by Karen Casler | Apr 20, 2026 | Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN
My brain started spinning (pardon the pun)… the door swung open… and I stepped out.
Once I realized that the indoor cycle doesn't move, I opened my mind to many things previously deemed unacceptable.
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.
Here is my story…
KEEPING IT REAL Indoor Cycling is where I come from. It was also where I thought I was going when I opened my indoor cycling studio a little over year ago. I was determined to maintain the integrity of the road and to honor the spirit of SPINNING®. Never did I entertain the idea of lunges, crunches, tap backs, push ups, BootiePops or hand weights on my indoor bike. NEVER, EVER……EVER would I allow that to occur on my instructor stage!!!!!!!! N E V E R.
Enter…..the shiny monkey.
I am plagued by, or shall I say blessed with SMS (Shiny Monkey Syndrome). The Shiny Monkey is fun, flirty, happy, and IRRESISTIBLE. After reading many KEEPING IT REAL articles, the Shiny Monkey bounced into my brain and pointed out something obvious about my indoor bike. The indoor bike is STATIONARY. It does NOT move, and nothing around it moves. There is no traffic, no way to get lost, no forward motion, no inclement weather, and no physical obstacles. Factors that keep us from doing things on an outdoor bike need not apply to the indoor bike. BooYah and three cheers, go to the Shiny Monkey!!! Thanks for changing my life, little guy!!!
Today, indoor cycling offers riders a diversity of classes that they have never had before! Understanding and identifying KEEPING IT REAL and KEEPING IT FUN, as two completely different forms of group exercise, is what gave me courage to step out and teach something different.
Don't get me wrong, I like a KEEPING IT REAL class. I don't want KEEPING IT REAL to change. I have simply departed from KEEPING IT REAL and celebrate KEEPING IT FUN! I want to build a community of instructors who share my embrace of the evolution of indoor cycling.
There needs to be a forum for “KEEPING IT FUN” instructors. A place to share their love of sweaty indoor awesomeness, on bike that has just one wheel and goes nowhere. I want to share my story and help other instructors who are trained in the traditional indoor cycling formats; Mad Dogg, Schwinn, Stages, etc. feel comfortable stepping away from what's deemed “REAL” and into the “FUN” world.
There are safe and effective ways to teach a lil “party on a bike.” There are also safe and effective ways to add upper body resistance training to an indoor cycling class. We are NOT outdoors. KEEPING IT FUN indoor cycling is a group exercise that can appeal to everyone. It is growing in popularity (without injury), among elite athletes, weekend warriors, all age groups, both genders, and most importantly…..with people who haven’t had a work out routine, or haven’t stuck to consistent fitness plan in years. I've seen in my studio how KEEPING IT FUN, keeps everyone coming back!!!
“If you wouldn't do it on the road, don't do it in class,” may be the ultimate KEEPING IT REAL rule. I break this rule, EVERY ride.
Cuing from a KEEPING IT FUNâ„¢ instructor, may go like this…..
“Find your hill. Now, add some gear. Relax your shoulders and close your eyes. Create weightlessness on your pedals and get lost, in the rhythm. Follow the beat. Up 2, Back 2. Let’s GO!!!”
When I ride, I close my eyes. This breaks the KEEPING IT REAL rule. You can't close your eyes and ride outdoors. On a stationary bike you CAN close your eyes. With my eyes closed, and when my optic nerve is completely relaxed, cardio therapy follows. I let the music penetrate my mind, my body, and my soul. I harness the power of those who ride with me and we ride, together. Everyone is connected through movement and the entire room moves like a jellyfish. I think this is what Les Mills referred to as FitnessMagic. FitnessMagic connects people with people AND it connects people with themselves. I live for FitnessMagic!!!
I am an indoor cyclist.
My cycle goes nowhere and yet, my cycle takes me anywhere I want to go 🙂
Originally posted 2014-02-16 18:13:31.
by Dennis Mellon | Apr 20, 2026 | Dennis Mellon, Instructor Tech Help, iTunes, iTunes & Spotify Training, Spotify
Have you been having a hard time figuring out how to download media from the ICI/Pro website?
Try following these directions and let me know if it helps:
To download media to a Mac:
- Right Click on the blue underlined link
- Select “Download Linked File As”
- Select a download location
- Once file is completely downloaded, find it in the location you selected
- Drag the file into your iTunes or Spotify library OR
- Right Click on the file and Select “Open With”
- From the drop down menu select “iTunes” or “Spotify”
- File should begin playing and is now part of your iTunes or Spotify library
To download media to a PC:
- Right Click on the blue underlined link
- Select “Save Link As”
- Select a download location
- Once file is completely downloaded, find it in the location you selected
- Drag the file into your iTunes or Spotify library OR
- Right Click on the file and Select “Open With”
- From the drop down menu select “iTunes” or “Spotify”
- File should begin playing and is now part of your iTunes or Spotify library
Click here to watch a video.
I hope this helps.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Originally posted 2015-07-17 18:22:05.
by Joan Kent | Apr 17, 2026 | Instructor Training
John says: with no kids at home, this should be easier 🙂
Well, Halloween candy has been on display since August, and we know what that portends for the rest of the year.
But why wait to get your health in order? Here are 10 reasons to quit sugar now —even if you think you don’t want to do it.
1. Quitting sugar can help you prevent or even reverse insulin resistance.
Mainstream thinking on insulin resistance is that overweight is the cause. That’s true, but a limited view. What we eat can greatly influence whether or not we develop insulin resistance — or type 2 diabetes, which frequently follows it.
2. Quitting sugar can help you reduce your cholesterol.
Cholesterol synthesis isn’t necessarily the result of a high-fat diet. The rate-limiter in cholesterol formation is an enzyme (HMG-coA reductase) that’s triggered by insulin. Sugar can stimulate big insulin, so it’s a major factor in serum cholesterol. People now say that cholesterol doesn’t really matter — but metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions. If you have one, you probably have more. Keeping cholesterol down by avoiding sugar helps in general — especially if you combine that with preventing or reversing insulin resistance, an underlying condition for several metabolic disorders.
3. Quitting sugar can prevent premature hunger signals.
When sugar promotes high insulin production, glucose can drop pretty low and pretty fast. The speed it drops is the main factor in triggering premature hunger signals — making you hungry for food you don’t need simply because you ate sugary junk.
4. Quitting sugar can reduce “secondary fat consumption.”
Okay, I made up that name. But eating extra fat is something that happens all the time when we eat sugar — think of ice cream, chocolate, rich cakes, cookies. For one thing, fat makes sugar taste sweeter. Also, when you get a craving for sugar, you might reach for something with lots of fat in it, too.
5. Quitting sugar can make healthful foods taste better to you.
Eating sugar triggers endorphins (beta-endorphin). That changes food preferences so that healthy foods seem less appealing. When you quit sugar, eating good foods — like vegetables — will probably be more appetizing.
6. Quitting sugar reduces cravings.
Eating sugar can cause cravings. Yes, for more sugary foods, definitely. But also for other kinds of junk food that have sneaky sugars in them.
7. Quitting sugar can reduce calorie intake.
If you’re not responding addictively to sugar — and eating more sugar and other foods because of that — it will be easier to watch your calories.
8. Quitting sugar can improve your health.
Sugar can impact health directly by increasing inflammation in the body through several mechanisms. Reducing inflammation can improve your health and decrease pain.
9. Quitting sugar can improve your mood and your energy.
People who are carbohydrate sensitive secrete more insulin than normal when they eat sugar. That can set up a “peak-and-valley” pattern in their glucose levels. When you’re at a peak, your energy and mood may feel optimal, but when you’re in a valley, things aren’t feeling good at all.
10. Quitting sugar can improve the overall nutritional value of your diet.
If you’re not killing your appetite with sugary junk, you’ll have room for healthful foods. If you’re not steered in a junky direction by endorphins, you’ll eat more healthful foods. If you’re not eating the usual sugary treats, you may increase the fiber in your diet. If you’re eating wholesome foods, your B-vitamin intake could go up and change your brain chemistry completely.
So it’s up to you and always will be. Will you quit now or wait? Will you quit at all? All I’m saying is quitting sugar can help in these ways — and several others that are not on this list of 10 can also help make you feel great.
Wishing you great health, great moods, great energy, great success in quitting sugar.
Originally posted 2015-09-08 16:07:09.
by | Apr 14, 2026 | Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
By ICG® Master Trainer Vanessa Wilkins
Cycling instructors are a special breed, and all a little different. There are those who coach, those who teach choreography, those who talk heart rate and RPM, and those who teach meditation on the bike. I always strive to take a little piece from each style of instruction, to stay the open-minded student and, most importantly, to find my own voice among the throngs of others.
Cycling instructors by nature are fervent, even opinionated. Because of this, we may attract a special type of student — people with a bit of an edge, people who need to grunt it out and really feel something at the beginning or end of the day. Our most endearing quality can sometimes blind us: we are sometimes opinionated and studied to a fault.
Our discipline, indoor cycling, has been taught one way for so long it’s difficult to embrace any other. But to say there’s only way to move or study a discipline is simply narrow-minded. It limits our ideas and our teaching. When we stop learning, we stop truly teaching.
If mastery could be measured in watts or years on the bike, I’m sure many of us would line up with raised hands to be counted. I submit that mastery is best demonstrated when we stay open to new ideas and enjoy new ways of putting science, innovation and, yes, FUN together when we teach.
My mentor recently pointed out to a group of us, “If you continue to teach form and function only, your classes will eventually become stale. Members and students will stop waking up at 6:00 am unless you provide them with a training concept. A participant will eventually need something more to wake up to than ‘GO GO GO.’ You need to be willing to dig a little deeper and take people a little further.”
The best instructors I’ve found have this uncanny ability to touch, inspire, and excite — and usually not just with a great song. It’s that special blend of art and science that’s truly engaging.
That brings me to this point. It’s much easier to spot a bad instructor than a good one. When you attend a class and the instructor is terrible, you can feel the grumbling and unease in the room. You can easily point out the faults: the music is too loud or uninspiring, the voice too nasal, the cues unclear.
But when you attend a good class and the instructor suddenly announces, “Last Song,” you think, “Where did the time go?” Even though you may not have agreed with every cue or liked all of the songs, you find that you were riveted, captivated and engaged in the activity.
I’m suggesting that, although we might not agree with some of the innovation that has been happening in the cycling community, we should at least acknowledge that it’s a good thing to get people to move, period. All people, cyclists and non-cyclists alike. If it takes push-ups on the handlebars, bikes that move side-to-side, or forward motion video to reach people who would never otherwise set foot in a cycling studio, so be it.
I have come to terms with the fact that I may not get all of my participants to do a century ride with me. Hell, I may not get my participants outside at all. What I can, and should, do is my absolute best to get people excited about cycling. Out of their heads and into their bodies. Safely. If only indoors. If only for 60 minutes.
If the best way to do that is to borrow a great idea or technique from another instructor, I’m open to it.
Originally posted 2012-09-17 07:10:41.
by Joey Stabile | Apr 11, 2026 | Audio PROfiles, Bonus Materials, Instructor Tech Help, Instructor Training, iTunes, KEEP IT FUN, Motivation, PRO Podcasts, PRO/Playlists, Spotify
This week features the 2018 Holiday ride from Joey. The ride is primarily focused towards strength, but there is a fair mix of cadence work. Good luck and have fun. Joey
Get all of the ride details HERE.
Get all of the ride details HERE.
Joey's “2018 Holiday Ride” Playlist
1: “Wizards in Winter (Instrumental)”, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (The Lost Christmas Eve)
2: “Mmm Yeah (feat. Pitbull)”, Austin Mahone (The Secret)
3: “Palladio”, Escala (Escala)
4: “A Mad Russian's Christmas (Instrumental)”, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (The Christmas Trilogy)
5: “Switch”, Don Diablo (Switch – Single)
6: “Drop That Low (when I Dip)”, Tujamo (Spinnin Records Best of Dance 2016, Vol. 1)
7: “Carol of the Bells”, Pentatonix (PTXmas (Deluxe Edition))
8: “Santa's Lost His Mojo”, Jeremy Lister (Gift Wrapped – 20 Songs That Keep On Giving!)
9: “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (Live at C.W. Post College, Greenvale, NY – December 1975)”, Bruce Springsteen (Christmas Hits)
10: “Jingle Bells (feat. Henry Rollins)”, William Shatner (Shatner Claus)
11: “In the Cold, Cold Night”, Tracey Thorn (Tinsel and Lights)
12: “Man Like That”, Gin Wigmore (Gravel & Wine)
13: “What Christmas Means To Me”, 98° (Let It Snow)
14: “You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch”, Famous for a Century (Christmas – Single)
15: “Christmas In Hollis (Bonus Track)”, Run-DMC (Tougher Than Leather)
16: “Deck the Halls”, R.E.M. (Gift Wrapped – 20 Songs That Keep On Giving!)
17: “Christmas / Sarajevo 12/24 (Instrumental)”, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Christmas Eve and Other Stories)
18: “Feliz Navidad”, Unspoken (Christmas: Joy To the World)
19: “My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) [Non-Album Track]”, Regina Spektor (My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) – Single)
Originally posted 2018-12-30 08:49:38.
by John | Apr 8, 2026 | Big Box Instructor, Promote and Build Your Class
Image from netpromoter.com
They describe Net Promoter Score (NPS) as The Ultimate Question
:
How likely is it that you would recommend this Club/Studio/Class/Instructor to a friend or colleague?
As a Life Time Fitness Instructor/employee I hear about our NPS scores frequently… and if you don't understand what NPS refers to and the effect it could have on their business or your class, you may be thinking; “so what?”
Well the short answer is your NPS score is an indication of how likely your students will be to promote the club where you teach or your class to their friends.
Let's start with some understanding from the people who developed this concept:
What is Net Promoter?
Net Promoter® is both a loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth in your business. Developed by Satmetrix, Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld, the concept was first popularized through Reichheld's book The Ultimate Question, and has since been embraced by leading companies worldwide as the standard for measuring and improving customer loyalty.
The Net Promoter Score, or NPS®, is a straightforward metric that holds companies and employees accountable for how they treat customers. It has gained popularity thanks to its simplicity and its linkage to profitable growth. Employees at all levels of the organization understand it, opening the door to customer- centric change and improved performance.
As you can see in the image above, NPS is based on a 0-10 rating score in response to the question; How likely is it that you would recommend to a friend or colleague? The responses are then broken down into three categories:
- 0-6 Detractors – Unhappy people who will talk down your class or club – damaging your brand through negative word of mouth.
- 7-8 Passives – Satisfied, but won't go out of their way to promote your class to others.
- 9-10 Promoters – these are your fans 🙂 The students you look forward to seeing and they in turn look forward to telling others about the awesome class you just taught. In a nut shell, these are the people who will help FILL YOUR CLASS!
To calculate the NPS you subtract the number of Detractors from Promoters, which leaves you with either a positive number (good), zero, or a negative number (bad). So if you have 100 people respond to a survey of the ultimate question if you have more Promoters than Detractors you can expect to see your class size grow.
NPS ignores the Passives as they really don't hurt or help your business. I see the real improvements coming from moving the Detractors up the scale.
I have a few personal complaints and/or concerns with NPS:
- The score tends to be skewed by the number of respondents and getting busy people to respond is tough… which is why your manager is forever asking you to ask your participants to complete a survey.
- I'm personally more inclined to give negative feedback, actually… I'm guessing we all are.
- You may have very little influence on your clubs NPS. If your bike maintenance is lacking, one of the two projectors isn't working or the locker room has a funny smell that causes a member to score your club as a Detractor, there isn't much you can do. This could be a good reason to drill down and solicit NPS for specific areas/departments.
So beyond Life Time, who else uses NPS to measure how successfully they are satisfying their customers? Apple for one. The link is to an article that dispels the myth that Steve Jobs never listened to his customers – Apple listens every day.
In Podcast # 196 Studio Owner Emmy Ragali explains why she has an Instructor Evaluation form on her Go Cycle website. The link to it is easy to find and she and her instructors encourage participants to give feedback regularly. I see that one of the questions is; Are you likely to recommend this instructor's class to a friend?
Which is really all that matters 🙂
Does your studio use NPS [wlm_firstname]? What have been your experiences?
I'll be discussing how we all can help to improve our clubs NPS scores in later articles.
Originally posted 2012-01-18 04:51:13.
