defining moment. Indoor cycling version 1.0 or 2.0.
I chose 2.0 because it had the education I yearned for and the structure that seemed missing from the classes I took. I had always been a fan of heart rate. Moreover, the new bikes at the JCC – where I was trying to land a sub job – measured heart rate and had power meters. I knew that seemed like the perfect combination but – at the time – had no idea why.
I got the sub job and a fair amount of opportunity to teach in those early years. I began my quest to get better through education. My sub classes (all I had at the time) were – unbeknownst to them – my guinea pigs.
Having read Gene’s Power Training Book there were some questions. I had found a way to land a ‘regular’ class in prime time by offering to do a power training course. I had questions, so I called him.
Gene is the quintessential professional. He always gave freely of his time to answer my questions. But he warned me, “Chuck where you are going you will discover a culture, the culture of indoor cycling. Good luck.” But more on that later.
Later that year he was doing the official launch of his new company, Cycling Fusion by hosting a summit of some of the most nationally regarded indoor cycle instructors. I’m not sure where I found the nerve, but I offered to kick off the summit suggesting that I was representative of the new 2.0 instructor. To my surprise Gene said yes.
The rest is history. My relatively short, but incredibly intense career really began at that summit, west of Denver high in the Rocky Mountains at Keystone Ski Resort. Why? I met Sally Edwards. Talk about unbridled energy. Sally – the only person ever inducted into both triathlon halls of fame – epitomizes it.
Suffice it to say that when I ran into Sally at the Denver airport after the summit I knew I was home. John led me into the room, Gene opened the window and Sally was the sunshine that poured through. There are not enough words to describe the learning one experiences working with Sally Edwards.
But if Sally was the sun shining on my personal learning crusade, Jim Karanas was the fresh air flowing through the open window.
Jim was indoor cycling 2, 3, 4 and 5.0 way before anyone ever heard of a ‘podcast’. Sadly, Jim left us a while ago, but his legacy lives on in all of those he touched. From Jim I learned to put the icing on the cake. That at the end of the day, it was not about me or just about heart rate or power, cadence or cycle specific training. It was about bringing to class the ability to touch each rider such that they were sure I was teaching class just for them.
When I made the choice to give up leading classes I did it with the knowledge that I had met my own challenge – to understand the whole of indoor cycling yes, but to touch the people who trusted me in a positive manner. How did I know? Simple really, rider feedback. Additionally, I had grown past the place where I was committed to only one way. I was comfortable teaching outside the keep-it-real philosophy that had governed my every thought for so long. I knew that Indoor cycling 2.0 was only a pass to explore and learn, not a rigid protocol to vigorously defend. That my job was not to suppose I knew what my riders needed, or how they got it, but to provide for them what THEY thought they needed that day. I can do that. I have done that. I am content. I have moved on but I have not forgotten.
In the coming weeks I will give John some additional posts written but never submitted. Posts that take a close, perhaps inside look at the realities of our industry. Fruit for thought or maybe, fuel for a fire.
It has been my privilege to have met and worked with so many great and talented individuals.
What message do you send from the bike, while conducting your class?
If that's that's of interest to you, here are two short videos to help you.
First is communication expert Alexa Fischer. She sets up her video on body language this way…
I was at a networking event recently (actually enjoying it, as I am wont to do), shaking hands, making small talk, when I saw her — arms crossed, head down, avoiding eye contact while she alternated between sipping her drink and scrolling through her phone.
And this made me think two things:
1. My friend, we’ve all been there. Who among us hasn’t felt nervous at an event filled with new people?
2. I want so much to come over and say hello! And ask you where you got that great haircut! But your body language is telling me you’d rather … not.
In today’s video, we talk about how body language affects how others view us, how our own body language affects how we feel, and how we can read someone’s body language and use that information to choose our words.
If you missed hearing our past interview with Alexa you can find it here.
To build on the concept of projecting confidence, take a few minutes to watch Johnny G and see how he presents that “outward energy” on the bike.
Watching Johnny has me considering how often I sit up and project openness – rarely now that I think about it.
Do you spend the majority of your class down? Or are you sitting up frequently to reinforce an important point or simply to extend that outward energy to your class?
Here's a great opportunity for Indoor Cycling Instructors and Studio Owners to attract and serve a new demographic of riders – active seniors!
With over 12 MILLION members and 13,000 locations, SilverSneakers is a kind of quiet giant in the fitness industry. Participating senior citizens, across America, can take advantage of free access to health clubs and wellness centers that's paid through their health insurance.
The SilverSneakers FLEX program is designed for individual Fitness Instructors wanting to offer classes and activities at non-traditional locations. I've never stopped to ask, but I'll bet the large group of seniors we pass exercising in a local park on our Sunday AM bike ride is a FLEX class.
FLEX could be the perfect way to add some additional classes to your studio's schedule. Our FLEX approved Parkinson's Cycling classes are best conducted between 10:00 and noon. Seniors tend to eat dinner early (join us for the 4:30 blue plate special) so they might be open to a Senior Cycling class around 3:00pm.
FLEX Instructors are paid directly by SilverSneakers, so there's no cost to the participants. You can learn more by listening to this interview with Stephanie Wong – the Vice President, Field Operations for SilverSneakers' parent company Healthways, Inc. You can email her with questions; stephanie.wong@healthways.com
SilverSneakers is an industry-leading fitness program for older adults. It is delivered through a nationwide network of participating fitness locations such as YMCAs, Curves®, gyms, wellness centers and other facilities.
Our qualified SilverSneakers instructors will have the training and skills necessary to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population that values high-quality, personalized service.
Interested in finding out about our new FLEX instructor program? Click Here to download the program brochure.
Interested in becoming a SilverSneakers instructor? Click Here for more information.
