by Jim Karanas | Nov 5, 2012 | Master Instructor Blog, Mental Toughness
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. — Leonardo Da Vinci
The tendency of the western mind is to expand and be progressive. The desire to “take it to the next level” is part of that, the goal of it. Progression is inherent in physical training. Until periodization became popular, all cardio-based training was based on progression. With periodization, cardio training still progresses, but in circular modules.
One of the things indoor cycling has been said to do is help someone “take it to the next level”. I used to use the phrase all the time. It suggests linear progress, which I’ve come to realize is not optimal, or even possible, in all training situations.
People like progress. Cyclists, club members, our class participants like to see themselves getting stronger. We like it ourselves. There's value in achievement. Achievement is invigorating.
Progress toward most goals is accompanied by measurement. In cycling, the attitude is, “If you can measure it, you can improve it.” Progress toward goals is also accompanied by learning. Learning to use heart rate effectively. Learning better technique. Learning to train with power. If we keep learning and adding more, the premise is, we’ll progress ever faster. In some cases, that’s true.
For a while, and up to a certain point.
A lifetime of training and riding a bike undergoes an ebb and flow (see my post “The Four Levels of Motivation”). As we continue to train over a lifetime, we of course get older, and desire often ebbs. The excitement behind achievement diminishes, largely because our performance does, along with our energy. We need, and search for, ways to bring back the energy.
The thing is we often look for energy in the wrong place. What can actually provide the greatest return of energy is not increased achievement, analysis or learning, but a return to simplicity.
Over centuries, the wisest philosophers have advised us to keep things simple.
Cycling, particularly indoor cycling, is simple. It’s a basic relationship among cadence, gear/resistance, and intensity. More accurate ways to dissect and measure a workout, or complex structure and patterns, will at times increase performance. After a while, though, they will just induce fatigue. That’s because our greatest source of energy will never be metrics. Or thinking. Over-analyzing will actually make things worse.
This is when a return to simplicity is best for a rider.
When you rollout, or start a class, the shift in consciousness is profound. The repetitive, circular action of the pedals creates a state of mental relaxation. This isn’t the time to over-cue, give detailed instruction and make things “mental.” The sensation of internal energy can’t be sensed when the mind is busy. If the mind is allowed to clear so the body experiences the simple act of turning a pedal stroke, then we (and the students) can feel the energy, the alertness, the aliveness, whatever you want to call it.
Turn off the computer. Forget performance. Feel the energy that comes from the sheer pleasure of riding a bike.
Measuring things, making things complex can sometimes be good for training. Over time, though, it can create fatigue and kill desire. Riding a fixed-gear bike with the computer off is one of the simplest and best ways to reinvigorate someone — and reconnect someone with the joy of riding a bicycle.
If you want to be successful, it's just this simple: Know what you're doing. Love what you're doing. And believe in what you're doing. — Will Rogers
by Jim Karanas | Oct 29, 2012 | Correcting Form, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
Bicycling is a repetitive-motion exercise that can lead to tightness in several major muscle groups.
Static (traditional) stretching gradually lengthens a muscle to an elongated position and holds that position for 20 seconds. When done properly, static stretching slightly lessens the sensitivity of stretch receptors in our muscles. That allows the muscle to relax and stretch to a greater length.
In the last few years, however, several studies have found that doing static stretching before playing a sport actually makes you slower and weaker. This is because the lower sensitivity of the stretch receptors makes us less able to move fast or freely.
Static stretching is recommended after cycling and has a variety of benefits when done properly. Still, many elite athletes in all sports are ditching post-training static stretching altogether, and using “dynamic” stretching as a viable warm-up technique prior to exercise.
In 1995, I witnessed a stretching demonstration by a trainer named Jim Wharton. Using a rope, he taught me a method of flexibility training known as AIS, or Active-Isolated Stretching. Aaron Mattes, a kinesiologist and world-renowned expert on flexibility, developed this technique. I had the good fortune to study with both Jim Wharton and Aaron Mattes. I’ve used AIS every day for the past 17 years and have trained thousands of students to perform a 20-minute dynamic-stretching routine before riding. Most of them — seriously — continue to do it daily.
Cycling contracts skeletal muscles that attach to bones by tendons. Each muscle has sensory structures called stretch receptors that monitor the state of the muscle and feed the information back to the central nervous system. Stretch receptors are sensitive to the velocity of the movement of the muscle and the degree that it’s lengthened.
The Golgi Tendon Organ is a stretch receptor located at the insertion of skeletal muscle fibers into the tendon. It provides the sensory component of the Golgi tendon reflex, also known as the stretch reflex. The stretch reflex is a protective mechanism that attempts to prevent over-stretching and tearing of the muscle fibers.
AIS uses the body’s natural stretch reflex to enhance flexibility. Because it’s movement-based, it also dynamically stimulates blood flow and muscle extension through movement. These factors make it optimal for warm-up.
After a couple of seconds of stretching, a muscle begins to contract as a result of the protective stretch reflex. This is to prevent excessive elongation and a potential muscle tear. The key to AIS is not to continue stretching beyond this point. Static stretching continues, and that’s why it diminishes performance.
The Active-Isolated Stretching technique involves holding each stretch for only two seconds, rather than 20. The stretch is repeated 8 to 12 times for a progressive muscle release. This degree of repetition dramatically increases blood flow to the muscles to enhance warm up.
This method of stretching is also known to work with the body's natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints and fascia.
The shorter stretch, however, needs to be coupled with reciprocal inhibition. This is another natural response of the muscle. Contracting the muscles on one side of a joint relaxes the muscle on the other side of that joint. When performing AIS, you actively contract the antagonist of the muscle you are trying to stretch (the agonist). This promotes an enhanced release in the target muscle. The antagonist contraction also stimulates blood flow and generates body heat.
Active-Isolated Stretching does many things that static stretching cannot:
– AIS provides a transition between inactivity and physical exertion.
– AIS assists the pre-exercise warm-up process by increasing blood flow and soft-tissue temperature. This makes is both a stretch sequence and a warm-up technique, and settles the long-running debate in the fitness industry about whether or not it’s necessary to warm-up prior to stretching. With AIS, both occur together.
– AIS produces supple, relaxed muscles, which have a higher capacity for activity.
– AIS reduces the likelihood of muscle cramping, tightness and pain.
– AIS increases and maintains the range of motion in a joint.
Personally, I’ve performed upper- and lower-body AIS daily, both pre- and post-riding, for 17 years. I attribute much of my athletic longevity and my body’s ability to perform at a high level to Active-Isolated Stretching.
AIS is one of the stretching methods most used by today's athletes, massage therapists, personal/athletic trainers, and fitness professionals. AIS allows the body both to repair itself and to prepare for daily activity.
To learn more, simply google Active-Isolated Stretching. An extensive YouTube library depicts the stretching techniques, and numerous websites have images of how the stretches should be done.
by John | Oct 22, 2012 | Big Box Instructor, Master Instructor Blog, Member Spotlight
Larry “Link” Russell will be representing ICI/PRO and presenting at SCW's Boston MANIA on Saturday 11/10 and Sunday 11/11.
I need to thank Sara Kooperman with SCW Fitness for extending this opportunity for ICI/PRO to partner with her MANIA conventions. She recognises that we have some very talented people involved here at ICI/PRO and it was with great pleasure that I could recommend Link as a presenter 🙂
Saturday 4-5:30pm ICI/PRO Class PROfile: Ramp, Attack, Sustain
Saturday's ride is Ramp Attack Sustain where the focus is on anaerobic performance. This by no means a beginners ride profile. A solid aerobic fitness base is recommended before challenging this class profile. We will be using two approaches, one is the Ramp and Attack which is a progressive ramp of resistance followed by a all out attack and the other is an all out Attack followed by varying times of Sustained effort of one minute or more. During Attack and Sustained efforts, RPE will be 9-10, thus an all out effort! As with all class profiles of this type, it is recommended to have students train at their own pace and not to exceed the limits of their fitness.
Sunday 10:15am-11:45am ICI/PRO Class PROfile: Lactate Tolerance Workshop
Sunday's ride is Lactate Tolerance Workshop which is based on a 45-60 minute indoor cycling training session only represents one effective way to build up tolerance to lactic acid using HIIT and Tabata style intervals. This style of class is both fun and challenging for the indoor rider where the lactate threshold (LT) is reached and surpassed many times during the ride along with active recovery, to build balance in the energy system and recruit fast twitch muscle fiber. True LT testing cannot be performed without blood being drawn during performance activity, thus we project it in this class as 80-85% of the VO2 Max or your VT2. As with all class profiles of this type, it is recommended to have students train at their own pace and not to exceed the limits of their fitness.
Both of Link's classes are on Schwinn AC Indoor Cycles. Each will feature the Cycling Fusion ClassBuilder iPhone App and Heart Zones Cycling training principles
Find out more about Boston MANIA
Here's a link to download all the session info.
by Chuck Cali | Oct 22, 2012 | Big Box Instructor, Engage Your Students, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Chuck Cali
“Indoor cycling instructors!! As you ‘teach' your class this week ask yourself- am I using this time to effectively TRAIN these people or am I using every trick in the book to just be an ‘entertaining distraction'?? And yes, there is a BIG difference..:)”
I saw this statement on facebook on a recent morning. Lately, I’ve thought long and hard about this philosophy. Allow me to reason out with you another possibility.
At the end of your classes, did your riders notice the “BIG difference”, or indicate they cared? Why were they there in the first place? What did they come for? What do they expect? Do you have an obligation to deliver what they expect or subject them to what you think they need? As indoor cycle instructors, do we really know the answer to the question of why all these people are sitting on stationary bikes in front of us? These are not new questions. Jim Karanas posted on a similar topic last year (“Susan and Bob”, 11/28/11).
Here are my thoughts.
If you’re reading this, you care enough about your craft to, at minimum, stay informed. For years now, you’ve read on this site all the facts necessary for delivering a safe, training experience for your riders. ICI/PRO has also delivered hundreds of “how to” audio profiles and podcasts on teaching certain profiles or training objectives, or a specific class focus.
Yet that information is really for and about us, the instructors. It comes from people like us, doing what we love to do and always striving to get better at it. Let me add that all of it is safe, founded in the fundamentals of outdoor riding. No contraindicated movements. And it’s incredibly useful in enhancing our abilities.
But striving for never-ending improvement compels one to ask such hard questions as: What’s the fundamental reason people participate in group exercise? I’m reasonably sure that for every rider there’s a different answer. What do we really know about these people and why they’re here? Still, this isn’t about us, but about them. They pay for what we give them, which is important to remember.
Recently, I’ve been reminded that indoor cycling is also an industry. What makes the gears of any industry turn is a demand for a product or service, which ultimately turns into profits. We should all be ok with that. It’s why our paychecks don’t bounce.
With that said, it becomes easier to work within the framework of “happy customers” rather than appropriate training. It has also been stated in these cyber pages that indoor cycling and, by extension, indoor cycle instructors have been commoditized. I believe that’s true. But it can be a good thing if an instructor understands the commercial value of happy customers.
If “effective training” is producing happy customers, by all means create your class profiles to produce the desired training outcome.
But most of us in the trenches (indoor cycling studios around the world) face riders everyday who are doing mindless exercise. One club manger explained to me, “They check their brains at the door, let us do what we do, and go home feeling that they did the right thing.” They come back because they like us.
My experience is they come to our classes not because they’re training — most don’t know how to prepare a training plan, or care to — but because they’re exercising. Why? Because everyone from the President of the United States to Jane Fonda has said it’s good for them. We all agree.
While a few Master Instructors are making a living teaching us how to train our riders or selling new equipment that will aid in the same, most of us are holding onto our part-time jobs by keeping our customers happy.
And this is where I see the BIG difference between effective training and entertaining distractions. Our riders are not really looking for effective training, even if they pay lip service to it.
They’re looking to get through 60 minutes of hard work that they know is good for them, rather than training with an outcome in mind. (I know many will argue that if we do our job well, the riders get the known cardio benefits, too.)
Among other things, happy customers add the greatest return on investment to facilities adding new equipment to their studios. High ROI allows the riders, who seek exercise, to become involved in a new, dissociative activity while exercising.
At our initial certifications we learned about dissociative cueing, the act of diverting our riders’ attention onto something other than the pain of the exercise.
As a Team ICG® Master Trainer using MyRide®+, I’ve seen first-hand how forward motion video can take riders on a new journey while they get their exercise. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities for them and us.
The same is true for the new bikes out there. The new consoles on these bikes provide multiple metrics: cadence, heart rate, time, miles or kilometers per hour, lap times, gear setting, calories burned and power.
The options for using such metrics during class are many. One option is to use them for training. Some do.
If one is lucky enough to have forward motion video and new bikes, well, then our world has changed to provide many more opportunities to make our customers happy in ways never before possible.
Our industry needs to understand and embrace this concept if we’re to compete with Zumba and U JAM, among the new activities now found in group exercise. I could go on about whether those doing Zumba get any real cardio benefit, but, bottom line, this is about happy customers. The cycle studio needs to stay competitive with other group activities.
One could call all the new technology an entertaining distraction. Sure. I consider it a collection of extremely useful tools for providing exactly what our riders want. A good reason to come back! What they get from it is up to them.
It always has been.
by Jim Karanas | Oct 15, 2012 | Health and Wellness, Master Instructor Blog
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas –
Many factors contribute to osteopenia and osteoporosis in cyclists. Both conditions are associated with low bone mineral density and a reduction in the bone mass that is sufficient to interfere with its support function.
Osteogenic loading refers to the stress placed on the skeletal system in order to produce bone growth. This article may surprise you.
One of the culprits in cycling-related osteopenia or osteoporosis is the nature of the exercise itself. Cycling is a low-impact sport that puts little mechanical load on the bones. That may be helpful for someone who has joint problems, but it's the weight-bearing aspect of exercise that signals bone to create more mass. Without such stress, bones don't get stronger and consequently become more prone to injury.
A recent study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that competitive male road cyclists had significantly lower bone mineral density in their spines than a control group of men who were moderately physically active while doing other recreational activities. The cyclists were also more likely to have osteopenia or osteoporosis than those in the control group.
I recently discovered that commonly promoted exercise strategies for counteracting bone loss have had fairly limited success, particularly regimens that subject the skeleton to only mild activity, such as walking. I had always thought that, if I complemented my daily cycling with walking and modest strength conditioning, I wouldn’t be susceptible to decreasing bone density. I was wrong.
There’s no doubt that mechanical loading of bone has substantial potential to induce bone formation, but the traditionally recommended exercise regimens for cyclists have met with mixed results at best. What I recently learned is that those options are fairly ineffective for increasing bone formation.
The U.S. Surgeon General states that increases in bone mineral density that are sufficient to prevent or reverse osteoporosis are stimulated by maximum loading on the musculoskeletal system. Such loads are normally associated with impact loading, the kind that occurs with gymnastics. Women gymnasts have been found to have much stronger bones than women long-distance runners.
Conventional resistance training does not typically yield loading at a high enough level to produce more than a nominal increase in bone mass. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that running, walking and resistance training are only minimally effective in staving off the osteopenia that I’m prone to because I love to ride bikes and teach indoor cycling.
Heinonen et al (1996) found that unexpectedly high bone-mineral densities (BMD) occurred in women gymnasts. A typical gymnastic dismount or vault produces enormous skeletal impact (about 18 body weights). Subsequent studies of impact loading showed similar results.
So the research shows — and I haven’t heard this anywhere in the cycling world — that multiples of body weight loaded onto the axial skeleton are what’s necessary to produce significant gains in BMD. Not running, definitely not walking, not conventional strength training, but dismounts off the high bar that slam 18 times my body weight through my skeletal system. That’s what I need to be doing one to two times per week.
Fortunately, as Managing Director for the Indoorcycling Group of North America, I was recently invited to test a new technology at Performance Health Systems in Chicago. It’s called bioDensity™ (www.biodensity.com).
The product is exciting and seems to serve a market need for all indoor cyclists. bioDensityâ„¢ makes possible a safe, self-induced, osteogenic loading stimulation up to many multiples of body weight — the kind of loads normally associated with impact activities, such as gymnastics. DEXA scans have shown an average 4.5% bone mass gain for individuals in the program for 3 years. Regular, proper use of the bioDensityâ„¢ System enables the user to achieve the required maximum loading safely, which therefore helps to combat osteoporosis.
ICG® has no professional affiliation whatsoever with Performance Health Systems. They are producing a product that we feel will help keep our customers healthy.
My sole purpose here was to make you aware of what I was completely unaware of (and even misinformed about by popular literature) and to suggest that you investigate a possible solution that will keep your bones healthy while you keep riding.
by John | Oct 13, 2012 | Health and Wellness, Instructor Training, Master Instructor Blog
“John what is THAT?” Amy was looking at me with a very disapproving look on her face.
“What's what?” I responded as I straightened up from filling the back tire of The Bus – our Tandem bicycle – with 120lbs of air.
“Over the top of your bike shorts… you have a muffin top!”
“I do not!”
“You do too! And I expect you to do something about it, and quick.”
Once I got over my initial defensiveness, I admitted to her (and myself) that after 17 years of being pretty disciplined about both my training and eating, I've allowed myself to slide a bit. OK, maybe a little more than a bit. But hey – I'm 51 years old… don't I get to back off at some point?
“No!” was Amy's response. “You have a lot of people who look to you as an example who will be as disappointed as I am, that you are backing off.”
She was right, as usual… but what to do? As I rode along I realized I had both a short term and long term problem to solve.
- Short term – disguise my muffin top ASAP
- Long term – re-introduce John to something called self-restraint 🙂
Enter Bib Cycling Shorts; a man's equivalent to Spanx – control top pantyhose! Wasn't there a Seinfeld episode about this?
Secure that I had at least the short term issued solved, I jumped online to see what was available at Pearl iZumi and ended up buying two pairs of their $150.00 ELITE LTD Bib Shorts. Except I didn't pay $300.00. Using my ICI/PRO 40% discount they were only $90.00 each… which saved me more than the cost of a full year's subscription to ICI/PRO.
So if you find yourself facing a similar situation that could be solved (at least in the short term) with some new cycling clothes, join ICI/PRO as an annual member and you get access to everything Pearl iZumi makes at a 40% discount + 12 months of the awesome premium content we've become famous for.
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