by Joan Kent | Dec 22, 2014 | Master Instructor Blog, Strength Training, Training With Power
Image credit http://cyclefit.co.uk/sportive-preparation-should-i-lose-weight-or-increase-power-part-1
As a nutritionist, I hear many clients say they want to lose weight — to look better, have more energy, improve their health. But losing weight can also help you increase your power on the bike.
Ratios intrinsically provide two ways to improve the ratio — by manipulating either variable. The results of improving both variables can be dramatic.
As covered in a previous post, efficiency — the ratio of work output to expended energy — can improve with increased work output or decreased energy expenditure (or both).
In the same way, your power-to-weight ratio on the bike (measured in watts per kg) can improve with increased power or decreased body weight, or both.
Power is itself another ratio, of work to time. If work increases or time decreases, the result is greater power. ICI/PRO is currently covering this topic in depth.
So that provides 3 variables in the power-to-weight ratio: increase your strength (work), increase your speed, or decrease your body weight (or all of them).
Why Lose Weight?
Even if you’re not overweight, weight loss may improve your power-to-weight ratio. It need not — and shouldn’t — involve a strict “diet” that leaves you hungry most of the day.
It does involve careful monitoring of your numbers — how many calories you burn (using your power meter or, preferably, a wearable calorie counter 24 hours a day), and your calorie intake.
The goal is to eat fewer calories per day than you burn, but not by much, just 150 to 300 calories. If that feels too restrictive, drop the deficit to 100 calories. The result would be a slow decrease in weight that you can stop or reverse at any time.
These days, the general recommendation for weight loss is rapid loss. (Is that to match up with HIIT and the shorter-and-harder approach to fitness, I wonder?) Rapid weight loss is said to keep the “loser’s” motivation high.
Yet gradual weight loss — while also training for power — has the advantage of maintaining fat-free mass (FFM) so you won’t lose strength, an important variable in the power ratio.
Holding On To FFM
Weight loss often decreases muscle mass, especially rapid loss. But in the long-running (13-plus years) weight-loss program for which I was both the nutritionist and a training coach, we typically saw steady or increased FFM while the participants lost weight at a slow, sustainable rate.
That helped them maintain strength and power so they could do the training, which was frequently high-intensity. The intense training, of course, was designed to increase strength and power.
Maintaining FFM also prevented participants from having to drop calorie intake more and more (and more) for continued weight loss.
Don’t Bonk
Make sure you don't restrict calories on the ride itself. Whether you’re riding outdoors or doing tough power training in the studio, under-fueling before or during the ride could cause you to bonk.
Even without bonking, you may still feel week and have difficulty working up to your capacity — the power you’re trying to improve. Fuel as usual while riding.
Keep the calorie restriction small. Cut back a little more on days that you’re not training hard, or at least save the restriction for after the ride. If your power ride is late in the day, early A.M. calorie cutbacks may work. Just keep your pre-ride meal about the same as usual, and eat or drink whatever you need on the bike.
Be strict about post-training refueling (covered in a previous post) so you can train well the next day.
Technique and Efficiency
In all of this, don’t forget that better technique on the bike will help you waste less energy by reducing the energy needed for pedaling, reducing energy lost as body heat, and retaining more energy for your next pedal stroke. Your functional strength, a power variable, will increase.
Combining good technique, all the power training tips you’re currently getting here on ICI/PRO, and gradual weight loss will help you dramatically increase your power-to-weight ratio on the bike.
Wishing you great success with this!
by Joan Kent | Dec 15, 2014 | Best Practices, Engage Your Students, Master Instructor Blog
The word “technique” intrigues some and makes others yawn. But there’s much to be said for technique. It’s the foundation for all athletic performance features.
Technique involves improved skills. In the broadest, most general terms, that means eliminating unnecessary movement; making movements in the correct directions; applying the necessary power, but no more than that; using the right muscles for the activity; and using optimal speed if time isn’t a factor.
Okay, that’s a dry list. Still, the benefits of good technique — and the consequences of bad — affect training and performance. The last thing I’m going to do is describe cycling technique; vastly superior riders have done that in too many venues. (Check out the excellent videos here on ICI-PRO.) Instead, I’d like to list some benefits of good technique.
Efficiency
The main benefit of good technique is efficiency. Efficiency is the ratio of work output to expended energy. If work output increases OR energy expenditure decreases, efficiency has improved. Efficiency and technique are closely related because principles of efficiency are so similar to principles of technique.
Many activities have an optimal rate. Rates above and below that cost more energy. The mechanism behind that is stored muscle elasticity, which requires the shortest time between muscle relaxation and contraction to prevent the loss of energy as heat.
Good technique reduces the energy required for the pedal stroke, reduces energy lost as body heat, and retains more mechanical energy for the next pedal stroke. Strength goes up — functional-type strength.
Practice reinforces cycling technique, so it improves efficiency.
Consistent velocity
Consistent velocity also affects technique. Unintentionally accelerating or decelerating due to poor technique wastes energy. Obviously, holding a single cadence throughout a cycling class isn’t usually part of the workout plan.
But staying consistent during a song or segment — an important technical skill — can increase efficiency. Beatmatch is an excellent teaching tool for helping students develop consistency.
What else affects efficiency?
Efficiency may involve factors other than technique. For example, it may depend on the contractile properties of the muscle: slow-twitch is more efficient than fast-twitch. It may depend on training, which can increase strength and endurance by increasing muscle efficiency. Big-gear training, for example, can improve efficiency in fast-twitch fibers.
Other benefits of good technique
Doing something with correct technique feels good, probably because the body is being used the right way.
Correct technique makes the student look good. In my master’s thesis, I compared the principles of technique and efficiency to principles of movement aesthetics. It turns out that what makes a movement correct and efficient is also what makes it beautiful.
So technique leads to efficiency, and that wastes less energy. The less we waste, the more energy is left for the demanding parts of the class when it really counts. And the better we look and feel cycling.
You’d like your students to look and feel good while taking your class, complete it successfully, and want to come back for more, right?
Jim Karanas always said, “Endurance athletes don’t mind expending energy, but they never want to waste it.”
Good cycling technique is the key.
by John | Nov 20, 2014 | Best Practices, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Master Instructor Blog
This isn't good… I had two Oh Shit “senior moments” in the same week 🙁
The first was when I arrived at the Laguardia airport on Friday, only to discover I had left my wallet and ID back in the safe at the hotel where I had stayed in NYC. So I missed my flight back to Minneapolis and made another loop back into the city to retrieve my forgotten items. Thankfully USAirways has some compassion for people like me and they placed me on a later flight back home
But this morning was actually worse. It was 5:45 am. I was parked at the club, collecting my stuff to teach. I said outloud (to myself) “Where's my iPhone?” And then remembered (or is it realised?) that I had left it back home on the kitchen counter. “Now what do I do?”
And then I remembered, you have the rescue CD that you created for just such an occasion. I relaxed a bit, as I thought about where I would retrieve my CD.
It's in my employee folder…
In the steel cabinet…
Which is in the Group Fitness Dept Head's office…
AT A CLUB WHERE I NO LONGER TEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OH CRAP – now what am I going to do?
During the short run accross the parking lot and into the club, I came up with a plan. “we will be riding to the sounds of riding outdoors!” So as soon as I was dressed and in the studio, I announced just that and we all rode along to the Epic Planet DVD Epic Race Day. This DVD is complete with all of the sounds of riding a road bike during a criterium – including the cheers of all of your adoring fans!
Actually this was an inexcusable, rookie mistake that should have never happened. I know better than to not have a second option for music. I had gotten lazy and too confident that my trusty iPhone would always be there for me. Until I forgot to bring it.
So while I'm typing this post, I'm burning a few CDs that I will stash in my car, as well as in the cycling studio. Here's to having a backup plan!
Do you have one?
by Jim Karanas | Nov 20, 2014 | Best Practices, Master Instructor Blog
With 1800 articles in our archives, there's a good chance you may have missed some of our best posts. So we will be reposting a few that we feel are not only very special, but timeless in their value to ICI/PRO members.
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
Organized systems of physical movement have the potential to progress toward artistry, yet most indoor cycling instructors wouldn’t call themselves artists. Still, any instructor who wants to create a compelling class experience could benefit from thinking that way.
Certain activities fall under the term “art”. A dancer of any level could reasonably be called an artist, even though many dancers are not particularly artistic. But indoor-cycling instructors are seen as fitness instructors, people who teach indoor cycling.
Are we artists? We’ll get to that in a moment. Is there any benefit in considering yourself an artist? I would definitely say yes. Being an artist implies that you transcend the ordinary and do something creative in your trade.
There are those who cook, garden, design home interiors, or cut hair and have elevated what they do to an art. Isn’t “transcending the ordinary” what many of us strive for as instructors? I don’t teach simply to be a competent exercise instructor. My class is my craft, but it’s more because I create each ride with an approach that feels, at this point, like artistry.
The assets I use to create the experience include music, lighting, voice, words and, most recently, video. I also incorporate concepts and philosophy and combine all of these elements in the cycling studio environment to create art. (I covered some of this in a previous post on The Art of Cueing.)
So can you consider your class art?
It’s an important distinction to make because art enriches our lives, sometimes more than work. When we approach something as art, it stimulates different parts of our brains, makes us laugh or cry, with the gamut of emotions in between. Art gives us a way to create and express ourselves. There are days that creating my next ride is the main reason I get out of bed in the morning.
We’re hard-wired for creativity and hone it to our specific abilities. Giving life to something original from within to share with the world purely for its intrinsic value is perhaps one of the most rewarding feelings we can have.
Originality may be a key concept in art. We’ve all heard that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but is the imitation art? I’d say often not, even if it’s imitating something that is.
That’s where the distinction occurs for many instructors. Approaching your class as art may be joyous and provide great return, but it takes authenticity — a willingness to share what’s really you. A copycat workout, even skillfully run, isn’t authentic.
I believe the ability to make art is inherently human, but it TAKES WORK. When I began teaching, my class wasn’t art. I was no more skilled in teaching indoor cycling than anyone else at the beginning, but I’ve poured arduous hours, days, weeks, months and years of my life into it.
My point is “art” is more than a label; “my class is art” isn’t something just anyone can claim, even a good instructor. The difference between art and craft lies in the intent behind it. If your intent is merely to design a great workout, to emulate that amazing instructor at the last conference, or to impress the class with your skill, I’m not sure you can claim to be an artist.
I make my class art because I love creating. There’s nothing more gratifying to me than working on a playlist for days, selecting just the right videos, and planning what I’ll talk about — leaving enough room to improvise that I never know how a class will turn out until it’s over. The process itself is enjoyable: I express my interests and empower my students to enjoy training and go beyond what they thought they could do.
Sometimes class participants dismiss artistic attempts, saying, “I just want to work out”. Such a statement speaks to the loss of creativity in our world and only magnifies the need for us to consider our classes as art. Fitness can be so much more than a workout.
Is your class art? Why should you consider turning your class into art? Are you willing to do the work to make it art?
Art is natural and instinctive, like language and laughter. Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist,” and every culture has art. Expressing something artistically makes us feel more complete.
Art is also a medium for expressing ideas. While a class could be just a workout, treating our class as art gives us greater range of expression and helps us share thoughts, ideas and visions that may not be easily articulated in words.
It’s also healing. Creating your class from an artistic perspective will enliven and stimulate you. The process of creating engages both body and mind and provides us with time to look inward and reflect.
Finally, it’s a shared experience. When you look at your class as art, you recognize it as collaboration with the participants. It uses your skills as exercise specialist, cyclist and public speaker, which combine with the musician’s artistry in the songs you play and the cinematographer’s artistry in the videos you select. Art offers us a reason to share talents in a collective manner.
Approaching my cycling class as art has been good for my soul. It’s been good for my brain and my body. I’m a better cyclist now than I would have been if I hadn’t brought artistry to the practice of teaching indoors. I’ve been a mediocre dancer and a horrible musician, but teaching indoor cycling as art has allowed me to bring my bike to life.
by Joan Kent | Nov 17, 2014 | Health and Wellness, Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
John rode the #1 NYC subway train last week and it doesn't look like this today 🙂
Giving nutrition talks in many locations lets me meet interesting people. After a recent presentation, a man came up afterward to tell me about his doctoral research.
Dull, you think? Hardly. The man is working on a program for juvenile offenders that teaches them about good nutrition. His premise is that getting them to make good decisions about food helps them make better choices in life.
How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
I was instantly reminded of Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point. Gladwell describes the turnaround of the high crime rate in New York.
In the mid-1980s, violent crime in NYC was at a peak. Two criminologists, Wilson & Keller, theorized that crime is the inevitable result of disorder, and seemingly small displays of disorder invite serious crime by signaling neglect.
The NY Transit Authority hired Keller as a consultant. He convinced the key players to start the crime cleanup by cleaning graffiti from the subway trains. Some thought it was a foolish start because violence on the subway trains was so high.
But the repainting of trains was relentless. Even partially graffiti’d subway cars were taken out of service until they’d been cleaned. The message that someone was watching was clear, and it worked.
The theory was then applied to other small crimes, such as fare-skipping and minor property damage. By 1990, violent crime in NYC had dropped considerably.
So What Does This Have To Do With Sugar?
What if, instead of avoiding just the big stuff — like dessert — and letting little “tastes” slide by, you convinced your participants to start by eliminating the little tastes? Refusing that piece of a broken cookie, those two tiny M&Ms, that agave on their oatmeal? Small tastes that seem trivial, calorie-wise.
What good would that do? Well, sugar does affect brain chemistry and hormones, so small amounts can increase appetite and change food preferences — and not in a good way. A little can bring on cravings for sugar later that day or the next.
But What About Juvenile Offenders, Gladwell, and The Subway Trains?
I’m also suggesting that strictly refusing small bits of sugar could help your participants develop a different mindset: “That’s not food.”
What I know from decades of counseling dieting clients is they tend to think All-Or-Nothing. (“I ate cookies earlier, so I blew it. I’ll have this chocolate cake tonight and start my “diet” tomorrow.”)
What if — this season — they get out in front of it?
If they relentlessly reject small samplings of sugar throughout the day (and the week), it could be easier to turn down dessert.
Yes, because of the brain chem thing. But also this: Why undo all that careful, healthy picky-ness by blowing it on a bowl of Rocky Road?
Dare To Start Small
We know holiday sugar will be around in both large and small portions.
Why not shun the tiny tastes of sugar that will be everywhere? See if that doesn’t inspire better food choices throughout the day — and throughout the season. See if it doesn’t re-frame sugar as the junk it is, rather than as food.
If this deceptively silly idea keeps your students from overdoing it on pumpkin pie, chocolate truffles, fudge, cheesecake, and everything else that will be temptingly available as the holidays go on, it could even be seen as their practice.
Imagine the inner glow of having a no-sugar practice.
Besides, if you convince your participants to try this, you will definitely be a Hero, like my friend who’s working with juvenile offenders. What he’s doing is brilliant. You could be, too.
I’d love to hear how this Tipping Point approach works for your classes!
by John | Nov 16, 2014 | Best Practices, Master Instructor Blog, Training With Power
Hey – I just got an email explaining that Spivi has added a FTP (Functional Threshold Power) Test to their display training system. I can't begin to tell you how beneficial these short threshold/best efforts are for engaging participants in your power based classes. That's why I describe these as a Best Practice for anyone teaching with power.
Like PIQ, Spivi offers the option for riders to manually add their FTP / PTP wattage into a user profile. Another option is to enable the Fitness Test option where you can select an 8 or 20 minute FTP test that will record each riders average watts for the period and then add either 90% (8 minute) or 95% (20 minute) of it to their user profile.
To start the FTP tests wizard, press the left analog stick once, just like if it was a button. Now select the requested test from the menu and press the “Start” button to start.
Don't forget to Instruct the group how to ride and what to do during the test. The FTP test lasts as long as the progress bar on the bottom right side of the screens appears.
