It seems like a logical thing for a studio to offer; a variety of Indoor Cycling class formats, targeted at a wide demographic of people:
Early AM classes that are full of purpose, for all those “A” types who get up before dawn.
Fun/party/social class formats for the mid-morning crowd.
Shortened (express) class for the lunch hour.
High-energy classes in the evening (maybe with a DJ) to attract the youngsters.
Combo/hybrid classes that feature cycling (cardio) and a strength/flexibility component.
Endurance Sports Training.
A beginner's class to recruit new participants who might be a little apprehensive to join your HIIT classes.
It's common to see many of these class formats offered – except the last one, a regularly scheduled beginner's class.
Exist Cycle in Sherwood Park Alberta CA offers them all – and it sounds like they're having great success!
Hi John,
We are finding that many people are intimidated by indoor cycling so the beginner class is a great way to introduce people to the cycling community. If people are new to cycling we always suggest our beginner class first but doesn't take long before they are riding in all our classes. Many clients love our 30 minute cycle and 30 minute HIIT class. It truly is a full body workout and 30 minutes of cardio.
We have had many success stories with a lot of returning riders and we are always excited to see new people in the studio each week. We are in to our 4th week of a 8 week wellness challenge with 20 clients. One of our instructors is a holistic nutritionist so the challenge includes 2 cycle classes/week, a boot camp class and then weekly meal plans. So far all our challengers are down in weight and inches and many have told us they are starting to feel stronger and healthier in just 3 short weeks.
Love reading your articles and visiting your website for a variety of great information!
Marketers have specific names for people, based on how quickly they purchase new products or embrace new technologies. The people who lined up, days in advance, to buy the first iPhones are described as innovators. Those of us who waited a few weeks for our new phone are early adopters. The few holdouts still using a rotary dial phone fall into the laggards category.
It maybe a “guy” thing, but I love new technology and feel I'm a bit of an innovator. I'm very comfortable experimenting with new software, especially if it includes a promise to improve my fitness or help me deliver a better class. For example; the second I saw Spotify I knew I needed to learn how it worked – both for myself, and then be able to help motivate the thousands of Instructors who visit here use it as well.
When it comes to Social Media, I hate to admit, I haven't been very innovative. Closer to a laggard. I've been privately wishing that FaceBook would fade away. You see, ICI/PRO has always been about others. My response to questions; “so, what do you do John?” has always been; “I have a platform to promote smart, talented and passionate people in our industry”.
So after multiple promptings to “get more active on FaceBook” and my realization that it isn't going away any time soon – I have finally decided to do just that… get more active on FaceBook and other platforms. Except I realized that I needed some help.
Enter Social Media expert, blogger and Indoor Cycling Instructor – Courtney Messier Lee 🙂
Courtney makes her living helping businesses develop their brands, online, using the various social media platforms. She has graciously offered to help me, starting with the creation of a FaceBook fan page.
Courtney joins me to discuss her plans to enhance my social profile and some of her ideas may help you as well.
You can learn more about Courtney and the services she offers, by following the (you guessed it) links to her profiles below.
UPDATE: Unfortunately we ran into contractual issues that prevent us from having this event this year. We'll keep trying.
ICI/PRO is partnering with ECA World Fitness to co-host a very special Cycling Studio Owner and Instructor education conference near San Francisco, CA over the weekend of November 7th – 9th, 2014.
We've chosen the beautiful campus of the College of San Mateo and their San Mateo Athletic Club as the event location.
How cool is this? I hadn't experienced an Indoor Cycling studio that offered reserved seats before. It had me feeling like a VIP when Amy and I visited CB Cyclebarn, Karen Casler's studio last month.
The website system she uses integrates her Mindbody account with the class rider data collected by Performance IQ. I thought you might like to see the string of conformation and followup emails the system creates automatically.
First let's reserve a spot in the class. I didn't think to take a screen shot at the time so I'm showing tomorrow's schedule.
Better hurry and sign up now for Jen's 7 am class! There's only 2 spots left.
Next you select your bike – just like picking a seat on an airplane or at a concert. The image is for Bart's 11:00 am class. Note how you can pick a bike that has your type of pedals.
Once you've completed your purchase you receive a conformation email – all this happens automatically.
Having a confirmed seat, in a sold out class, is awesome.
A friendly reminder is appreciated by scatter brains like me.
After the class I checked my email and saw all of my performance data. I wasn't wearing a heart rate strap in this class. If I had that data would show as well.
Receiving this information had me wanting to return to see if I could improve my average.
Amy and I were very impressed by this system and feel it will really get your participants excited about training with power on a consistent schedule! The website integration system is offered by LiveEdit and will work with these Indoor Cycles with power; FreeMotion S11.9, Spinner® Blade Ion and the Schwinn AC Performance.
Disclosure – Amy recently joined LiveEdit as a representative, specializing in helping new Indoor Cycling Studios. She would enjoy answering your questions. Amy.Macgowan@getliveedit.com or feel free to call her 320-685-0183
Over the past month or so we're published multiple posts related to the accuracy and consistency of the indoor cycles in our studios. Gene Nacey chronicled his experiments toward finding a method of handicapping his cycles, in the hope of addressing the differences in wattage he is seeing between bikes and my series on the results from our survey both pointed to the same conclusion; Indoor Cycle manufactures have work to do to ensure a level of consistency that will give both Instructors and participants the confidence we need to really use power as a training tool in our classes.
Last week at IHRSA, Amy and I had the chance to sit down with Keiser founder Dennis Keiser, before he formally announced that his engineering team had secured the first European EN-ISO 20957-1 accreditation for an Indoor Cycle that displays power – the new Keiser M3i.
The Keiser M3 group fitness cycle has been the first product of its kind to receive prestigious EN-ISO 20957-1 recognition for the accuracy of its power display.
“This is a big step. Our industry needs to validate the numbers that our users are seeing,” said Keiser founder and President Dennis Keiser. “This gives our customers a level of comfort at what they are seeing in our display.” The accuracy certification represents the first time that TUV Product Services, a European safety organization, has tested for accuracy in a data reporting system on an indoor group exercise cycle. To achieve EN-ISO 20957-1 recognition, TUV requires a group fitness cycle consistently perform within plus or minus 10% of accuracy. “To be the first in our industry to receive this is a great achievement and an honor,” expressed Keiser Vice President-Europe Alastair Watson. “It is important to everyone at Keiser that our customers know they are getting the best bike in the industry and the most accurate reporting system as this designation confirms.” Keiser has been the undisputed industry leader, the first to employ magnetic resistance, introduce power, and now the first to receive accuracy certification. “It’s very easy for someone to talk about the accuracy of power but this test is very difficult. To achieve what we have is significant,” explained Dennis Keiser. “We have been the leader and intend to remain the leader in indoor group cycling.”
Dennis explained to us that the primary focus of EN-ISO 20957-1 (ISO is the International Organization for Standardization) is safety. Passing is required to sell new fitness equipment in many European countries. The certification of any power displayed is a sub-category of EN-ISO 20957-1 that's been initiated to bring more consistency to our industry – something Dennis expressed is long overdue and I completely agree.
Now while a +-10% accuracy may not sound all that impressive in these days of super accurate (and expensive) bicycle power meters, that's the maximum allowable variation from any randomly sampled production M3i. To achieve that level of accuracy, while making allowances for production tolerances, Keiser's engineers designed the M3i to have single digit accuracy.
Upgrade for older Keiser M3s
So why would this be important to a club or studio who own the older versions of the Keiser M3? My understanding is that Keiser will be offering retrofit kits for older M3's. By replacing the console, a small circuit board near the magnet carrier and the magnet carrier you'll be able to bring your M3s up to this new certification's level of accuracy. Included with the kit will be the new power console that incorporates BLE Bluetooth Low Energy which will easily pair with an iPhone/Android phone + work with the new Keiser GX group exercise projection system for on-screen power and heart rate display in class. More about that soon.
Both are supposed to be available later this summer – I'll be posting the details on cost and how to order once it's been finalized.
That's Coach Robin Robinson in the pink jersey at IHRSA
“I think she's talking to you John” was the response from Mad Dogg's Tony Berlant, as we both watched a very excite women running toward us. Tony and I were enjoying an adult beverage during the reception at last fall's MindBodyFitPro convention in LA when the women confirmed who exactly she was addressing:
YOU (she's now pointing at me) John Macgowan… YOU TAUGHT ME TO USE SPOTIFY!
A big hug completed my formal introduction to ICI/PRO member Charla Goodnight. What followed was an hour long conversion with one of the most passionate Indoor Cycling Instructors I've ever met. Charla explained to me how she had benefited from the information she had received here and how she was at the conference to finalize her equipment and studio management software decisions for her new Indoor Cycling studio – Time Trial Cycle in Naples, FL.
Well the big day is this Friday, March 21st and I'm very excited for both Charla and her business partner Carter Wheeler.
Here's how they describe their new studio
When you enter the friendly doors of Time Trial Cycle, judgment and fear are left behind. Offering expert coaching and a variety of classes for all ages and fitness levels, the only person you have to be better than is who you were yesterday.
As the premier indoor cycling studio in Naples, we offer:
Stadium seating with plenty of elbow room to grind up the hills
Audacious sound system and LED lighting
Top of the line Star Trac Blade Ion bikes that provide constant display of RPM’s, Heart Rate, Calories Burned, Speed/Distance and Power.
Two massive flat screen TV’s to track your performance on the Performance IQ board
Post-workout reports emailed to measure your progress
Changing rooms, shower, spa quality amenities and alkaline water tap
Charla and Carter appear to have done a good job promoting their launch – today they were featured on the local Fox morning show and this Naples newspaper ran a great story about the new studio.
It’s “Time” for Naples to pedal its way to an unrivaled indoor cycling experience as Time Trial Cycle, Naples’ premier dedicated indoor cycling studio, celebrates its Grand Opening on March 21. Taking place from 5:30 p.m. -7:30 p.m., the event will celebrate “Fitness, Food & Fun” and will be co-hosted by Fit Nation Magazine. The stunning high-tech studio, located at 3080 Tamiami Trail N, offers indoor cycling classes for all ages and fitness levels.
Guests at the Grand Opening event will enjoy complimentary food, beer and wine as well as door prizes for the first arrivals along with a raffle. In addition, the event will feature two competitions: one for athletes to compete to win the “Time Trial Cycle Most Power” Award as well as a “Self-Proclaimed ‘Couch Potato’ Competition” in which participants challenge each other for 10 minutes. Participating event vendors include Collier Family Farms, Helen Jon Swimwear, Megan Rose Boutique, Femme Couture, Blue Martini, Naples Pathway Coalition, Endurance Sisterhood, Pizza Fusion, and Organically Twisted Food Truck. RSVPs are requested to info@TimeTrialCycle.com.
With regular classes kicking off on March 22, Time Trial Cycle will continue its celebration with a special offer of participants’ first class free, as well as a special price of $99 for a month of unlimited cycling.
I met up with Charla and Carter at the ECA conference in Fort Lauderdale and had lunch with them both. I see them as having very complimentary personalities and feel they're going to have a very successful fitness business.
