Amy and I met Kenji Freedman when we were in Keystone Colorado for the Cycling Fusion Summit. Kenji is a USA Cycling Coach with Stage 5 Cycling (one of Tom Scotto's stable of talent I mentioned) and a very accomplished Indoor Cycling Master Trainer. He has a captivating presentation style when he's leading a class that I feel we all could learn from. I have him scheduled for an interview next week so stay tuned 🙂
Kenji is a Personal Trainer and get this, he is also a Personal Chef who has appeared in a number of infomercials.
I'm experiencing some issues with the company who host www.indoorcycleinstructor.com that aren't being resolved to my satisfaction. You may have noticed some error messages or notices that this site isn't available. I have a number of smart people working on it this weekend 3/5 and there maybe so extended outages while we get everything fixed.
In the past, the prevailing attitude was that we should allow anonymous comments here at www.indoorcycleinstructor.com. Anyone could comment and no log-in was required. This was based on a belief that the quantity of comments was much more important than the quality of the commentsor who it was making the comment. Visitors and ICI/PRO members were treated alike.
I never liked that policy and feel that it was misguided. Commenting is a privilege that should be reserved for registered users at the very least. I can't post a reply on Pedal-On without first logging in, why would here be any different?
Not requiring a log-in to post a comment also makes it easy for Spammers to post advertisements for Viagra and links to malicious software. We employ the best anti-spam software available and it blocks hundreds of spam comments every day. But, like the spam filters on your email, sometimes a legitimate message is blocked. That's when I get the “why did you delete my comment?” emails.
We are a community of passionate Indoor Cycling Instructors. We should know who we are talking to because it leads to a feeling of safety which = more and better discussions that will benefit all of us.
After a number of discussions with ICI/PRO members and members of the ICI/PRO team we have decided that comments will be restricted to ICI/PRO members only.
Do you feel this is a mistake? ICI/PRO members can leave a comment below 🙂
After more than 6 years operating a 46-bike cycling studio in the suburbs of Boston, I have seen a ton of instructors come and go. We’re not a big health club, we are a dedicated indoor cycling studio, so the survival of our business depends on our instructors abilities to fill up classes. Because we have no other source of income for the studio, our definition of a “good” instructor has to be quite pragmatic: If you fill up classes (and don’t do anything unsafe or stupid), you are by definition “good”.
This may sound mercenary, but in fact the instructors that are able to fill classes are the ones who are adept at a) engaging their students and b) providing expert guidance towards a fitness objective. They use a wide range of tools including music, imagery, language and cuing and
all the best ones have a natural ability to vary their workouts. Variety is indeed the spice of life (and of indoor cycling classes)
At our studio, the great instructors are not all alike. In fact many have vastly different styles, and while there is no sure formula for creating an experience that keeps indoor cyclists returning, I have noticed one thing all our best instructors do intuitively: they believe in variety: Variety within a class and variety from class to class.
Everyone knows the benefits of exercise, so what is the one reason we hear again and again why people won’t commit to regular workouts?  “It’s boring”.  What is the single biggest complaint we here about an instructor that is not drawing in our studio?  “They’re boring”.  A great instructor’s class is not boring, and one of the primary reasons is because they know intuitively to commit to variety.
Easier said than done of course, but here are some examples of variety from the top-drawing instructors at our studio:
Vary playlists. Never, ever, use the same playlist twice in the same month. Not only because your regulars will notice, but also because your own energy is not as sharp.  If you want to use the profile again, find substitute songs.
Vary counting and intervals. If you are doing intervals, vary the length or at the least vary the way in which you count them up or down. (i.e. instead of counting down from 20 every time, try counting “one, two, one, three, one, four, etc. etc.” It’s a small thing but it keeps students mentally engaged.
Vary genres of music. You may love techno or classic rock or pop….but I guarantee someone in your class does NOT. If you play only one genre, you are likely to annoy someone totally. Mixing genres is a great way to assure you find something powerful for virtually everyone and they will tolerate the stuff they’re not crazy about.
Vary positions: most drills can be done, and most heart rates can be achieved…in or out of the saddle. Technically there is really no reason to ever come out of the saddle — other than the fact that the variety of moving in and out is appealing in an indoor cycling class. Students love it…..but they will get bored with too much work, in our out of the saddle.
Variety is simply more interesting, and more fun. It is an antidote to the worst enemies of working out: drudgery and boredom.  What are some other examples of variety you use? I’m hungry for ideas!
Tom at the ICI/PRO conference - Cycling Fusion photo
Tom Scotto has been a welcomed (but infrequent) contributor here at indoorcycleinstructor.com for the past two years. He impressed all of us at the ICI/PRO conference last fall. I think it was Amy who said “beyond his incredible knowledge as a USA Cycling Coach and his charming personality, Tom just looks good on a bike” 🙂
Tom will now be contributing articles and engaging with our community on a regular basis. During my recruitment call with Tom, he admitted he had multiple Audio PROfiles bouncing around in his head. Tom and I are committed to recording them for our ICI/PRO members to enjoy, starting this weekend!
But it doesn't end there;
Tom also has a stable of USA Cycling Coaches that work for him at Stage 5 Cycling. They all are accomplished Indoor Cycling Instructors / presenters as well. Tom has promised to bring these talented people to ICI/PRO, offering us more diversity than ever before! Take a minute and visit http://www.stage5cycling.com/ and you will begin to understand why I'm so excited I can hardly type this…
Oh, I almost forgot this part:
MORE VIDEO TRAINING RESOURCES ARE COMING!
Audio works great for Podcast Interviews and communicating information via our Audio PROfiles, but not so great for helping you learn Presentation Skills, displaying and demonstrating proper form/techniques and some people just learn better when they can watch what's being described.
There are multiple reasons we haven't had more Video PROfiles and training Videos:
Video is more difficult and time consuming to produce.
You need a studio that works (lighting and sound)
We all know how hard it is to teach an energetic class with only a few participants. Finding willing participants, at the right studio, at the right time is maddening to coordinated.
Then there's a huge licensing liability of publishing a video without the rights to use the music – and I don't see videos without music as being very appealing … or useful.
I interviewed Tom Scotto at the Cycling Fusion Keystone Summit - Cycling Fusion photo
Enter Cycling Fusion to the rescue!  They operate the Global Ride Studio where they are regularly produce Indoor Cycling Class videos, with a room full of students, using fantastic music that they have license to legally use. Just ask Amy or Leslie Mueller, they both loved the music used for the class videos they did there. I personally can't wait to watch them 🙂Cycling Fusion will be producing special Video PROfiles, on a monthly schedule, for our ICI/PRO members.
Last year, you joined us as we broke a Guinness World Recordâ„¢ with the largest cycling class ever. On March 6, we're doing it all over again. Saddle up and join us in this high-energy ride into history!
This year's event will be held from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the St. Paul RiverCentre in downtown St. Paul. The class will be led by Bahram Akradi, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Life Time Fitness.
The Ride of a Lifetime is exclusively for Life Time members and their guests. All participants must wear a 2011 Life Time Cycle Club jersey, which is included in the cost of registration.
All net proceeds of this event will benefit the Life Time Fitness Foundation, which is currently focused on improving the quality of children's nutrition in school.
Here is the video I shot from last year if you didn't see it.
I'm experiencing some issues with the company who host www.indoorcycleinstructor.com that aren't being resolved to my satisfaction. You may have noticed some error messages or notices that this site isn't available. I have a number of smart people working on it this weekend 3/5 and there maybe so extended outages while we get everything fixed.
