As I prepared to support ICG at IHRSA 2013, I considered the ICG tenet that learning is about removing resistance.
I had just gotten back from a bit of Vegas shopping. A nice saleslady asked me what I was doing in Vegas and told me about the time she and her friends first tried indoor cycling. She loved it and was hooked, but her friends ran away and never came back. She explained that their initial reluctance to try something with a reputation for being hard had unfortunately been validated.
The cycling class tradition is steeped in that reputation — it’s crazy hard and the people doing it are crazier still. The reputation makes it difficult to get new riders. There’s built-in resistance to the classes. Regrettably, many instructors deliver indiscriminately on the reputation.
Yet we know that doesn’t need to be the case. How an instructor begins a class can go a long way toward removing resistance for first-timers. So I’ve developed a list. I’m not sure if they’re “Dos and Don’ts” or “Pros and Cons”, but certainly following these tenets during every class will help improve the reputation of indoor cycling.
YOU MUST GET THERE AT LEAST 15 MINUTES EARLY!!
This seemingly simple, yet consistently underemployed, strategy will put you in a calmer place. Your riders can feel your tension. Moreover, it gives you a chance to get ready without stress and bond a bit with your riders. Especially first-timers.
BE ATTENTIVE TO FIRST-TIME RIDERS
Many first-time riders will not approach you with that information. They tend to wander in, head to the back of the room, and look for a bike that fits. If you’re in discussion with your roadie friend, picking videos, lacing up your bike shoes, emailing or texting, you could easily miss them. Be on the lookout.
PERFORM A BIKE FIT TO GET TO KNOW THEM AND LET THEM KNOW YOU
I’m often made fun of for the amount of time I take doing bike fits for my riders. Well, LOL, for first-timers, the key is the time you give them, rather than how precisely you fit them. While doing the bike fit, I ask their name, talk about the console (if applicable), show them how to change resistance, define some terms I’ll use, explain the order of tasks (fun, cadence, resistance), and most importantly, explain how to modify anything I ask. Make your first connection here.
START CLASS BY WELCOMING THE NEW PEOPLE
I may catch some flak here because some people don’t like to be called out. But rather than calling them out, I simply state that we have a first-timer and have everyone clap. Then we get to it.
MAKE EYE CONTACT AND GIVE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
During class, check in on your first-timer. It’s simple. Watch. Make eye contact. Smile and nod reassuringly. If they’re struggling, find an opportune moment to get off the bike, turn off the mic, and give some help. Help other riders along the way.
TALK TO THEM AFTER CLASS
As much as practical, get right to your first-timers and talk to them. How did it feel? What did you like? What didn’t you like? Did you get the workout you expected? Where to buy cycling shorts and shoes. Welcome them into the community.
FINAL WORDS ON EDUCATION
Innovation has been the cornerstone of the ICG mission. Our approach to education — learning is a process of removing resistance — is a giant leap forward for indoor cycling. As an instructor, you have the opportunity to remove resistance and educate both your regular riders and beginners. The longevity of our craft depends on bringing in, educating and motivating new riders. Removing resistance is the first step. Take it.
At IHRSA, I worked the ICG booth and was fortunate — in some bizarre way — to be cornered by two club owners after my second of three demo rides. Both used the same language.
“You’re very good at teaching to video. But, of course, that’s why your company brought you here. How can we get our instructors to do as well as you and make their classes just as compelling?”
I explained that the best programs are those where the synergy between club management and employees is high. When management works closely with the group exercise teams to educate, promote, nurture and applaud, good things happen. The corollary is that management first needs to go in search of “the best of the best (and) make them better”. (Yes, I stole that line from “Top Gun.”)
They were surprised to hear that ICG's online continuing education is free for everyone, not just those who buy our widgets. I explained our concept of educating by removing resistance. Our online modules are there for all — and you don’t have to start at the top. Nor do the instructors, who have learned a thing or two over the years, have to read all the chapters before taking the quiz at the end of each module.
As instructors, we can’t lose sight of the fact that, if we’re not working on improving our craft, then it could be better.
I saw this last Tuesday and forgot to share it with you. Our club ride begins at the Minnetonka Lifetime Athletic Club. Better known as The Spa, this is a unique LTF facility. Definitely not a Big Box, this club began as a women only club before being purchased by Lifetime.
When I got there Tuesday night they were setting up for an outdoor ride. How fun is that? We rolled before they got started and I heard later that they (Manager and Instructors) did a very nice job making this outdoor class an event, rather than just a class.
The area behind the fence is a small patio. After the class participants enjoyed Hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar – this is an adults only club. They even had live entertainment from a local duet. Is that something you could do at your club or studio?
Could I keep up in a group ride?
With Amy visiting her family in Phoenix, I become the de facto sub for her Saturday AM class. Which was fine – 55 and rain this morning = no outdoor ride for John. After class a regular member asked me if I felt she could keep up in a group ride. I dislike giving answers beginning with; “well that depends” – except in this situation it really does. Riding with a group depends on a number of factors. So I asked her the following:
Do you have a suitable road bike?
Are you comfortable riding close to others?
Are you OK riding on the road?
How far (miles) can you typically ride at a consistent pace?
It surprised (and delighted) me a little when she quickly answered positively to each question and then clarified what she was asking:
How many Watts do I have to make, to keep up in a group ride?
She's been listening and wanted to equate the power/watts she seeing in class to riding outdoors 🙂
I had to think about it for a few minutes, before I could answer her. I explained that most organised group rides have multiple “levels”:
“A” groups are normally drop rides. If you can't keep up you get dropped, and ride home by yourself. Based on my purely anecdotal experience, “A” groupers can sustain 1.5 or more watts per pound of body weight for the entire ride.
“B” groups, depending on the organization and/or leaders, are partial drop rides = we may wait for you or there maybe someone who will come back to help you catch up. To hang with the “Bs” you should be comfortable producing your body weight in watts > and be able to climb at around 1.5 watts per pound.
“C” groups areno drop rides. Everyone stays together and ride at the pace of the slowest rider.
But I don't want to slow everyone up – so what's the minimum watts I need to make?
I told her that there's no way to know that number. I encouraged her to show up one night and see what happens…
Now I'm not talking about lying to you in a malicious/manipulative way, I have this awesome bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you really cheap – or – she's a real peach, only driven to church and back by the gentlest 80 year old grandmother you've ever met.
What I'm talking about is how people will/do lie to you… if they think telling you the truth could or would hurt your feelings.
Friends can be the worst. And I count a lot of long time members at our club, as friends.
“The truth is always an insult or a joke, lies are generally tastier. We love them. The nature of lies is to please. Truth has no concern for anyones comfort” – Arturo Binewski.”
― Katherine Dunn
Here's a recent example.
Two weeks ago I took over a class for another Instructor. 6:00 am Thursday mornings. The previous Instructor is very solid and she teaches a cycling specific class – I've taken and subbed it multiple times, so I was a good choice to take over her class. Everyone there knows me by name and most I've known for years.
The first week was Spring break = only about 1/2 the normal attendance. It was an endurance day and I thought; “why not run them though some Effortless Exercise intervals?” I lead everyone through a series of ladders where the challenge was to keep your mouth closed (staying aerobic) – while maximising power output. I had them experimenting with different cadences to observe where they each were most efficient.
After class I asked a few participants their thoughts (I try to always ask for questions/comments) and each was positive. But as it turned out, they were lying to me 🙁
This past week was an ugly snowstorm, so again a small class. Wanting to build on the theme we did a bunch of climbing, but stayed down around VT1 = aerobic. I needed to get on the road quickly that morning, so I didn't hang around very long.
Walking to to Amy's class Saturday morning, a member approached me with; “John, you've really got to step it up!” And she proceeded to tell me how such and such's class on Tuesday is really hard and how a number of other members were disappointed by how “easy” my class was.
Finally someone willing to tell me the truth!
I can do hard and these members know it. In fact I'll bet I disappointed most of them. Beyond their (misguided) belief that a hard class always equals a good class, my reputation is that John teaches hard classes. When I didn't meet their “expectations” for hard, they probably felt cheated at some level.
In Krista Leopold's Dear Instructor post, she shared the honest disappointment of Patrick, a frustrated member. He had an expectation that wasn't met that was based on his perspective; the scheduled Instructor is totally capable of coming come to class prepared. I found the very specific honesty refreshing and I'm hoping that this Instructor will appreciate Patrick. He could very well be the only participant in his class that believes enough in him, to tell him the truth.
As a think back through this, I'm realizing that my mistake was not considering that these members would have an expectation based on their previous experiences with me and my class. I had walked in thinking; “these folks need aerobic base training… so that's what I'm going to give them.” When I should have thought; “these folks are probably thinking I'm going to walk in and crush them… so I need to meet that expectation first and then slowly work in the base training I feel they need.” As I type this I'm also realizing that ME, deciding what THEY need, was about ME and not THEM 🙁
This week I'm planning a class that will bracket a long aerobic climb, with two very long/intense FTPish intervals. I'm also going to have everyone fill out this Instructor Evaluation Form that Dr. Haley Perlus had created for us for us a while back.
Do any of your students struggle with motivation? Have any of them missed classes, perhaps several in a row, because they “just didn’t feel motivated”? For a number of years, I’ve been an instructor/nutritionist for a weight-management program that includes indoor cycling. Motivation has often been an issue.
Which comes first — motivation or results? My immediate response to that question was “motivation.” How can you get results if you’re not motivated to do anything?
Still, in another life, I had the fitness job of showing people how to use the equipment, getting their health histories, and starting them on programs. Some came in excited, but others were resigned: “My doctor said I need to exercise to lower my blood pressure.” “My wife told me I have to join the club and lose weight.” Some even seemed resentful that they “had to” be there.
So, clearly, fitness programs don’t all start with motivation. Once these new members started to lose a little weight, though, feel more energetic, sleep better, get a few compliments, that’s when they didn’t want to miss a day. That’s when they put cross-trainers in the trunk because it messed up their plans when they forgot them one evening. That’s when they began scheduling activities around their workouts instead of the reverse.
Apparently, for some people, results precede motivation.
This brings up another question. What’s motivation? Several years ago, in the same weight-management program, we had a behavioral psychologist on staff, who defined motivation in terms of excitement. He’d ask participants if they were still motivated, still excited, as if those were one and the same.
Are they? I feel sure the readers of ICI-PRO are highly motivated. Do you jump out of bed every morning, gleefully anticipating the class you’ll soon be teaching, or your own workout, whatever it may be? Or every single ride? I imagine many of us feel excitement on something of a sliding scale.
The early A.M. gym crowd tends to be quite consistent. As I worked with a client one morning, a man who’s at the gym most days approached us to say hello and added, “I really didn’t want to be here today, but I told myself, ‘Gotta do it.’” It was exactly what my client needed to hear; he usually dragged in, complaining about lack of motivation.
So back to the question of what motivation is. Is it enthusiasm? On any given morning, many consistent exercisers probably feel much the same way as the man who got himself to the club with, “Gotta do it.”
What can we do to help students who struggle to stay motivated? I suggest we start by telling them to accept their love-it/hate-it feelings about the workout. One day, your class will be their favorite thing to do all day. The next, they’ll hate it — and you for being the Cycling Nazi. Embrace the dichotomy.
A Book Of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi holds one (rather esoteric) key. The way of the warrior is death. In a life or death situation, the warrior chooses death, accepts and embodies it so there’s no fear, no desire to back away. Jim Karanas — NO surprise — trained this way for a 24-hour rowing event. Substituting pain for death, he embraced the pain and actually sought it out, rather than trying to avoid or lessen it.
Why not apply this to cycling classes? Accept, embrace and seek out all of the frustrations: discomfort, tedium, sleep deprivation, inconvenience, and more.
Mark Twain said, “Make it a point to do something every day that you don’t want to do.” He claimed it led to the habit of doing one’s duty without pain. I see it as the warrior’s way — saying yes, rather than no, to the pain. Do something each day that you don’t want to do simply to stay on the warrior’s path, to move through and past those who think there’s something wrong with feeling the pain in the first place.
Tell students it’s okay to come in with scowling faces. No matter how much they didn’t want to be there at first, they’ll almost always be glad they showed up.
I’ve pushed through workouts, competitions and stage performances despite injuries, fatigue, boredom, lack of prep time, or simple lack of desire. My decades as a fitness pro have taught me that anyone who wonders why someone would do something unpleasant won’t adhere to a fitness program for any length of time.
Help your students redefine motivation. I read somewhere that a key to happiness is to learn to recognize a neutral state as happiness. The same can be said for motivation — it’s not necessarily enthusiasm, let alone excitement.
Sometimes motivation is nothing more than planning, then getting where you have to be to do what you need to do, so you can get the results you say you want … pushing through obstacles, pain and discouragement, all the way to the goal.
You could call it the dark side of joy.
“Forget about likes and dislikes; they are of no consequence.
Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”
— George Bernard Shaw
How many of you have sung along to a favorite tune for years, in the safety of your car/shower or (God forbid) over the Instructor Mic, only to learn that you have some of the lyrics completely wrong?
Or looked at from the other direction; how many of you have felt a sense of contentment – once you've discovered the correct lyrics for a song – and your brain no longer needs to create sounds to fill the space where the newly discovered word fits?
I'll bet nearly every person in your class has a similar experience. That's why I'm thinking what follows could be something they would enjoy 🙂
If you're using Spotify, you may have seen all of the different desk top Apps that are available. Most of them are designed around discovering new music. When I fired up Spotify this morning I saw this new musiXmatch App that displays the lyrics Karaoke style for tracks playing on Spotify, along with rotating cover art.
This could be something cool you could add to your class if you have video and a method of connecting your computer or device.
WARNING – Many songs you may search for may have the lyrics, but haven't been timed to the actual song. MUSIXMATCH will then ask if you would like to be the first to sync the lyrics to the song, as you listen along. THIS IS VERY ADDICTIVE! I burned an hour this morning working my way through the whole David Bowie — The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (40th Anniversary Edition) [Remastered] both to see if my 40 year memory was correct and to add the sync if needed.
I'm going to experiment with this next week. I'm starting a new 6:00 AM class on Thursdays and my experience is that these early AM “A” types appreciate being mentally stimulated early in the morning.
Here's a fun video about MUSIXMATCH.
Word travels fast – I was contacted by a listener in London who heard our latest Podcast about the upcoming Ride of Hope. She offers these suggestions for anyone traveling to London this summer 🙂
Whether you're still sporting rookie marks or consider yourself an experienced roadie, it's time to enter London's dazzling cycle event to be held the first weekend of August: The 2013 Prudential RideLondon. These spectacular cycling trials are expected to draw spectators and participants numbering in the tens of thousands from all over the world. London has so much to offer these cyclists and those who cheer them on. RideLondon provides the perfect opportunity to enjoy London's culture, history, arts, and entertainment. Visitors should consider looking into the abundance of shows, special offers, and meal deals available through theatretickets.co.uk.
Cyclists and spectators alike won't want to miss these four dramatic cycling events:
* RideLondon GrandPrix: Held in the heart of London on a 1.3-mile loop circling St. James's Park, this trial is designed to inspire women cyclists, young people, and hand-cyclists. In addition to supporting professional women's cycling and Paralympic racing, RideLondon will provide special activities for young cyclists to encourage cycling as a healthy life choice.
* RideLondon Freecycle: Envision 50,000 cyclists over an eight-mile route in central London from Tower Bridge to Buckingham Palace and Parliament. People of all ages are invited to participate in the Freecycle in order to prove that cycling is fun, healthy, and tremendous for the environment. Participants, solo or as a group, may register online for free at the Prudential RideLondon website and will receive a special participation tabard.
* RideLondon Surrey-100: A 100-mile fundraiser for charity, this ride offers a challenge to amateurs as it winds its way from the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, through the Surrey countryside, and back to the London Mall. Last chance to sign up, as 55,000 participants have already been accepted via ballot. Additional cyclists may enter through charity sponsorships. Amateurs need not fear bonking or getting cashed, as cyclists will be seeded along the route according to their abilities. A Business Relay is also scheduled for teams to compete over a 25-mile course. Charities are encouraging cyclists to commit to riding for their cause, including the British Red Cross, Hope for Children, Help the Hospices, World Wildlife Federation, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
* RideLondon Surrey Classic: Watch 150 international men's elite cyclists wind up through 12 London boroughs, into the County of Surrey, and back to the London Mall. This trial will commence at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, scene of the London 2012 Games, and be broadcast on TV. The Classic is expected to establish a new annual event for Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).
Designed to encourage more people to take up cycling, RideLondon wishes to promote the development of an environmentally-friendly cycle-hire program throughout the London area, in addition to raising money for charity.
