David Bowie is my favorite artist of all time and I'm going to be in Chicago next month. There's no way I will miss this!
It’s David Bowie Day In Chicago
Last week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared September 23rd (today) “David Bowie Day” in honor of the city’s connection with David Bowie Is, a career retrospective that is making its U.S. debut at the Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition has already been displayed in London, Berlin, Sao Paulo, and Toronto, and will open in Chicago today.
I read about the David Bowie Is exhibit when it was in London and now it's at the Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago
David Bowie Is presents the first retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie–one of the most pioneering and influential performers of our time. More than 400 objects, most from the David Bowie Archive–including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, set designs, album artwork, and rare performance material from the past five decades–are brought together for the first time.
If you're a Bowie fan, and plan to attend Club Industry next month, you just might want to plan an extra day to see this 🙂
Click this image to explore all the resort options from our prize sponsor.
Instructor Lena Hershey and I both find it incredible that 96 Instructors have already committed to our 28 Day Challenge – they have no clue what we have in store for them and we're still a week away from the start on September 21st.
I invited Lena back on the Podcast so we could explain a little more about the contest and describe the awesome prize the two winners will receive 🙂
Listen to our interview below and be sure to join the 28 Day Challenge by requesting membership at our Facebook Group or you can learn more here.
I have started this journey on an ordinary day in February 2013. I was in the car with my husband and two step-kids, driving home from somewhere when I said: “I will go and work out at the YMCA every day for a month starting today”. Just like that — out of the blue. I can’t even remember why I said that or what prompted that decision. I just said that and once I did, I had to do it. So I did.
Lena's first step was saying it out loud – where others would hear her.
Making public commitments can be very powerful – especially when told to people who will hold you accountable. Which got me thinking; “wouldn't it be cool to use social media to give Instructors a place to post their commitments to change/growth/improvement and then other Instructors could hold them accountable?”
So I told Lena about my idea. Not only was she excited about developing the concept, she wanted to see it become real. Not wanting to disappoint her forced me into action – which I did by agreeing to collaborate with her until we had completed this task. Here's the result:
28 unique challenges, to be completed over 28 days. Are you willing to do the work required to become a better Indoor Cycling Instructor?
Nothing impossible (teach 10 classes back-to-back & non stop) or dangerous (base jumping). Each challenge is designed to help you grow as a person and as an Indoor Cycling Instructor. Some might be easy for you… others you’ll want to skip when you read them – but you won’t because you made the commitment and you're going to keep it.
The group's privacy settings are set so your posts and comments are not visible to non-members of the group and none of your comments should show up in your newsfeed.
Make a public commitment to complete Challenge #1 before you know what it is (or any of the others are) on the post we’ve provided. Don’t ask for more information before 9/21 – our lips are sealed until…
On the morning of Sunday September 21st we’ll reveal the first seven challenges for you to complete.
You'll have one week to complete the challenges.
The next seven challenges will follow on Sunday 28th, October 5th and 12th.
Four weeks x seven challenges each week = 28 total.
There will be a post for each of the 28 challenges in the FB group where you'll note your completion and leave a comment about what happened/what you learned/what you experienced during that challenge.
We will tell you this much:
None of the challenges are particularly time consuming, but some may require planning on your part.
A number of challenges are focused on Teamwork — assisting and supporting other Instructors you work with and participants in the group.
Other challenges are about stepping out of your comfortable cocoon and doing those things you know you should do, but for whatever reason (fear, insecurity, procrastination, etc..) you choose not to.
Prizes
First of all, the real reward will hopefully be a better you at the end of this ☺
But I love offering prizes so here they are! Season pass to ICI/PRO – Complete all 28 challenges to the best of your ability and earn a six month subscription to ICI/PRO, a $60.00 value.
The winners of the ICI/PRO challenge – will be the two Instructors we feel best exemplify the spirit and intent of this personal growth exercise. We realize that this is hard to define, but we feel we’ll know who wins when we see it.
If we can't decide we'll be asking the group who they feel should win.
And what do they win? My friends at Fit Bodies Inc are providing the top 2 instructors with vouchers for a free (agent fee is normally $400-$550) one week fitness vacation for two adults (+ two kids* under 12) at any of 60 Caribbean all-inclusive resorts.
Many of you have heard me talk about my wife Amy and I have taken dozens of these trips — everyone was fabulous. They are the absolute best deal for a fitness Instructor to spend a romantic week at a gorgeous resort in Jamaica, Mexico and other exotic locations.
These are 4/5 star resorts where couples pay $3-5,000 per week + Air. You are treated as a full guest… except that you’re also the 9:30 cycling Instructor.
Travel (air-fare) is not included and some resorts do require a Group Fitness or Mind-Body certification.
More information here http://www.workingfitnessvacation.com/about/
* There are multiple resorts that are kid friendly, but all of them require you to be a Group Fitness instructor.
Apple revealed their new Smartwatch today – there's not much information available yet, but I'm betting it will turn the fitness industry on its head. Disclaimer, I own Apple stock and my prediction is that the Smartwatch will become the de facto fitness device in the very near future.
And I'd be sh***ing my pants if I was Polar or Garmin.
Why? Because the iPhone is a really lousy fitness accessory. There I've said it. Despite being able to run all those wonderful fitness and cycling Apps, the iPhone sucks to use when you're exercising.
They make very cool bike mounts so you can use your iPhone as a bicycle computer… except the battery won't last longer than a few hours with the display on and GPS enabled.
Ever try to run with an iPhone strapped to your arm? Try to change songs? Don't bother, you can't without stopping.
Indoors it isn't any better. How many people use their iPhone in class? I've only seen two in all my years of teaching.
But we love our iPhones, so we've put up with how cumbersome they are to have along with us.
Put it on your wrist and everything changes. It will be as convenient to use as a … wristwatch… a wristwatch that runs cool fitness Apps!
Our participants will want to wear their new Smartwatch in class. And what will they do with it? THEY'LL MONITOR THEIR HEART RATE – and maybe THEIR POWER/WATTS. They might also want to record their data + upload and track their progress.
The Apple Smartwatch will make Indoor Cycling 2.0 cool 🙂
The Smartwatch is supposed to be out in early 2015. Unless Apple has figured out how to detect your heart rate from your wrist, the folks from Scosche and Wahoo better crank up their production of BLE HR monitor straps
I can't wait to see what happens 🙂
Next Day Update: I'm seeing my prediction about BLE monitor straps being unfounded. The video below explains that the Smartwatch includes optical sensors like the Scosche = the heart rate monitor is built in, so no additional strap is needed.
I love seeing long-time sponsor Pearl iZumi offering a special clothing sale I can share with our ICI/PRO Platinum annual members.
Through the end of the month members can purchase anything Pearl makes at our PRO/Purchase 40% discount and pay no shipping.
The clothing and footwear displayed are all current models – not a few old/discontinued/closeouts they're trying to dump.
Which has me poking around on our special website page this morning. My current want need is for a cool weather jacket, for mornings when it's below 45°F or so at the start. That's too cold for just arm-warmers and my Pearl winter jacket is way too much for a rapidly warming day… I need something in between.
This looks like it might work 🙂
Many ICI/PRO members report saving the entire cost of their $97.95 membership with just a few purchases. I will save $70.00 on this jacket alone and I haven't begun to think about Christmas presents. In case you're wondering, the total value of our sponsorship with Pearl goes into your discount. We don't benefit from your purchases.
Click here to start your ICI/PRO Platinum subscription today.
$550) one week fitness 
