e·nig·ma [uh-nig-muh] noun, a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation: Spotify is such an awesome service for Indoor Cycling Instructors, it's an enigma to me… why so few Instructors are actually using it.
Or maybe it just looks that way. I'm basing my comment on how few subscribers we see to published playlists.
If you're using Spotify click on the People tab and select another user at random. Check out the number of subscribers they have to any of their published playlists. Even for all the popular Master Trainers I'm connected with, 40 subscribers is a big number for any specific playlist.
I found this playlist of club music on the right that Cameron Chinatti is subscribed to. It has over 57,000 followers.
Why is that?
I was trading emails with contributor Chris Hawthorne, discussing this “enigma” of what appears to be a very small number of Instructors using Spotify… or more specifically; Instructors using Spotify who take advantage of the phenomenal music sharing and new music discovery, that's available to users.
I realize that there are multiple reasons users don't want to share their Spotify usage. You may also view a playlist but not choose to “subscribe” to it. Maybe you listen to a few tracks, find one you like and drag it into one of your own playlists.
Here's an example. Krista Leopold (aka: groupfitpower) and I created these collaborative Spotify playlists and posted them at pedal-on.com. Collaborative playlists allow anyone to add their own favorites = they grow to fantastic Best SongsLists that you can use to easily & quickly find the perfect track for your next class.
As a long time educator, I’ve learned some lessons that have been very valuable to me as I added ‘Cycling Instructor’ to my resume. One of the things that I’ve learned over my years in education is how much my students and parents appreciate being connected to what’s going on in the classroom. In addition, my students are made to feel like they are a part of a family. Getting to know each and every one of them on a personal level is a goal I have in my classroom each school year. It builds camaraderie and it lets them know that I care. In return, I’m greeted with happy parents and almost 20 beautiful smiling faces every day.
This concept can be translated into your indoor cycling class in several ways. Connecting with your students can be as simple as sending out weekly emails. Or if you’re really ambitious, you can connect by blogging or through your own personal website. Your options are limitless!
How many times has a student come to you after class and asked you , “Now, which days/times do you teach”? Even though it’s surely posted on every wall in the facility. How often do you hear, “Wow, I loved that one song, what was it”? Or “I wish I had known class was cancelled-you added a class-you were subbing for so and so.”
Your students want to know what’s going on, and the easier you make it for them to get that information, the more they are going to appreciate it. In return, you WILL see your class size grow.
If you have a computer and five minutes a week, you’ll be off to a positive start. Here are a few simple ways that you can connect with your students:
Weekly Emails:
Bring a sign up sheet on a clipboard with you to class and ask your students for their email address if they would like to receive updates and important information regarding your class.(Of course let them know that you would never share their information with anyone first.) As new members join and become consistent in your program, they will appreciate the connection, so keep that clipboard in your gym bag at all times. Every so often, make an announcement to see if anyone would be interested in receiving emails. If a member comes to you with a question about your classes or teaching schedule, suggest that they join your email list.
Send out a mass email once a week. In the email give your students information about any closings or cancellations or special classes that you might be teaching that week. Your students will also appreciate the heads up when you’ll be subbing for another instructor or if another instructor will be filling in for you.
If it’s a slow news week in your cycling world, add in a link to a good article about indoor cycling or a funny clip or picture.
If you have your weekly playlists on iTunes or Spotify, add a link so your students can have a listen.
It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but I promise you-your students will appreciate you for it!
Connecting Through Facebook:
Facebook Groups
You can easily create a group through Facebook where members can post, share and ask questions about your indoor cycling program.
Creating a Facebook ‘Group’ is really pretty simple. If you have a Facebook account, click on ‘Groups’ under the ‘Applications’ menu on the left side of your home page. Enter your group information and invite members from a list of your Facebook friends.
You have the option of keeping your group private or open to the public. Facebook members that are not already your ‘friends’ can search your group and request to be added to it.
You can customize who can post on your group page, but it’s fun to keep it open for all group members to post.
You can add photos and links to your Facebook groups. This is a good place to post your cycling playlists for your students to view.
Facebook Pages
A Facebook ‘Page’ differs from a Facebook ‘Group’ in that it allows only the page administrator (you) to post. It is open to the public and anyone that ‘Likes’ your page can see your updates on their newsfeed. It is not as interactive as a ‘Group’, but still a great way to get information to your students. Page administrators (you) can also track your page’s activity.
To create a Facebook ‘Page’: Go to this link which will take you to the Facebook page wizard. It will lead you through the steps and you will have your very own page in no time! You can view my Facebook page here.
If you’re feeling ambitious, here are a few other ideas for staying connected:
Of course you could always create your own blog or website. I originally created my blog, Chrispins, with my students in mind. And while they still check it out, it has really blossomed into place where I communicate with other instructors around the globe.
If you’ve never checked out FitGuru, it is a good (free!) tool for communication with your students as well. It takes a little bit of time to set up, but once you have it rolling, it is quick and easy to maintain your site. It allows you to easily email all of your members with the click of a button and you can post your teaching schedule there along with important news.
If you are not already connecting with your students in some way, give one of these ideas a try and see the difference it can make in your classes.
How do you communicate with your students? Are you already using some of these methods or do you use a method that I did not mention?
Long climbs of modest grades are the ideal terrain for Muscular Endurance
There are really two types of research available on virtually any topic related to cycling performance or physiology. There’s the research regarding what people are doing or what they think about a topic. These are people from many different perspectives; coaches, authors, bloggers, and we know that last category can include as many levels of proficiency that exist. A google search with the key terms will deliver plenty of results.
Then there is research regarding what the “Science” says. This research is found in medical and educational journals. Most often you must be a member of one of the governing bodies such as the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine). While you might get some of the highlights in Google searches, the full studies are usually only able to be read by those who are members to the organization and have paid for access to said journals.
While you can simply use the free resources available, there is a distinct risk of basing your own work or conclusions on opinions or popular trends instead of hard science. However, that being said, this is part of the rationale for why Evidence Based Medicine is the only approach that makes sense for coming to conclusions that you will use for your own training or for that of your students. At the end of the day, EBC will be your own personal “proof in the pudding” as they say.
Muscular Endurance — Some Of The Science
I like to start with the science perspective — university, medical community, etc. I like to read the journals that the professional researchers read to get a solid foundation before I begin to let Mr. Google tell me he (and all of his many followers) think.
The first place I started was a position statement by the ACSM:
“Muscular strength and endurance are developed by the progressive overload principle, i.e., by increasing more than normal the resistance to movement or frequency and duration of activity. Muscular strength is best developed by using heavier weights (that require maximum or near maximum tension development) with few repetitions, and muscular endurance is best developed by using lighter weights with a greater number of repetitions (1).”
While this is clearly directed towards weight training, the application to cycling is also pretty obvious — the additional weight is represented by heavier gears (or steeper hills) and the greater number of repititions is represented by increasing cadence ranges.
In another article from the Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise it says:
“…the extent of neuromuscular fatigue during pedaling exercise varies among different cadences and minimal fatigue is obtained at a considerably higher cadence (2).”
So from the above two statements we see the standard stress and adaptation principle being referenced and that there are cadence levels that result in lower muscular fatigue. Therefore this allows us to infer that there are cadence levels that encounter greater muscular fatigue, and hence it will be those levels that will promote the “progressive overload” we will need to force the adaptation or improvements in our muscular performance — either strength or endurance.
Muscular Endurance — Some Of The Practice
Here it is super easy to find out what so many coaches and instructors are doing to work on Muscular Endurance (ME). We see cadence guidelines that range between 65 RPM and 85 RPM across may different coaches, where the sweet spot is probably 70 to 80 RPM. However, when it comes to intensity or heart rate, there is considerable variation. The range typically starts at a low of T1 or Low Zone 3 (based on a 5 zone system with bottom of zone 5 your High Threshold), and goes to High zone 4. If we also throw out the lowest low and the highest high, we have an intensity level “sweet spot” that puts us between the middle of Zone 3 and the middle of Zone 4.
So in summary, the science confirms that we can create or promote the improvements in muscular endurance by specifying training rides within a cadence range of 70 to 80 RPM while working at an intensity level of Mid Zone 3 to Mid Zone 4.
The next question to look at is duration of the training, the amount of recovery between ME drills, and the number of ME workouts in a given week. Also, this begs the question if we workout at the low ends of both Cadence and Heart rate, would it take longer to see the training effects than if we worked at the high ends of both. In other words, if we do two weeks of 80 rpm (actually the higher RPM represents lower muscle fatigue) and mid Zone 3 work, will this produce less of an improvement than working at 70 rpm while in mid Zone 4.
If that would be true, then we can use this information to prescribe varying levels of ME work based on the fitness level or the time frame a coach and student are working with. Even more interesting would be the possibility of creating a numeric scale that we could use to “measure” the amount of ME work a student has been doing over a given period of time.
The next post will discuss how we can set up a study to do just that.
It worked for Subway so now Taco Bell has launched their “Drive-Thru Diet” complete with a spokesperson who supposedly lost 54 pounds eating at Taco Bell. What began with Subway Jared will be continued by Drive-Thru Christine.
As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet® menu is not a weight-loss program. It's about making different choices. For me, I didn't want to cut out my fast food so I started choosing Fresco items from the Drive-Thru Diet® menu and making other sensible choices. I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day, and, after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds! These results aren't typical, but for me they were fantastic!
I'm guessing that 100% of the participants in your class are there for some form of weight management. You may want to recommend to your class that if they really want to reduce their weight they should consider; packing their own lunch with healthful food, eating it as multiple small meals and then take a walk (or better an Indoor Cycling class) over lunch. Here's the link for the free taco.
Amy (the senior Group Fitness Instructor) joins Jennifer and me to discuss what happened at our very first conference.
The big news on Friday night was the announcement of our new Instructor Discount Program featuring Pear Izumi shoes and clothing. Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using or
This Podcast is was last published on Feb 2, 2017, I have updated it with our new Podcast host information and I am representing it now. I hope you enjoy it, Joey
Continuing this week's focus on "selling endurance" - please enjoy this Podcast from our archives featuring Spinning Master Instructor Janet Toussaint. Sometime I feel like a parasite! I get a hold of a Master Instructor and I'm not satisfied until I have sucked as much information from him or her as possible.
Janet Toussaint has some great ideas on how to sell the concept of Endurance Training to your class - we take this discussion even deeper than the last one.
Through the beauty of modern technology, you can listen to this whenever and wherever you wish.
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