I've been getting much of musical inspiration from Movie soundtracks as of late. I'm still digging Zack Hemsey — Vengeance that I first heard used in the movie The Equalizer.
The beauty of the Internet (at leased for now) is how easy it is to find best soundtracks, from movies I'll probably never see. This website has a fun list that I've been working off of. Reviews of Wish I Was Here weren't very good, but it did include this gem. [wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Brandon Boyd — Runaway Train is a very complex track. It's in 4/6 time (a waltz) so it's counted out as; one, two, three, four, five, six – or more simply; one, two, three, one, two, three. Waltzes are very helpful for the rhythmically challenged (primarily men) and (being a man) I know this irregular pattern is easier to catch and pedal to 🙂
Add in all of the stereo effects and powerful drums, this track could reach some folks that your normal mix doesn't.
Epic Planet just released a new DVD/Video you can use in your classes!
The Tour of the West – Volume 1 – Intervals
[They are also offering a 30% discount on all digital downloads – the company is based in Florida and the producer is feeling a little sorry for all of us stuck in the cold/snow & ice]
Just enter Coupon Code BIGFREEZE at checkout to get 30% off on downloads.
An interesting concept – take the best segments, from your most popular full length videos and string them together as a FUN series of intervals.
Take your class to 10 amazing locations all over the U.S. West, including:
Sedona, AZ
Wine Country, Napa, Ca
Saguaro East National Park, Tucson, AZ
Mt. Lemmon, Tucson, AZ
Monument Valley, UT
Beartooth Pass, Red Lodge, MT
Great Western Loop, San Diego, CA
Mt. Baldy, Glendora, CA
The Maroon Bells, Aspen, CO
Mt. Evans, Idaho Falls, CO
This epicRIDE has it all: flats, rolling country, and BIG hills!
“Hello… My name is Karen and I stepped out of the box last year. I am also the self proclaimed spokesperson for KEEPING IT FUNâ„¢ Indoor Cycling. I’m committed to helping other indoor cycling instructors who aren't afraid to approach indoor cycling differently.”
I wrote it a little over a year ago.
I wrote it after making the commitment to add variety into my own studio's Indoor Cycling program.
I wrote it because in order for me to continue to transform lives through Indoor Cycling I recognized that my program needed to evolve.
If you are an Indoor Cycling studio owner/manager the brutal truth is… maintaining the integrity of the road may be the demise of your studio/program.
Soon after I opened my studio in November of 2012, I realized this NOT SO FUN fact.
So, I took an honest inventory of what our studio offers, what our customer wants, and what future projections were for the Indoor Cycling industry. I listened to our customers. I observed what classes they gravitated to and away from. I asked them what they found FUN.
I took into account my personal evolution as a GroupEx instructor, my observations of the Indoor Cycling industry, as well as input from other instructors and studio owners. And then … I charted my Indoor Cycling course and set sail by following my heart. I stayed true to my WHY. I honored both my vision and our Mission Statement of creating the ultimate Indoor Cycling customer experience. I added variety to our schedule.
In addition to traditional Indoor Cycling classes, our studio also offers
CB2 Rhythm
CB2 TotalBody
CB2 Performance IQ
CB2 Rhythm & TotalBody and
CB2 Revelation Revolution Christian Indoor Cycling … all of which we did not offer when we opened. It wasn't easy … but we did it … and it was worth it!
Is offering variety the key to success for future Indoor Cycling studios? ABSOLUTELY NOT
The key is recognizing that the Indoor Cycling industry is evolving and will continue to evolve.
Only you can figure out where you and your studio/program fit in. I suggest you start by revisiting your WHY.
Make decisions that maintain the integrity of your brand mission (which I hope you have) and honor your brand vision (which I also hope you have). Talk to your customers and look at it through their eyes. Look at it through the eyes of customers that ARE NOT customers. Talk to your peers. Ask for help.
Regardless of the path you choose… BELIEVE in it and be ALL IN
Words of Wisdom From An Outdoor & Indoor Cyclist “People need to realize clients have different goals, something your team is exceptionally respectful of. Those who say dance has no room in spin* need to check why they are in the business in my opinion. I love cycling, fitness and helping people improve and grow. I know that may violate an ideal that orbits the bottom line comes first mindset, but it is how I feel. If you want to have limited appeal to a small clientele offer nothing but high powered, intimidating classes that serve Tour de France, Ironman Kona specialists, otherwise open your mind and look at he every day folks that are interested in mixing it up and developing fitness via different methodologies.
I'm admittedly novice in your world and likely idealistic to a fault, but I have trouble dealing with folks that are close minded, dismissive and risk averse. Try things live and learn!” Phil
* “spin” has not been identified as Spin® to maintain the integrity of the customer's own words.
Click below to see (clearly amateur) video of Phil riding in a CB2 class taught for the purpose of media photos. The testimonial after class is unplanned and a beautiful testament to different being a good thing. How do you feel about Phil's testimonial?
Personal Trainer Stacie Clark was the first “Next Fitness Star” chosen by Women’s Health magazine – are you next?
I love helping Instructors become more successful – in fact my whole business plan is based on providing the platform Smart & Talented Instructors need to launch their careers 🙂
I was contacted today with another opportunity for you…
Women’s Health is launching its 3rd annual search for The Next Fitness Star. Year one winner Stacie Clark and year two winner Emily Schromm have had their careers transform and takeoff after taking the win and we are opening up auditions for 2015 now. I wanted to see if you'd like to share this information with your network of trainers.
Five finalists will be chosen to compete for the winning slot. They will appear on the July/August flip cover of Women’s Health (as well as a beautiful feature inside the issue) and much, much more. The winner will receive their own DVD contract, marketing plan and a huge feature in the January 2016 issue, plus a full scale marketing plan to help their business. This is an amazing opportunity and we are looking to have fitness trainers (of all levels and types) to apply. NOTE: You need to apply before February 27th 2015 to be considered.
Not being a reader of Womens Health – I wasn't previously aware of this contest or how Stacie Clark, a local personal trainer here in Minnesota, was the winner of the first Next Fitness Star.
Clark was recently crowned the “Next Fitness Star” by Women’s Health magazine. In the latest issue, her workout secrets are featured in a six-page spread. She beat out thousands of applicants to win the title. One of the spoils of her victory: a starring role in a new DVD fitness series called “The Women’s Health Power Sculpt Series with Stacie Clark DVD” ($28, available atwww.thenextfitnessstar.com/jan).
Clark comes from humble roots, a farm kid from Indiana. She led an active life growing up, but hit a wall in college. Forty pounds later, she walked into a gym and took a job there – so she could get fit for free. “I got in the best shape of my life,” Clark said. “That’s when I lost the weight, and then I never let it go.”
Today, she’s a certified trainer and co-owner of Tiger Fit Studio in Plymouth. For Clark, fitness is more than a profession: “This is my lifestyle.”
All I ask in exchange… is that you don't forget me when you're famous 🙂
As a nutritionist who coaches many clients with sugar addiction, I find myself talking about willpower frequently and thinking about it a lot.
I used to take a hard line against willpower — or rather, against people’s view of it. On behalf of my clients, I resented those who smirked when the clients reacted to sugary temptations with vulnerability and conflict. “You don’t have to eat it,” they would smirk. I’m not a fan of smirking.
Time and again, I remind my clients of how misguided that smirking view of willpower is.
Would we tell a smoker who’s trying to quit to carry a pack of cigarettes in her purse, and place a pack in the car, in the office and in every room of the house, just to prove she has willpower?
Would we tell someone who’s trying to stop drinking to get a job in a bar or hang out with his drinking buddies while they party, just to prove he has willpower?
So why do we expect someone going for weight loss to sit in a room full of brownies and jellybeans and not take a bite?
If your goal is to lose weight, the only thing you have to do is lose weight. You don’t have to show you’re a tower of strength. Keep tempting foods out of the house so they don’t challenge your willpower.
The tower-of-strength willpower view is misguided at best. It typically comes from people who don’t understand sugar addiction or why someone may have trouble resisting sugar that’s readily available.
But have you noticed a shift lately in the attitude toward willpower?
I remember motivating slogans. Things like, “Willpower is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.” Things like, “Where there’s a will, there’s a won’t.”
The slogans seem inspiring — but they can make someone feel like a failure for not exerting willpower in certain situations.
Willpower 2015[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
The new view of willpower is that it’s finite, and actually in short supply. It’s now considered a conscious state that’s strong early in the day but diminishes as the day wears on. Apparently, it’s not a muscle that strengthens with use. It runs out because of something called Decision-Making Fatigue.
The more decisions we have to make over the course of the day — choosing between a donut or egg whites for breakfast, skipping a muffin at the morning meeting, avoiding dessert at lunch, ignoring the tray of cookies in the snack room at 3:30 p.m. — the more difficult it becomes to say “no” when we get home at night.
So is willpower a lifestyle habit that can be developed and strengthened? Or is it a limited resource that has to be meted out and saved for the moments it really counts?
And I wonder whether the limited-willpower viewpoint reflects rising obesity rates. Is it an attempt to explain them?
I’ll boldly go where no one seems to be going. Could this new Law of Diminishing Daily Willpower have anything to do with the fact that sugar is everywhere, and in everything?
Because sugar is everywhere, it’s an external trigger, making us want the goodies we see or smell. Cinnabon, anyone?
Because sugar’s hidden in everything, it’s an internal trigger, changing brain chemistry and priming us to eat more.
If sugar didn’t run our food industry, maybe we’d have stuck with the old view of willpower. It was around for a long time. I recall hearing those “inspiring” sayings before the obesity epidemic.
Maybe sugar is the reason for diminishing willpower — and the change in viewpoint about it.
Maybe. But I still say you don’t have to prove you’re a tower of willpower to get your nutrition goals. Set things up so you can win and just get them.[/wlm_private]
I had an awesome phone call from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) today. The nice man told me that because of our sterling (we've never had a complaint) reputation, the BBB had upgraded our company's rating to A+… their highest rating 🙂
Like many other business, our actual name (Deep Breath In, LLC) is different from how we are known publicly – indoorcycleinstructor.com and ICI/PRO. The only place you'd see our name is on your credit card statement – which has to be listed as Deep Breath In, LLC vs. ICI/PRO. This has, at times, created some confusion; “honey, what's this charge on our credit card from Deep Breath In, LLC?”
Of course that wasn't the only reason why he called – the BBB offers a special “Accreditation” (which would remove the “This Business is not BBB Accredited” notification) for an annual fee of $490.00. I thanked him for recognising that we take very good care of our ICI/PRO members, but I would pass on the additional expense.
Is your business BBB Accredited? I don't know for sure, but I'll bet that it's more important for higher ticket products or services. I am curious to know if you feel it's worth the $500.00 a year cost.
