by Jim Karanas | Aug 5, 2013 | Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
In the early days of indoor cycling, there was a problem. When bike resistance was low, the weighted flywheel connected to a fixed gear with a chain produced an unnatural degree of momentum. It permitted riders’ legs to spin at cadences far above their natural ability.
This resulted in the infamous “bouncing” in the saddle, as well as potentially catapulting them over the handlebars if they were to suddenly stop pedaling. Then there were the as-yet-unknown, uninvestigated forces working on knees and hips.
So a ceiling was put on cadence. Everyone believed 120 rpm was fast enough. Some education bodies restricted it to 110 rpm. The reasons were obvious at the time. One look around a cycling class filled with “jumping beans”, or the surprised look on Superman’s face as he went over the handlebars made it clear that we instructors needed to control cadence.
As IC evolved, cadence became less of a worry. Better control was taught from the start, and IC became safer. The 110-120 rpm ceiling has been challenged on occasion, but usually sticks. People don’t typically ride at higher cadences, the logic goes, so why use them in cycling classes?
Is high cadence still unsafe? Do higher cadences offer training benefits in an authentic class, or general exercise benefits in a non-authentic class?
My opinion on safety is that high cadence is unsafe in some situations, but not in others. Cycling coaches are documented as recommending max-effort cadence drills up to 140-160 rpm. Arnie Baker’s Smart Cycling is an example.
Arnie Baker’s not alone. Cycling coaches don't have the same concerns IC instructors do about cadences above 110-120 rpm. They train athletes who are on road bikes on a track stand or a Computrainer. There’s no weighted flywheel. There’s no help on a real bike. It's all you. To spin at 140-160 rpm, you have to develop the necessary muscular composition and/or neuromuscular recruitment, or you can’t do it.
Not so on a chain-driven indoor cycle. The weighted flywheel creates substantial inertia, which we’ve spent decades teaching our students to control with technique and proper resistance. Chain-driven bikes create excess momentum and allow you to cheat on cadence training.
But belt-driven bikes can allow high-cadence training to become part of indoor cycling. The reduced momentum on a belt-driven bike makes it more like a real bike in terms of how hard you have to work to spin fast. I wrote about this in a previous post (“From Chain Junkie to Belt Convert”).
Should we create high-cadence trainings for our students if they’re riding belt-driven bikes? The statement that we don't typically ride at those cadences and shouldn’t train at them makes little sense to me.
High-cadence training, called spinning, can be defined as any cadence that exceeds a rider’s preferred cadence, usually 120-160 rpm. These cadences are performed in lower gears, applying lighter pressure to the pedals with each stroke. Neuromuscular adaptation increases pedal stroke fluidity and reduces the force the leg muscles and joints must transmit for a given workload.
Higher cadences also allow the muscles to work aerobically. Less activation of type II muscle fibers delays the burning of carbohydrate stores. In a study by Ahlquist et al., a higher cadence resulted in less stimulation of fast-twitch muscle fibers. As fast fibers deplete their glycogen stores from slower, high-strength pedaling, they become less forceful. Additional muscle fibers must then be activated to maintain a given speed. The activation of a larger number of muscle cells leads to higher oxygen consumption rates and reduced economy.
With proper high-cadence training, pedaling rates of 80-100 rpm become easy for slow-twitch muscle fibers to handle. High-cadence training may also make type I muscle fibers faster and more fatigue-resistant. Then, even less glycogen is used within type II fibers because slow-twitch, type I fibers can handle the fast, low-force contractions.
To take advantage of these adaptations, cyclists use cadence drills. They train the neuromuscular system to increase coordination and efficiency at high pedaling rates and promote fatigue resistance in type I fibers at the same time. In the end, higher cadences preserve glycogen, leading to faster and more powerful finishes over a day of riding.
None of this makes a difference unless you believe in the effectiveness of high rpm. We do at ICG because the cycling world does. We train at much higher rpm than we promote in the industry because of the traditional 110-120 rpm ceiling and the stigma of going above it.
Also, some cyclists do pedal fast. Track cyclists do, as do riders on fixed-gear bikes going downhill — unless they’re braking to slow their legs.
So high cadences have been validated in real cycling. What about non-authentic indoor cycling?
SoulCycle uses cadences over 120 rpm. They now produce their own bike, a chain drive. Is this safe? Maybe not. That's one reason we suggested that ACE research SoulCycle's training program. Would exceeding 120 rpm be safe on a belt-driven bike? We think so.
Still, the benefits I list above relate to cyclists. How does high-cadence benefit general membership? For one thing, it burns a ton of calories.
My view, and that of ICG, is it’s time to allow faster spinning in certain situations. We’ve advocated a belt drive for years, and I frequently train at cadences far in excess of 120 rpm on our bikes. Although our education still limits cadence to 120 rpm as a general rule, we’re in discussion regarding high-intensity spinning.
When is high cadence okay? When the bike's momentum can be controlled and the instructor’s training is of sufficient caliber to instruct correct pedaling efficiency.
by Joan Kent | Jul 29, 2013 | Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Joan Kent
(Jim Karanas has been travelling on ICG business and hasn’t been available to supply posts for ICI-Pro for several weeks now. I’m sure his many followers are disappointed, but I hope this brief post will be of interest and practical use for instructors and students of indoor cycling.)
Over 15 years ago, Frank Day created independent crank arms for bicycles. With independent crank arms, one leg can’t assist the other in turning the pedals. The cyclist can’t relax on the upstroke, but must actively raise the pedal, using the hip flexor and hamstring. If the rider does it right, the pedal stroke will be smooth and feel like a “regular” bike. If the pedal stroke is wrong, the entire stoke will be off in timing and simply fall apart. Mastering independent crank arms forces the rider to pedal more efficiently. It’s said to increase power, as well. Another benefit is that the right and left leg muscles become more balanced, whereas fixed crank arms could perpetuate any strength imbalance between the sides. Finally, the rider gets to train ancillary muscles and coordination.
I never gave much thought to independent crank arms until I started Kranking in 2007. As most of you know, Johnny G created Spinning. (Where would any of us be today without that?) He also created Kranking and put independent crank arms on the Krankcycle.
Johnny knew Spinning would never “go” if he used independent crank arms because cyclists and riders of stationary fitness cycles in the gym were too accustomed to fixed crank arms. (One of my friends, a highly accomplished cyclist and a regular in Jim’s classes, did a 95-mile ride with independent crank arms, which impressed me no end. He’s an obvious exception.)
Kranking, however, had no such limitation because there were no expectations about the crank arms. The Krankcycle is a complete departure from the upper body ergometer. Few people like UBEs anyway, so departing in one more way was unlikely to meet with resistance. Enter independent crank arms on the Krankcycle, with all the benefits they provide.
All of that said and out of the way, here’s the point of this post. Kranking can help you and/or your students develop better pedaling technique on an indoor cycle.
In order to Krank without letting the crank arms “clunk” as they go around the axis, you need to smooth out the basic arm stroke. One of the best ways to do that is to imagine and feel that you’re making the biggest circle possible by pushing the crank arm around the largest circumference you can.
In Silicon Valley, where I’ve done a lot of teaching, the engineers think I’m crazy when I say that (“The crank arms are this long and won’t change!”), but use your imagination and make the biggest circle possible. Push outward against the edge.
Keeping the crank arms together on the double Krank stroke takes coordination. Keeping them 180 degrees apart for a split rotation, as the legs are positioned on a bike, takes even more work. It will improve your upper body coordination, muscle balance and core strength. Once you’ve smoothed out the basic stroke and mastered keeping your arms exactly 180 degrees apart for a good 15 minutes or longer, you’re probably ready to transfer what you’ve learned to indoor cycling.
I honestly don’t have any specific training plan for you to follow here and wish I could present one. What happened to me after doing a lot of Kranking is that I noticed my cycling felt different. My pedal stroke on the bike — indoors and out — felt smoother and more even. I found myself pushing to the “outside” of the circumference of the circle as an automatic and natural motion.
It would be great to report that I did pre- and post-Kranking power tests on the bike, but as researchers say, it was a serendipitous finding, and purely anecdotal. Other faithful Krankcycle users did confirm having the same experience on bikes.
Of course, you could — and can — improve your pedaling technique on a bike with PowerCranks. But your students might not have access to one, while many gyms have Krankcycles.
At any rate, if you’re looking for a way to help your students improve and balance their pedal stroke, this might be the unconventional solution. And it’s fun. Please let me know how it works.
by Joan Kent | Jul 15, 2013 | Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Joan Kent
Because of the bad press carbs have received for a number of years — and the new gluten-free trend is only its most recent manifestation — many of your students may be avoiding carbs.
People who avoid “carbs” tend to define them as starches (bread, pasta, crackers, cereals, potatoes) and sugars (cakes, cookies, candy and syrups). I include agave in that last group, but few people want to acknowledge it as the sugar it is.
As indoor cycling instructors probably know, there are plenty of other carbs out there, such as vegetables, lentils, beans, sweet potatoes and more. Many of them are good for us, particularly as fuel for training.
It’s a bad idea for your students to avoid carbs, especially if they’re working out on a regular basis. Here are a few reasons for that, some of which you may already know.
Avoiding carbs doesn’t fit well with athletic training, especially tough training. In extreme cases, a low-carb diet could cause a full-fledged bonk. But even without that, low-carb eating can make it difficult, if not impossible, for the student to reach higher workloads in high-intensity classes.
A very low-carb diet can lead to cardiac arrhythmia, particularly in people who train hard. If you run hard workouts in your classes, you might need to remind your students to eat some starches both prior to, and following, a class. Fueling and refueling appropriately are important factors in fitness and health. In turn, the right carbs become an important factor in both.
Eating too few starches can increase appetite. This has to do with serotonin production, which involves carbs. Serotonin gives us a feeling of satiety, that we’ve had enough food and don’t need to seek more. Satiety caused by serotonin can be general, and its lack may lead to increased appetite. Satiety caused by serotonin can also be carb-specific, so a high-carb lunch might lead to a lower-carb dinner.
Someone who avoids starches as a general dietary strategy may not feel the satiety that starches (and serotonin) would produce. They may crave lots more food in general, and/or carbs in particular.
If your students avoid starches, the cravings could lead them to sugars. Because that general feeling of satiety might not be there, when they finally eat sugar, they’re likely to eat a lot of it. Sugar is dietary trouble, and health issues may ensue. (Don’t get me started.)
Eating too few starches can also lead to cravings for alcohol. See the preceding paragraphs for the mechanism of action; it’s the same for sugar and alcohol. I’ve seen this in many food logs submitted by clients — low starch intake, combined with substantial alcohol consumption. Alcohol can cause a host of heath, sleep and mood issues, as covered in previous post.
Less known is that the long-term effects of a low-carb diet can include an up-regulation of insulin receptors. Up-regulation is sometimes misunderstood. It takes place when the level of insulin is low, such as when the diet contains few insulin-triggering foods. In its ever-vigilant effort to maintain homeostasis, the body responds to the shortage of insulin-triggering foods by increasing both the number of insulin receptors and the sensitivity of the existing ones.
The result is that the body is ready to receive ANY insulin that’s triggered and respond vigorously to it. In someone who’s susceptible, that may translate to serious weight regain if and when the student returns to “normal” eating, even if only for a temporary period of time.
If your students need, or want, to avoid gluten, they can still consume healthful starches. Gluten-free starches include vegetables, lentils, various beans, sweet potatoes, yams, turnips and other root vegetables, squash, quinoa, and brown rice. These foods can help your students avoid the various health issues described above and keep them training well and often.
by Joan Kent | Jul 8, 2013 | Master Instructor Blog
by Team ICG® Master Trainer Joan Kent
The subtleties of teaching authentic-style indoor cycling are what make it exciting. One difficult thing to teach is the feeling of how resistance varies when you’re turning a big gear on a flat road, as opposed to climbing.
Several years ago, I learned how to use 80 rpm to simulate “big-gear flats.” I’ve been told there’s no difference between indoor flats at 80 rpm and indoor climbing at 80 rpm, that it’s just a matter of terminology. But, despite the similar resistance, the training feels quite different.
Say you’re powering your bike at 80 rpm on a flat in your big chain ring, doing 20 mph. Now let’s say you’re climbing a 4% grade in your small chain ring at 80 rpm, doing 10 mph. The cadence is the same; the intensity is likely to be similar. How do you interpret the difference in the resistance? Is it worth communicating to your class?
This has actually turned out to be a favorite training approach of mine, so I thought I’d pass along what I’ve learned for anyone who hasn’t yet done this in class and might want to try.
The first difference is what we see, the terrain. You want to describe the flat road to your classes and fix in their minds that they’re moving down that flat road very fast because of the big gear. As all of you know, a big gear feels like high resistance on the legs, with a long distance covered on each revolution of the pedals. Get the class to visualize and feel their speed on the flat road.
If you’re using video, clearly you’d want to select a flat road — the longer the better — and have them keep their eyes on the road as they ride.
Another difference is where on the saddle you sit. On a climb, we shift back a bit on the saddle, giving the down-stroke a slightly more forward thrust and creating an almost elliptical shape in the pedal stroke. On a big-gear flat, our position is moved a bit forward (“on the rivet”), making the legs circle smoothly but with more of an up-and-down, piston-type action.
A third difference is hand position. While the hands would be separated on the horizontal portion of the handlebars for a climb (known by some indoor cyclists as position 2), they stay centered on the handlebars (in position 1) for these big-gear flats. This is to keep you more centerline on the bike, as you would be on a flat road when going fast.
A fourth difference between big-gear flats and climbing has to do with upper-body motion. On climbs, we may rock the body side to side, since indoor cycles obviously don’t move the way outdoor bikes do, and we’re simulating the bike motion. But on a flat road, the upper body is still. Keeping the hands centered on the handlebars, as described above, will also help to eliminate any side-to-side action of the torso as you ride.
Another aspect of upper-body positioning involves the degree of forward lean. On an outdoor climb, the hill angle puts the front wheel much closer to your face, but that doesn’t happen on a flat, so we simulate the flat indoors by maintaining a “normal” forward angle of the torso.
The final difference I’ll describe here between climbing and riding in a big gear on a flat road has to do with cadence. On big-gear flats, the cadence never drops below 80 rpm, although everyone knows it may on climbs. Stay in a monster gear and stay at 80 rpm. Keep the resistance as high as possible without dropping to a climbing cadence.
This is where beat-match can be absolutely invaluable. If the cadence begins to fall as your legs fatigue, you can beat-match the music to stay true to the 80-rpm cadence while keeping the gear as big as you can handle. Continuing to visualize moving very fast down the flat road will help, as well.
The cadence and the resistance are everything in this training. Encourage your students to fidget as little as possible. Encourage them to ride from the center and stay close to it, keeping one hand on the handlebars at all times. You might tell them to “cut as fine a line through the atmosphere” as they can.
When done this way, this training — an all-time favorite of mine, as I mentioned — feels quite different from climbing, especially if the music is a consistent 80 rpm with an upbeat feel.
After a solid warm-up, I run my classes through three or four of these 5-minute intervals at or above threshold heart rate, with relatively long recovery between intervals. A long high-cadence spin after the last interval helps to recover the legs, too.
If you’ve never done this and give it a try, I hope it adds a new dimension to your class. Please let me know how it goes.
by John | Jun 13, 2013 | Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog, Music
We all rely on music as a tool. Tools are used for building things and it's common to describe our practice of creating profiles as; “I'm building my class”. Most of us put a bunch of effort into; “building our playlist”. Track selection is often by BPM or song length. We categorize and file/store our music in ways designed make the selection quicker and easier, i.e. flats, climbs, etc…
In my workshop at home I do the same thing. I have a big tool box with a bunch of drawers. Each drawer has a specific type of tool (sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers), many are arranged by size (1/4″, 1/2″, 10mm, 14mm), or purpose (Phillips Head, Straight Blade, Allen Head).
I'm a self-professed “Tool Guy” – Tim Taylor was one of my favorite TV characters of all time. Tim understood it's “all about the tools”. My Grandfather was often accused (by his wife) of “spending 5 hours to design and build a tool that would save him 2 minutes, on a job he'd only do once.” So I come by this naturally 🙂 Whenever I need to build/fix/repair or create something the first thing I do is find the tools I'll need for the job. And no, I'm not beyond spending an afternoon/day/month designing a tool to solve some problem I'm having. Case in point is my Red Pedal Tool for studios using the red Schwinn triple link pedals. That took about a year from start, to a finished product.
My class preparation probably isn't much different from yours [wlm_firstname]. I start with a basic “plan” and then I select different tracks based on their value as a tool; “I need a 6 minute song @ 150 BPM for this climb I have planned” isn't any different from; “I need a 14mm end-wrench to remove the lawnmower blade, so I can sharpen it”.
The resulting playlist is very functional, very Indoor Cycling 2.0. But I'm learning can also be a bit sterile – dare I say soulless?
This morning a long-time member said hello to me, as I was leaving the club after my 6:00 am class. Her comment stopped me in my tracks; “I so wish I had taken your class this morning John… everyone was saying how great the music was”.
That's not something I hear very often, to be truthful, almost never. What was different this morning? I didn't use a playlist of my own creation. In fact the playlist I used didn't even fit what I had planned. The BPM was all wrong, efforts started in the middle of the songs – and often continued through track changes. There was nothing right about any of it (Rick Springfield?) – the musical equivalent of using a butter knife instead of a proper screwdriver… and yet they loved it.
This morning I used Team ICG Master Trainer Missy Crosson's playlist from her ICI/PRO Podcast # 263 — Rolling to the Classics Audio PROfile.
So, Is it wrong to rely on music as a tool? I'm seeing how it could be for me.
by Joan Kent | Jun 10, 2013 | Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Joan Kent
Have you ever felt as if your legs weren’t recovered enough for the day’s training? Do you ever look for quick ways to bring your legs back to full capacity, e.g., ice, massage, cross-training, stretching, so you can work hard again?
This post is about glutamine and its effects on recovery.
Glutamine is an amino acid, one of the most abundant amino acids in the body. It’s released when muscles contract. A long, hard training can deplete glutamine by 25% to 30% or more.
The significance of this is that glutamine is a fuel used not only by muscles, but also by immune cells. The immune system manages recovery of all types: illness, injury, surgery, and training. Glutamine is a fuel source for cells that line the GI tract, which guards against microorganisms that cause disease. In addition, glutamine facilitates glycogen synthesis, which is highly important after training.
For both optimal health and optimal recovery, glutamine needs to be replaced after training.
The obvious way to replace glutamine is through food selection. Since glutamine is an amino acid, many protein foods contain it. Examples of glutamine-containing proteins are: beef, fish, chicken, pork, eggs, egg whites, milk, yogurt, ricotta cheese, and cottage cheese.
Some vegetables also contain glutamine: Brussels sprouts, carrots, celery, kale, parsley, spinach, cabbage and others. Raw vegetables work better than cooked.
Glutamine can also be found in fruits: apples, apricots, avocado, bananas, cantaloupe, dates, figs, grapefruit, oranges, papaya, peaches, pears, persimmon, pineapple, and strawberries.
The long fruit list doesn’t contradict my previous posts that recommend minimizing sugars, including fructose, the sugar in fruit. I suggest limiting the number of fruit servings per day to one or two, and choosing your fruits from the above list to help with glutamine replacement.
Other foods that contain glutamine are: beans, soy, peanuts and other legumes; wheat, barley, beetroot, corn, nuts (small amount).
If you’ve been training hard enough to feel that you’re not recovering fully — even with these foods in your training diet — you might want to go with a glutamine supplement. I’m most familiar with glutamine powder, although it’s also sold in tablet form. If you use a supplement, try taking 1 heaping teaspoon (5 grams, the usual recommended dosage) before bed. Mix the powder into about an ounce of water and drink it, then drink a full glass of fresh water. Glutamine powder has worked well for me, but I’d like to hear from you if you give it a try.
One of the benefits of taking glutamine before bed is that it can trigger a release of human growth hormone. HGH is a complex topic, but it has been shown to have immune benefits and to aid in cell and muscle recovery.
