I want everyone to meet Steve Frank – Master Instructor with the Indoor Cycling Group/LIVESTONG Fitness.
Steve and I met in Chicago last month at club industry. I knew instantly he would be someone you'd enjoy meeting and a wonderful addition to our ICI/PRO Team.
Why?
I meet a lot of people in the fitness business. Don't get me wrong, many are wonderful people, with impressive titles and accomplishments… it's just that many tend to spend all their time talking about how cool or important they feel they are 🙁
But when I met Steve, his first concern was; “how can I help?” When (in my interviewer mode) I asked to know more about him, he instead talked about his team at ICG – LIVESTRONG. I pushed him further; “what else do you do, besides your roll as a MI?” “I help people become more successful in their personal and business lives”. Steve has a personal & professional coaching business – like many fitness professionals, Steve has more than just one occupation.
I need to tell you how refreshing it is to work with people who are committed to helping other people and not just interested in promoting themselves.
In the course of conducting 140 or so interviews I've learned that finding where someone's passions lie is really important to an entertaining and interesting interview. To find out I typically have a sort of pre-interview with new guests. It's during this time that I'm listening for clues that I will use to steer the conversation.
Listen to this interview I recorded last month with Steve. See if you can tell what where his passion lies.
I'll give you a hint – beyond being part of ICG/LIVESTRONG, it's being part of this Team
Whenever I teach an Indoor Cycling class, I try to create an experience that takes the students beyond exercise. A class can affect students even more when video is added. So far, though, video has been used in classes more as a backdrop to create atmosphere than to augment the experience.
The trick to teaching with video is to act as if the ride is real.
When we teach, we can make our students feel that they’re somewhere else through cueing, guided imagery and choice of music. When we dim the lights, play the perfect song, and describe riding through the desert under a full moon on a road with no cars, we can immerse the student in that imagery. Whatever doesn’t add to it detracts.
Can you imagine that same scenario with a disco ball? No congruence. The same holds true for leading a ride profile that has nothing to do with the video playing behind you, and never even referencing it. The video grabs the student’s attention from time to time but doesn’t create virtuality on the ride.
To make video more than a diversion or backdrop, we must embrace it. Then we can create an experience in our classes like never before.
John Chambers of Cisco Systems describes “telepresence” as technology that makes us feel present somewhere other than our true location. A popular application is videoconferencing.
Telepresence allows our students to feel themselves in the video. This leads to immersion, where a student’s self-awareness blends into the absorbing surrounding environment.
Video can create immersion in our students. The acronym ‘SIT’ describes the coaching process:
– Simulation references the video as a real-life scenario. “We’re on Highway 89 in the Arizona Desert, heading to Glen Ferry National Park. It’s 95 degrees with zero percent humidity. The road rolls, and we’re moving at 25 mph.”
– Interaction adapts the training directly to the video. “Our next stage is a straight-line climb, averaging 5%. Stay in the saddle and pedal at 70 RPM. Match your pedalling to the beat of the music.”
– Telepresence helps the class feel present in the video through cueing (words and voice), music (genre, tempo, structure), and the workout (cadence, resistance, intensity and choreography). “You’ve ridden hills like this before. Relax. Control your breathing and fall into the tempo of the music. It’s mellow. Let the music carry you up the hill. We’ll peak our HR at the summit of this climb. We’ll ride the first 3 minutes in the saddle and stand for the last 2, increasing resistance every 60 seconds without losing one RPM.”
With this link, (it's a big HD file so you may need to wait for it) you can download a segment of an HD virtual class, created by the Indoorcycling Group of North America, in conjunction with Virtual Active. When we use video this way — selecting words, music and a workout that make sense to us with the footage — our students achieve immersion. Note from John – you really want to watch that video 🙂
The degree of immersion will vary with the club setting and your comfort, which grows with experience. But even instructors with less experience can create immersion. As your coaching develops, your students’ immersion will deepen. The focus is less on the instructor and more on the video and the thrilling sense of forward motion it creates.
Video quality and high-def imagery enhance the forward motion feel, thus immersion. Virtual Active’s video enhances indoor cycling in a way that’s been missing till now.
You are now ready to begin delivering a complete and synergistic experience for your students.
My original concept for the Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast back in 2008 was simple and yet unique; use the power of an Internet Radio Show, delivered through iTunes, to provide a platform for the many voices in our industry. The show wouldn't be “about me” or a few self described “experts”, but rather my vision was for a vehicle that would be truly inclusive of the most progressive manufactures and education providers in our industry. ®
Over the past three years we have executed on this vision through partnerships with;
With ICG / Livestrong MI's Dosta Dedic and Kimberly Treadway at Club Industry
To start things off I would like you to meet Jim Karanas, Program Director for the Indoorcycling Group (ICG for short). In this interview Jim and I discuss his 30 year experience in fitness, ICG, their relationship with LIVESTRONG® Fitness and touch on the fantastic FREE continuing education resources available to you from ICG.
The Indoorcycling Group supporting LIVESTRONG® fitness has made a substantial commitment to both sponsor our efforts here and to provide educational articles and Audio PROfiles for our ICI/PRO members. This is going to be a fabulous year 🙂
It’s a given that different people come into our classes with different expectations, needs and goals. How can we as instructors/trainers accommodate their individual needs without alienating any single group?
Let’s take two hypothetical participants — Susan and Bob. They’re the same age, but Susan is interested primarily in weight management, arguably the most common fitness goal, while Bob is interested in getting stronger, fitter and faster on the bike because he rides outdoors frequently and races regularly. Can these two find happiness in the same indoor cycling class?
I’ve resolved this with a reasoning that works for me. First, I needed to define my professional role as I see it, which may differ from how the fitness industry sees it. As an instructor/trainer, my job is to create a situation and an environment in which members can experience the benefits of physical exercise, and nothing more. Which benefits these are will vary with the individual, and it’s important that I never assume what they could or should be.
Even though Susan tells me she wants to lose weight and Bob says he wants to race bicycles, I know from experience that what the members want is often far removed from what they need, regarding the benefits that training has to offer. Here’s an easy trap, though: I have to be careful not to presume to know what they need.
The goal-oriented approach to training has a built-in limitation. I have known many members who, after 10 years of trying to “get something” out of exercise (e.g., weight loss), were frustrated and disheartened. Maybe they had some limited success from time to time (that I even helped them achieve), but it didn’t last.
If a workout session has to produce a result, you have a paradigm for unhappiness. Instead, my current approach is to create a training session that allows a person to get whatever he/she needs from the workout without interference on my part. I keep in mind that the average member will not understand this approach right away, so the training has to be about something they can understand and offer them some fundamentals of training.
So I teach indoor cycling. This is because the bike has brought balance to my life. It has been a source of both hardship and delight, but the practice of cycling has made me happier. I look forward to riding my bike, whether indoors or out, every day.
I explain early on that I will ask them to ride as if they were riding a real bike outdoors because there are excellent reasons for everyone to train that way, no matter who they are: greater enjoyment of the class, for example, and good technique that will prevent them from wasting energy, so they can apply the energy to creating power. (The last point will clearly help Bob, but it helps Susan as well. The stronger the trainings make her, the more power she can generate, and the more calories she’ll burn.)
Now my job in class is simple: Teach the bike. Completely. Offer my students structured trainings that have helped me and never assume what they need. If it’s in my heart to lead a training on riding big gears in the hills, that’s what I do. What the students get, they get, and I don’t over- or underestimate my influence on it.
Sure, a student with a specific goal may need individual attention. If Susan really wants to lose weight, I can make recommendations and/or referrals. The same goes for Bob. My job as an educator is to show them how to modify what I teach — which is a valuable skill they can use in any class they may take in the future. I offer suggestions but recognize that this is their path. I can’t overshadow it with what I think they should do with, or gain from, their training. That’s not my job and would be a misuse of the trainer role.
A popular choice for Performance Tandems and Single Speed bikes.
Rules are not necessarily sacred; principles are. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
My cycling background revolves around the chain. My coach used to say, “The chain is sacred.” It vibrates, and that’s precisely what gives the bike its feeling of life. The vibration brings the rider a deeper sense of, and connection with, the bicycle. Without that vibration, without a chain, a bike is dead. I’ve believed, taught, and ridden this way since long before belts were introduced to Indoor Cycling.
If you had asked me back then about building a bike with a belt, I would have said without hesitating, “Don’t mess with the chain.”
Because of my background and the coaching I got, I can argue for the chain better than almost anyone. Those arguments, though, are philosophical, not focused on moving the industry of Indoor Cycling forward.
From my new perspective, working for a company (Indoorcycling Group, ICG) that makes a spectacular line of bikes with belts (LIVESTRONG), the conclusion is clear. The belt requires less maintenance, has fewer breakdowns, improves pedaling technique, does not allow for momentum-based recovery, makes the rider work more efficiently, is quieter, and is safer for new riders. It will save the club owner money, decrease liability, train participants more effectively, and make less noise.
No one on the management side of the club business would need to hear more to choose a belt. For economic reasons alone, the industry will go this way. It’s generally wise to ride an elephant in the direction it’s going. It seems foolish to push for a chain drive in light of that.
But here’s another thing to consider: 95% of the people who get on an indoor cycle won’t understand that “the chain is sacred.” They will notice only that the belt is quieter and smoother. This was the point that sold me. Although I tried relentlessly to find people who understood why I insisted that the chain is sacred, few people got it, almost no one felt it. Not even instructors who were currently teaching on chain-driven bikes.
Instructors whose jobs depend on the Indoor Cycling industry should not need any more convincing. Convincing club members who are used to chain-driven bikes, however, may take a bit more work.
The first thing I ask them to do is tell me what they like about bicycle riding. After they go on for a while, I ask them what they like about indoor cycling. That, too, goes on for a while. Regardless of the individual answers, the key point is that indoor cycling is quite different from riding outdoors: no need to balance, different movements, different hand positions, fixed gear, and more. There are many differences, all far more noticeable than the drive train.
Next, I ask them what other kinds of bikes they've ridden. Performance bikes only? How do they react when they see someone riding down the road on a cruiser in flip-flops? My point is a bike is a bike. You’re not a consummate rider if you fixate on what you think a bike should be. In fact, you’re less a cyclist than the overweight woman struggling on the hybrid. She has more grit. She’s happy just to be riding. THAT is a cyclist.
I ask them if they know which bike is the best in the world. It’s the one you’re on 🙂
Cycling is sacred, not the chain. I dig the vibrations and the sound of all the chains in a peloton as much as any roadie. But chains are secondary to the circular motion of the pedal stroke. The continuity of the circle is what creates the sense of peace that allows you to get outside your mind. The chain or belt simply permits the transfer of power to the forward motion. It’s the motion that makes you feel like you’re flying.
If you want to call yourself a cyclist, get past the chain. Respect all bikes. Find peace in a smooth circle with a belt and satisfaction in the increased work it puts your legs through without the free-spin of a chain.
With good instruction, a belt won’t detract from the class experience — and may very well add to it.
Jim’s been writing weekly posts for ICI-Pro recently, and John asked me to answer that question from my perspective. This post is based on a letter I wrote last year when a group of instructors and students nominated Jim for IDEA Instructor of the Year.
In my 20-plus years in the industry, I’ve never known a more dedicated or talented instructor than Jim Karanas. Jim’s classes are always full and recognized as the best that Club One and the California Bay Area offer. His workshops — national and international — are similarly regarded. As one of his local subs, I can tell you that Jim’s an impossible act to follow. Yet his students are so disciplined, focused and hard-working that subbing for him is the easiest job in fitness. That’s due entirely to Jim’s expertise. Everyone leaves his classes knowing they’ve had a superior experience.
Many instructors look for ways to spice up their classes (Show music! Summer oldies on the first day of summer!), but Jim’s teaching never relies on gimmicks. Instead, he develops excellent athletic trainings and teaches them without acting perky, exaggeratedly energetic, or relentlessly humorous. He simply talks “normally” to make his training points. And he has valuable points to make, from the distinction between training and working out, to turning any class into a mind/body training, to using voice, music, and word cues to create mood, tone, and focus.
Jim’s athletic experience is vast, and he brings that knowledge to his trainings. He’s run cross-country, marathons, and double marathons. He’s done triathlons, including many Ironman races. He’s done every type of cycling: criteriums, cyclocross, ultra-endurance (qualifying for RAAM), and adventure cycling, along with more standard types and distances. He’s done ultra-endurance rowing (100K; 24-hour rows; a million meters), as well as the infamous 2K time trial countless times. Jim has even performed with a modern dance repertory company, which gives him knowledge and awareness of movement that few endurance athletes have. Space limits a fuller list.
Out of this vast background came the programs Jim created: Performance Max (revolutionary endurance training with rowing and indoor cycling); Competitive Aerobics Camp (his contestants garnered a total of 78 medals, including national and world championships); Spinning® Camp; and The Johnny G Kranking® College of Knowledge to educate instructors on teaching Kranking®. He was the first (and best) instructor in the country to incorporate Kranking in his cycling classes. Currently Managing Director of ICG North America, Jim is involved in education and training, as well as sales support. Best of all, he’s supportive of other instructors.
There is no doubt that Jim Karanas embodies what Oliver Wendell Holmes meant when he said, “Every calling is great when greatly pursued.”
