So, we haven’t talk lately about design and that is part of my soul and the way I make “my leaving”. To me design is not only grabbing a pen and drawing — its way beyond that — it’s how you create momentum — it’s how you create experience — it’s how you get into people’s minds — its not only about drawing or colors — it’s the combination of emotions, experience, good taste, feelings, engaging and lot’s of out of the box thinking. Now I will take you to something that for most of you out there might think that I’m totally crazy but I want to share this experience with you. As some of you know, I’ve always been very active in sports and in the last year I’ve been sitting on my laurels doing nothing but working, working and working — so I’ve try a few things and none of them successful until I “discover” this year SPINNING®.
My wife one day told me about this beautiful new gym here in Miami — 360 energy in motion — she told me about the class that she took for free and afterwords she felt in love with it. So I say, well, ok let’s go, I’ll give it a try — but I think is a women sports — nevertheless, I will give it a try” So I step the day after into 360eim and immediately I felt in love with the place — very clean, very well though, very Zen (you can breath peace inside) and that its hard sometimes to accomplish on any gym — but this one have all the things that I dream to have in a gym without getting into an “extremely fancy luxury un-payable and boring place”.
So I took my first class with Scott Schlesinger a master instructor for Spinning® — men the rest is history — what a class, what a ride!!, great music (again very emotional — zen — feeling type) but at the same time very active — you sweat your ass there. Forget about the thing that I’ve said it was only for girls — this is SERIOUS workout. If you like biking you will LOVE Spinning. I felt in love with the sport because as a professional designer spinning gave me everything that my soul needs — great music (inspiration) — great coaching(motivation) — great experience (feeling)- good taste(bikes are beautiful and I cannot tell you about this place — is gorgeous!) — it’s 100% engaging and it will challenge you in a way that it will make you think out of the box by all means all the time. You get to know your self better with each class, guys believe me when I’m telling you that this is an amazing sport — you will sweat like you have no idea — you will feel strong in every sense of the way without getting yourself hurt and the risk is very low as you are pedaling indoors — don’t get me wrong — I love biking outdoors too — but with Spinning it doesn’t matter if it’s rainy out there, cold or hot, windy or dry you can still ride!!
I would like to share with you a few of this beautiful bikes and a nice video about a ride with Josh Taylor (the ride its called ANIMAL RIDE) at the netherlands with more than 500 bikes — listen to the coaching of this guy and imagine your self sweating every drop in this class — believe me you got to try at least one time and you will understand this lines. I got the opportunity a week ago to ride in a class here in Miami in another Spinning facility in South Miami with Josh Taylor and wow this guy was amazing. In another hand let me share with you this link about the gym 360 energy in motion if you would like to go and get your free class and try it — (yes, yes first class its FREE 100%) you will be amazed with the sport.
Everyone at this place are great at what they are doing Zsazsa and Gabby (the owners) are great teachers, Rinie, Jacque, Gustavo and Scott are amazing too plus you can have Yoga or Pilates classes as well!! But if you can’t go to this place for any reason don’t worry you can go to any other facility — just make sure that your teachers are certified by Spinning® ’cause there is a lot “indoor cycling classes” out there that are not Spinning classes and people could get confused about what the real sport is. But like I said before, the most important thing here is TRY go get anywhere you want but try and ride, you will love it.
also visit SPINNING.COM for more information on certified facilities around the globe.
… I’ll see you a few of you riding soon.
You can learn more about Charlie Green at this Facebook page.
I've been doing some consulting with potential cycling studio start-ups and a common question has been; should I consider leasing vs. conventional financing / paying cash?
My feeling is (to use the expression) Cash Is King for any small fitness business. If you listen to any of the past interviews (you'll find them here) I've done with Indoor Cycling Studio Owners, there are two common themes that keep coming up:
Studio build out and equipment costs are always considerably more than what's initially forecast in the business plan.
The business's cash flow doesn't ramp up as quickly as forecast.
Does it make sense to lease your Indoor Cycles… and possibly some of your other upfront hard costs like the audio/AV system, computers, technology PIQ/Spivi and possibly your studio's website? Saving your available cash or line of credit to carry you through a slow start (or surprise expense) maybe a good strategy. But it's a rather complex question to just offer a simple answer.
So I've found a fitness equipment leasing expert and I have an interview scheduled with him for this Tuesday Nov 4th. I met Joe Schmitz from F.I.T. Leasing at the past IDEA fitness conference and felt very comfortable talking with him. He's been in the equipment leasing business for a long time and he's agreed to help me explore the ins and outs of leasing.
When does leasing make sense for a new studio – or an existing studio looking to upgrade to new equipment?
When doesn't it?
Should I lease my indoor cycles directly from the manufacturer?
What other costs can be included, besides new Indoor Cycles?
What is the approval process?
Is it more difficult to get approved for a lease vs. a bank or SBA loan?
What documentation will you need?
Is there anything you want to do, or prepare for, in advance of needing your lease funds?
What happens at the end of the lease?
Explain any tax benefits of leasing vs. conventional financing or paying cash
Do you have specific questions you would like me to ask Joe? Let us know by Tuesday Nov 4th 10:00 central.
This interview will be published by Friday next week.
Please use the contact form below to explain your questions with as much detail as possible. Also include additional methods of contacting you if you'd like a personal response.
A member at our club asked me this morning asked me for a recommendation on a last minute Christmas present for her husband. She wanted to buy him some Indoor Cycling shoes, who she described as having “very wide feet”.
I know all about the challenges of finding comfortable shoes (of any type) that fit my very wide and flat feet 🙁 My kids have forever kidded me about how my two smallest toes don't lay flat – the Podiatrist called them Hammer Toesfor the way they fold back like the hammer on a gun. I'm convinced that I wasn't born with them. They got that way after being stuffed into narrow shoes for decades.
I've owned a bunch of shoes over the years, but none have been as comfortable as my old pair of Sidi Mega Road Cycling Shoes. Mega = mega wide and they saved cycling for me when they first came out. My pair has to be at least 10 year's old and I must have replaced the Look cleats on the bottom a dozen or more times.
But road bike shoes with flat bottoms and exposed cleats are far from optimal for indoor use. Her husband didn't ride outdoors, so what she was really looking for was a wide shoe with a recessed SPD cleat. My only suggestion to her was for the Sidi Dominator MTB Shoe which is their mountain bike shoe in a Mega width version.
Beyond that, I'm not aware of a wide shoe I could recommend to her. I spent some time searching online and wasn't able to find anything. There are lots of results for wide indoor cycling shoes, but everyone ended up being medium width.
That isn't a normal SoulCycle Indoor Cycle she's riding!
I'd heard some rumors that this was in the works > Stages Indoor Cycles appears to be supplying SoulCycle with Indoor Cycles.
This would be a HUGE safety improvement to their classes. Why? Because the combination of a lighter aluminum flywheel + magnetic resistance greatly reduces the crazy pedal speedsseen in many classes using heavy flywheels and friction resistance.
Does this mean SoulCycle will be introducing Power based classes?
Check out this new, promotional video to catch a few glimpses of their custom branded Stages SC3s.In
Looking at this silhouette, there doesn't appear to be a computer or the Sprint Shift lever found on the original SC3.
Today is World Backup Day! Having a daily, scheduled, backup of all of your data is supercritical for everyone with a computer… especially Instructors who depend on iTunes to deliver their class music.
Here's a fun info-graphic that explains more > Courtesy of: Cloudwards.net
Beyond listening to our discussion below, you can get a Cliffsnotes understanding by reading Chris' original article, Cycling To Extremes, that was developed into his book.
Are endurance athletes hurting their hearts by repeatedly pushing beyond what is normal?
The sun was bright upon the upturned redrock Flatirons above Boulder, Colorado. It was a beautiful July morning in 2013. Lennard Zinn, a world-renowned technical cycling guru, founder of Zinn Cycles, longtime member of the VeloNews staff, lover of long rides, and a former member of the U.S. national cycling team, was riding hard up his beloved Flagstaff Mountain, a ride he had done a thousand times before. But this time, it was different.
His life was about to change forever.
When his heart began to flop like a fish in his chest, and his heart rate jumped from 155 to 218 beats per minute and stayed pegged there, his first reaction was simple: “I went into denial.”
He arrived to the ER that afternoon and was later brought via ambulance to the main cardiac unit for an overnight stay. Though he trusted the cardiologists and the ER doctor, he doubted their warnings. His denial was strong.
After following their recommendations for rest, he returned to training; the electrodes glued to his chest and the telemetric EKG unit dangling around his neck didn’t disrupt his routine. But the annoying episodes happening with increasing frequency during his more intense rides did. The flopping fish would return as his heart rate spiked. More upsetting was the phone call in the middle of the night from a faraway nurse who had been watching his EKG readings and had some shocking news: His heart had stopped for a few seconds.
Listen to the Podcast here – and then be sure to order and read this book. Then share what you've learned with your classes. You just might save someone's life!
. Mega = mega wide and they saved cycling for me when they first came out. My pair has to be at least 10 year's old and I must have replaced the Look cleats on the bottom a dozen or more times.
which is their mountain bike shoe in a Mega width version.
