by John | May 17, 2026 | Best Practices, Engage Your Students, Master Instructor Blog
The guys at BikeFit.com do a great job using infographics to communicate the process of proper bicycle fit. Today they sent out these images and I wanted to share them with you. Each details the multiple points of adjustment that can be used to ensure a comfortable setup.
If you really want to become a bike fit expert, check out everything you can do with this iPad app.
Adjustable points of contact on a bicycle.
5 points of cleat adjustments
3 points of saddle adjustments
Handlebar adjustments
Having been through a three hour, professional fitting like what BikeFit.com offers – I have experienced how many of these adjustments are effected by others… i.e. saddle fore/aft affects height and reach to the bars, cleat position can require a change in saddle position, etc…
A comprehensive fitting is really important for someone who is riding thousands of miles a year and/or is super concerned about efficiency = getting the maximum amount of power to the road.
So how detailed should you be with a new participant? After setting up people for over 15 years, it's my view that you just need to get them close and feeling comfortable. You obviously don't have 3 hours and with the exception of the Keiser M3, the adjustments on Indoor Cycles are too coarse to really fine tune a person anyway.
Originally posted 2015-09-10 09:57:04.
by Tom Scotto | Apr 26, 2026 | Master Instructor Blog
A number of instructors (and riders) have asked me how one should approach the next training phase and how to know their class is ready. These instructors are usually believers and followers of a periodized format for delivering the focus of their indoor classes. So considering we are rolling towards the end of March, this is the perfect time to address our focus beyond base training.
How Do We Know Our Class is Ready for More?
Let’s answer the easy question first. Well…sort of. The short answer is that it doesn’t matter. Hey, at least I didn’t say, “it depends”. The reason it doesn’t matter is because we have riders at all levels plus those that will pop into our class without notice, so we never really know who will be present from one week to another. Thus everyone will be in different places with their training and level of fitness. For this reason, I like to keep things on a general schedule for those faithful regulars that use our classes for consistent training (See the image for a general timeframe for each basic training phase). I also like to stay on the periodization model because it conveys the message that “we have a plan” in this class. Having a longer-term plan for how one delivers classes is also a great way to keep people coming back. For example, I will make the following announcement before introducing a new profile, “So as you know we have been focused on “X” (whatever that is) for the last 3-4 weeks and now we are going to build on that with today’s ride”. I’ve seen new riders turn to the person next to them to ask what type of rides they missed. I’ve even had people come to me after class and tell me that they are new (which I knew), wanting to know what was ahead for the next few weeks. The bottom line: they now want to be a part of what we are doing and don’t want to miss a class.
Obviously, as always, we need to provide options and give people permission to work at their own levels. Make sure to emphasis the point that everyone is at a different level and place in their training, so no one feels behind or unsuccessful during class.
What’s Next?
For those that have been following a periodized model, our focus has been on aerobic development / endurance, leg speed and muscular endurance (moderate climbing). With this foundation in place, from both a physical and educational sense, we can now get more specific in our focus and start shifting from volume to intensity. So what does this mean? The training done during base is designed to target general fitness and conditioning. The training performed during the next phase (often referred to as Build) begins to focus on developing muscular strength and power. With this shift in focus also comes an increase in intensity (bringing with it more recovery — hopefully). This can be a hidden trap for instructors because many will continue to increase the intensity, but not provide more time to recovery. In effect, intensity is not effectively increased because without appropriate recovery, people can work as hard as they need. Hence mediocre-ville and a dreaded plateau in fitness often follows.
This is often where taking the time to educate your class goes a long way. Having gone through 12 weeks of base training and understanding the purpose makes it easier to transition their mind to the concepts of training at a higher level.
Keep an eye out for my latest Audio PROfile entitled “CycleSTRONG” for an introduction to pure strength training — a perfect ride for the next phase of training.
Originally posted 2012-03-15 17:35:29.
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 John | Mar 27, 2026 | Best Practices, Master Instructor Blog, Spotify
I started to share this over at pedal-on.com and quickly realized that this is another Best Practice for Indoor Cycling Instructors.
Suggestion to anyone reading this who is planning to use Spotify in class.
A cycling coach / friend of mine taught me that race day is never a good day to try something new.
The mark of a Rookie is someone who changes his seat height the night before a big event, or slams the latest energy drink on the way to the race – only to find the new saddle height feels weird and uncomfortable… and the stimulants have your heart (and mind) racing so fast you're worried about what effect all of these changes will have on the race you've trained months for that you're an emotional wreck as you roll to the line and are off the back before the end of the 1st lap.
Experiment during your training and only bring what's familiar to the starting line. Same is true with using Spotify in your class. I've lost track of how many calls and emails I have gotten that begin with; the first time I tried to use Spotify in my class ____________________ happened. It worked perfectly at home… I have no idea why it didn't __________.
Show your professionalism by doing a dry run at your studio before you attempt to use Spotify to deliver your class music.
Teach a whole class by yourself and experiment with your new toy;
- Will it play with Air Plane Mode turned on?
- Can you find your playlist if it's buried in a folder?
- Is the cross fade working correctly?
- Hit a few of the wrong buttons… do you know how to get back?
- Accidentally tap the shuffle (no, just tapping it again won't return it to ordered play) … can you quickly turn shuffle off?
- Get sweaty and try to scroll through the playlist – can you without inadvertently changing tracks?
- Have some sweat drip on the screen – will you resist the temptation to wipe it off with your towel = changing songs? or learn that you can dab the screen without messing everything up?
- Do your local files play when the should?
I'm sure this is only a partial list of the potential problems (feel free to add your own) you could suddenly be faced with, if you run into class without taking the time to become proficient with Spotify.
Originally posted 2013-02-02 12:27:43.
by Tom Scotto | Mar 24, 2026 | Master Instructor Blog
The purpose of my last article was to spur you on to start thinking about the approach to your classes at the beginning of the year. Being a coach, my natural tendency is to sway you toward a periodized approach. I was definitely very happy with the responses from the last article which could be summed up as “so, how do we do it?” As promised, here is a simple approach to early season periodization for indoor cycling that I have been using for the last 10 years.
Quickly….What is Periodization?
Periodization is a process of structuring training into progressive phases or blocks of time. In addition to the structure, there is a determined progression to the training from week to week and month to month. The progression manipulates a variation of Training Volume, Training Intensity and Training Specificity with a focus on the end goal (which could be anything from a pure fitness goal to preparing for a charity ride, century, cycling vacation or competitive event) or peak fitness. Although we are going to focus on the early season (or Base period), here is a simplified periodization plan I use for indoor cycling so you have a picture of how the Base period fits into the rest of the year:
- BASE Period: January – March
- BUILD Period: April — May
- PEAK Period: June — September
- TRANSITION Period: October — December
Keep in mind that how long and when each of these periods occur throughout the year is purely a function of the goals of a specific person or athlete. The above is a generalized approach I found suitable for indoor cycling classes.
Another DISCLAIMER
I’m going to reference 5 to 6 different ride profiles in the upcoming paragraphs. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to go into the details of each of these profiles for the sake of time and sanity. Each of these profiles could be an article or AudioPROfile in and of itself.
The Benefits of this Approach
Having a plan engages riders more because they often feel obligated to join in or continue. And it doesn’t matter which point a rider enters your plan. You may start your periodization plan in January and then get a new rider each week all the way through to March. No problem. Although each of the workouts is challenging, the overall intensities and specificity will be lower than usual, making it easy for new-comers to jump-in. The fact that they walked into a “plan” many times keeps them coming back because they don’t want to miss anything else. Plus, a periodized approach is a smart, proven training method which appeals to the cycling community as a whole and will draw more cyclists to your classes.
As a side note: Most of the classes I teach meet only once per week and thus there is only 1 training focus per week. The class that I have that meets twice a week gets the same ride twice. They appreciate a second chance at it, as they are often better prepared (mentally) to be successful the next go-around. Plus in the “real” world of cycling, many of these workouts/rides would be done 2-3 times during the week anyway.
The Plan
First I’ll layout the weekly plan and then I will give a brief explanation of each ride. Notice that in this plan, the same ride is not repeated for 6 weeks and the schedule takes you right into April.
- WEEK 1: Threshold Test
- WEEK 2: Aerobic Development
- WEEK 3: Leg Speed / Cadence Work
- WEEK 4: Muscular Endurance
- WEEK 5: Aerobic Endurance
- WEEK 6: Muscular Strength
- WEEK 7: Test / Review
- WEEK 8: Aerobic Development
- WEEK 9: Leg Speed / Cadence Work
- WEEK 10: Muscular Endurance
- WEEK 11: Aerobic Endurance
- WEEK 12: Muscular Strength
- WEEK 13: Threshold Test
Threshold Test
There are a number of ways to do a threshold test. My preference is the Foster Talk test which identifies 2 ventilatory inflexion points: VT1 (ventilatory threshold 1) and VT2 (ventilatory threshold 2). I’m going to use VT2 (or approximately 80% perceived effort) as the upper limiter on all of the remain class profiles below. Here is another method of performing a 20-Minute Threshold Field test posted on June 25, 2011 – https://www.indoorcycleinstructor.com/icipro-instructor-training/zone-based-heart-rate-training/is-a-20-minute-threshold-field-test-realistic-for-your-class-part-3/.
Another side note: I use the early part of the Threshold class to talk about proper form and technique while taking time to walk around the room and make necessary (wanted) adjustments.
Aerobic Development
This class consists of short aerobic intervals of 30 seconds to 2 minutes. It is easiest to break these intervals into sets using a 1 to 1 (work to recovery) ratio. The target intensity for each effort is VT2.
Leg Speed / Cadence Work
Another interval structure where the variable is now leg speed. Two common ways to structure these intervals is to either do a set of 1-2 minute efforts at 90 RPM, then do a set of 1-2 minute efforts at 100 RPM, etc. You can also approach it like a pyramid and design a set that starts with an effort at 90 RPM, then 100 RPM, etc. There are dozens of cadence drills one could use to build a nice varied class. Keep in mind that the speeds you target should be appropriate for your demographic of rider. The goal of these classes is to obtain the leg speed, while maintaining a smooth pedal-stroke technique, and without driving one’s heart rate above VT2.
Muscular Endurance
These are basically long climbs of moderate intensity ranging from 7 to 30+ minutes each. I tend to mix up the class giving them a climb closer to 7 minutes, than another at 14 minutes and yet another at 21+ minutes. It gives them a nice (duration) goal. The cadence range is closer to 65-75 RPM and heart rates should stay below VT2.
Aerobic Endurance
These are long steady-state efforts (with some gentle rolling roads) ranging from 4 to 10 minutes. This time the target intensity is VT1 or closer to 70% of their perceived effort. Like in most base building workouts, the stimulus is “volume” or duration and NOT intensity. And believe you me, if done correctly, are equally as challenging (physically and mentally).
Muscular Strength
Similar to the format of Aerobic Development, these are shorter interval sets of 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but the focus is on workload or heavy force on the legs. Cadence should range closer to 55 to 70 RPM. Be sure to caution riders who may have injuries before you introduce these. As always, rides should be instructed to work at their own pace and strength.
Test / Review
This is what I call a “Freebee”. I build a class consisting of 1 or 2 drills from each of the preceding weeks (same music and all) and present it as a test. “Let’s see how we have been progressing over the last 5 weeks. Take note of which drills are your strengths and which are you weaknesses. I’m happy to talk with you after class if you would like some guidance on how to adjust your training based on what you’ve learned.”
Rinse and Repeat
Yup, go through the previous 5 profiles again as you help your riders continue to build their fitness base. I like to leave the second threshold test to the very end. One generally gets a better result (or noticeable progress) after 10-11 weeks of focused workouts, and it is a great segue into the next phase of training.
Remember, BASE training is not boring but dynamic, varied and purposeful. Although the intensities are not near-max, the duration of time spent during each effort is longer and recoveries are often shorter (because…well…the intensities were not as high). Have Fun!
Originally posted 2011-11-18 17:54:48.
by John | Mar 15, 2026 | Master Instructor Blog, Spinning Class, Training With Power
Are you going to be in Miami for WSSC? I'll be there all weekend and would love to meet you while I'm there.
There are a bunch of sessions that I'm excited to see:
On Friday our very own Barbara Hoots is giving a presentation: Studio Design: Empowering Emporiums to Increase Profits
Presented by Barbara Hoots Whether opening a new studio or renovating an existing one, this lecture will offer new trends in studio design. Evaluate common design flaws that lead to lawsuits and slow growth, and explore the latest in sound systems, lighting, wall treatments and marketing.
I'm really excited to take these Ugi classes – from what I can see, Ugi could be a great strength compliment to any boutique Indoor Cycling Studio
Ugi® Fit Presented by Sara Shears Undo your laces and strip off your socks! Join Ugi creator Sara Shears for the ultimate 30- minute barefoot workout. A series of 30 one-minute intervals combining strength, core and cardio are efficient enough to change your body completely. From warm-up to cool down Ugi is fun, challenging and makes U feel good about your body, energy and health.
U-SPIN Me Right Round Presented by Nadine Stewart “Combine the benefits of a high-cadence endurance ride with non-linear sculpting exercises using the Ugi® ball. This well-rounded workout will cover your cardio and cross-training needs and give you new ideas to change up your Spinning® and resistance training classes.
My main focus will be the Spin Power sessions and there's a lot of them on the schedule! Especially those that are including a specially designed Performance IQ display system, customized for the Spin Power Program.
Team Time Trial with Performance IQ Presented by Angie Sturtevant In team time trials, riders take turns either at the front or ‘sitting in’ behind, conserving enough team energy for an all-out pull toward the finish. In this workout you will compete as part of a team, as accumulated power output is displayed on the big screen using Performance IQ. This gives all teams the energy to chase and spectators something to cheer about!
Spinpowerâ„¢: Personal Spinning® Threshold Presented by Martin Timmerman The Personal Spinning Threshold (PST) is the key to Spinpower success–once PST is determined, you have a baseline threshold marker that can be used to create a unique training program and track student progress. This workshop will teach you the protocol of the Personal Spinning Threshold test and how to administer this test to your students. You will establish your own Spinpower Zones and then experience a ride which will criss-cross these zones. WS NEW
Spinpowerâ„¢ Race Day Winners Presented by Dino Pedras All athletes know that we must be efficient and well-organized to get the most out of our training, and a Race Day ride is how we see the results of that hard word. In this workshop, you will learn how to create a successful Race Day using Spinpower to help you determine what variables you should integrate into your training program and how to best periodize your time to reach your maximum potential and find the way to victory!
And that's just Friday's sessions – I'll be reporting more from WSSC as time permits. If you'll be there any of the three days, please text me so we can connect 612-868-0064!
Originally posted 2014-05-25 16:24:12.
