Have you heard it? It’s been around a long time: “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
I feel sure whoever came up with that statement — bad grammar and all — never worked in the fitness industry, or as a nutritionist.
How many times have I run into training clients like Kathy the stockbroker? She was a fearless cyclist but, by all accounts, a rather cowardly stock broker.
Or Debra, a sugar addict whose lack of progress in our weight-loss program made the supervisor say, “I don’t understand. She trains well.” For this client, training was the easy part. Not only was she accustomed to working out regularly, she was down for the intense workouts, too. Nutrition, on the other hand, was her challenge.
Debra was conscientious about her workouts because she’d been using them for years to compensate for bad food habits and her sugar addiction. She was trying to burn all those excess sugar calories in tough fitness classes.
Where There’s No Law, There’s No Freedom
(Apologies to John Locke)
Rachel was a successful attorney and a partner in a thriving law firm. She was less successful at creating healthful meals, at least at first. She did get on the right nutrition track pretty easily, but exercise was the tougher obstacle.
You might wonder how someone who could get into a good law school, make it all the way through, pass the notoriously difficult California bar exam, and become a successful lawyer could possibly have difficulty fitting exercise into her life.
But it had never been part of her life before, so it was completely new. The idea of making time for it was new. Prioritizing it, working her appointments around her exercise session, even waking up a few minutes earlier to squeeze a modified workout into her busy day — were all new.
Rachel didn’t seem to see that she could use the same skills she’d used her entire professional life to launch her fitness “career.”
In fact, when she started working on a new case and knew her schedule would be hectic for at least 6 weeks, her plan was … to skip her workouts till that hectic time was over.
Rachel had no clear picture of the impact those 6 sedentary weeks would have had on her fitness. You can’t take 6 weeks off and expect to pick up where you left off when you quit. You’ll end up starting from square one, especially in the early stages of a fitness program.
We did finally get Rachel’s fitness program solidly entrenched in her schedule, but it was slow going. She started with one day a week, and occasionally a second. Moving to 3 days a week — the minimum for fitness maintenance — took a long time. But she did it and got results.
Perhaps you have participants who are doing similar things. Part 2 will cover a final extreme example and some suggestions for how to use this info to advantage.
This is the first installment of a new series of posts I'll be sharing on all aspects of the States SC3 indoor cycling bike. The Stages SC3 has taken the indoor cycling world by storm and I believe it's important for all instructors who use this bike to have a clear understanding of all it's amazing features. Those who don't use this bike can also learn from many of its features. The science is the same no matter what bike you use.
I'm going to start with an overview its console than in future posts I'll explain the metrics that are displayed line by line.
Below is a video narrated by Stages Director of Education Cameron Chinatti that overviews the Stages SC3 Console.
Power Education Specialist Benjamin Sharp talks about how to properly perform Hill Intervals using Stages Power. Hill Intervals are four 5-minute efforts done on a hill with a brief rest period between each effort. The goal is to find consistent power during each effort and across all four efforts.
Micro Intervals simulate the demands of racing. In this video Power Education Specialist Benjamin Sharp explains how to athletes preparing for an event, but haven’t the opportunity to ride in a group or to do training races beforehand can get the intensity. Micro intervals are a great way to jump start the system to simulate the demands necessary during a race.
Most often Benjamin Sharp prescribes micro intervals that are 10-15 minutes sets of 15 seconds on and 15 seconds off. The ON portion is VO2 (zone 5) and the OFF portion is a little below your FTP (zone 3). Then you “simply” follow this ON/OFF pattern continuously for the entire 10-15 minutes. Note, that you are never at rest during this 10-15 minutes.
These micro intervals are to be performed on flat to rolling terrain so you can stay in the same gearing/cadence throughout the entire interval. That means you won’t have to shift as you switch from the ON to OFF portions. Rather, during the ON portion you’ll accelerate and increase power and cadence and during the OFF portion you’ll ease up, decreasing force and reducing cadence.
The most important part of these intervals is to make sure you’re hitting the zones during each portion. This means not over powering the ON portions to the point at which you’re having to reduce your power below Zone 3 during the OFF portions.
Below, Premium Members can read a detailed description of this Class Profile, download a printable Class Profile that can be used in class, read a detailed description of the Power Based Training Zones and download a printable Power Postcard.
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