by John | Apr 19, 2015 | Best Practices, Instructor Training, Your Fitness Business
Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em, there's no denying that SoulCycle is enormously successful and a driving force that's responsible for much of the excitement our industry. I visited SoulCycle last fall and participated in a few classes. The purpose was to accurately report on this juggernaut of Indoor Cycling.
The bottom line IMO, SoulCycle get's it. They understand their target market precisely – everything they do is directed at female non-cyclists who ride at SoulCycle multiple times a week.
More importantly, these non-cyclist ride year-round!
SoulCycle also understands that their Instructors are what make them so successful. Now that I was able to find and then download, the new SoulCycle iPhone App, it's abundantly clear that promoting each Instructor is the main focus of the App. Not only are they featuring Instructors, they've also added links to the favorite music each Instructor plays in class. Check out the bio page for “Stacey” who I just choose at random >
Each of those album thumbnails link to a sample in iTunes. Why not Spotify? Good question. My guess: everyone with an iPhone can play those tracks. Not everyone (yet) has Spotify. I also wouldn't be surprised if SoulCycle has an advertising agreement with Apple = they might be generating some ad $$$ every time a customer views an Instructor bio.
by John | Apr 18, 2015 | Engage Your Students, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Leading Group Rides
Fun 17.75 mile C ride = my chance to develop more new outdoor riders!
I don't know if this is true where you live, but we are enjoying a fantastic spring here in Minnesota. Yesterday was 70 and sunny. I did a little multitasking = hammered for two hours, while pre-riding the two “C” loops I've created for our Life Time Fitness Cycling Club.
To create a new route for a group ride >
- Decide on an appropriate distance and then map the route on mapmyride.com. It's super easy to use; create a free account, click Create a New Route, center the map on your starting location, then just click along the path you want to follow. You're shown the cumulative mileage as you go and there are edit tools (I use the undo a lot) so you can make changes until you've configured your ride. Then give your new ride a name and then Save Route. You will find a link to your new route that can be easily shared via email, or if you paste it into Facebook it will display the map.
- Then take a test ride (the fun part) to check for any construction work or other concerns. Oh, and to learn the route yourself if you'll be the leader.
I feel it's important to give new riders a chance to lead. There are situations when I might be the only lead on the ride. Assigning a new leader is helpful so I can fall back and check on others and assist those needing help. I've learned not to ask; “can you be the new leader?” New riders almost always say NO! Instead I casually tell them; “you're the leader now… keep a steady speed and I'll be back shortly”. Before disappearing to the rear, I will also tell the new leader what's coming up; the next turn, any concerns, safety hazards, etc.
As a reminder to our ICI/PRO Platinum – annual members: you are entitled to a 40% discount on everything Pearl iZumi sells at their factory website. If you're a relatively new Platinum member it takes a while before your account is active at http://shop.pearlizumi.com/icipro/ – new members are added to their system manually = it takes a while.
If you need something right away, or have trouble accessing the ICI/PRO discount store, please contact us and we'll fix it for you ASAP.
Monthly members can upgrade or new members can join here > PRO/Platinum $97.95 = Two Months free!
by John | Apr 17, 2015 | Best Practices, Big Box Instructor, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Music, Training With Power
Threshold Zombies > what a concept!
Ever construct the perfect threshold interval? Where everyone appears to be controlled by the music, hammering away as if they've lost connection with everything and anything beyond the pursuit of Zone 4?
THRESHOLD! THRESHOLD! NEED MORE THRESHOLD!
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
The only way to satiate their lust for Threshold based effort is a proper warm up, a few openers and then an awesome song that's the right combination of intensity and BPM. In my book, the music genre that will feed your Threshold Zombies best is Drum & Bass. Easy to follow, D&B music tends to communicate high 80's to 90's RPM. Here's a few for you to try.
Oh, and please turn-it-up. Zombies like it loud!
Download link
Here's the link to download if the option isn't showing above.
You'll need to be brave, or have a room full of Threshold Zombies that you love controlling, to use this one 🙂
Just don't turn your back on them… [/wlm_private]
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by Joan Kent | Apr 13, 2015 | Engage Your Students, Health and Wellness, Your Fitness Business
Participant resistance was such a big part of running a weight-loss program, I didn’t even realize it was a thing to write about (if that makes any sense). It just went with the territory.
“Resist” has many synonyms: oppose, battle, combat, duel, fight back, put up a fight, defy, struggle against, stonewall. Why would someone join a weight-loss program — and pay lots of money — only to do these?
Participants resist in many ways. Below are only a few examples of actual participant behavior during the 13 years I ran a program combining athletic performance training and a robust nutrition plan geared to weight loss and ending sugar addiction.[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
Names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Jeffrey
Jeffrey was our first participant. He got used to having my full attention and turned petulant when other participants joined. From that point on, he continually criticized the program and stopped following instructions. When I said peanut butter was okay to eat, he ate a 1-pound jar in a day.
John
John was in the program for almost a year before he lost any weight. Once his weight started dropping, he told me that, at first, he wanted to prove it wouldn’t work, so he made sure it didn’t.
Kathy
Kathy complained about hearing sugar addiction info in both a live class and a webinar, instead of realizing she heard it twice because it was key. After a private consult, she waved to me from the window of Pete’s (the coffee place) while eating. Based on Pete’s menu, draw your own conclusions about the food.
Kimberly
Kimberly was a vegetarian, miserable, touchy, and quick to anger. She masked it with a phony-soft voice but complained to management about everything (especially me). Even her doctor had told her she needed protein. I knew on Day 1 she’d never finish the first quarter. She didn’t.
Tom
Tom was an alcoholic who reacted to the rule about avoiding alcohol with a strange grin. He dropped out and rejoined over a year later. He reacted to the alcohol rule with the same grin, dropped out again and never came back.
Shelly
Shelly was in sales and said she had to drink with clients. She had many reasons she couldn’t get around drinking. She never lost weight until she did the AIDS ride from San Francisco to L.A. (without alcohol).
Kristin
Kristin’s attendance at trainings was poor. Because it was a progressive, periodized training program, not a drop-in class, she didn’t progress. She also wanted detailed menus instead of guidelines. When we didn’t supply menus right away, that became her excuse to eat pizza, drink wine, and never keep a food log.
When we developed menus, she complained they weren’t specific enough. She wanted to know precisely what SHE should eat every hour of every day. She gave me The South Beach Diet and said our nutrition program was just like it. It wasn’t, but I never understood why she didn’t just follow that diet instead of eating nachos and drinking margaritas. Or what any of this had to do with never logging her food intake as instructed.
So why do people pay lots of money and then resist? Here are a few reasons.
Alcoholism
Addiction defies rules of reason and logic. It’s a complex topic, very briefly covered in a previous post (Sweet Tooth or Sugar Addiction: What’s the Difference?). Alcohol can sabotage weight loss, as covered in another post.
Sugar Addiction
See above. People will go to extreme lengths to avoid giving up their favorite foods. Lots of blame gets thrown.
Not Taking Responsibility
They’re overweight because of a spouse’s work schedule. Or they go to restaurants frequently. Or they never learned what to eat as kids. Or… fill in the blank.
Plausible Diversion
Registering and paying for an expensive, intensive program showed their sincere desire to lose weight. If they didn’t lose, it was the fault of the program, not because they never did the work to make it happen.
[/wlm_private]
These stories aren’t pretty — and they’re crummy memories — but they’re 100% true. If you have a similar experience with your students, maybe something here can help you start them moving in the right direction.
by John | Apr 12, 2015 | Best Practices, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, New Instructor 101
I received more responses to the frustration originally expressed by new Instructor Irene in this post; Hey Team > How Would You Answer This Question?
What I find to be the single biggest challenge as a new instructor is music- music flow, and knowing what drills or activities to do to what music.
I feel at such a loss though when it comes to setting up a class…. And feel as though I let hours of time evaporate listening to music but not knowing how to incorporate it effectively into what I am doing….
Instructor and ICI/PRO contributor Krista Leopold – AKA GroupFitPower over at Pedal-On.com – offers this:
Hey John!
I don't know if it is too late, but I thought I'd throw in my couple of cents on this one.
Starting out, the music was overwhelming for me too. I thought I had a great library of music and so many ideas, but when I finally switched from being the rider to the instructor, suddenly I felt like I didn't know what I was doing! That's when I started tagging my music. I use a program called MediaMonkey, but there are a million ways this can be done – playlists, excel spreadsheets, notebooks. Start jotting down the songs you hear that when you hear them you think, “that would be a great song for…” I have lists of warm ups, cool downs, heavy climbs, fast flats, different emotions, song tempos and everything in between. Then, when I know what I want to do in class, I have a go-to list of songs to pick from. However, know that having a nice long list takes a while to come together, so you'll need to be patient as you develop your ear and the songs start trickling in. In the meantime, I encourage you to play other people's music and teach other people's profiles. You might be surprised how a song you don't think you like is actually amazing for what the creator chose to use it for in the profile. You can find great profiles here on ICI/PRO, or over at pedal-on. You can find lists like the one I described over at Spotify. The links are posted in a Pedal-On thread here: http://www.pedal-on.com/showthread.php?12446-Pedal-On-Collaborative-Spotify-Playlists. Don't be afraid to play songs chosen by other people. This is the single best way to find more music. It will open up genres to you, expose you to new artists and truly give you more music and ideas than you can possibly use! Good luck!
Hope all is well with you, John!
Krista
Endurance Coach and Stages Indoor Cycling Master Instructor Dennis Mellon adds:
John, let me know if this is what you are looking for.
Class Flow:
I believe the best way to insure class flow is with good class preparation. I also feel that class profile should come before music. A great profile can carry mediocre music but a great music cannot carry a mediocre profile. I would suggest putting together a class profile that supports your club’s training or class schedule program with a proper warm up, drills, sets with appropriate work to rest ratios, cool down and stretch, then add music that you feel works best with each segment. I think most instructors put too much emphasis on finding the perfect song for each and every segment of class. I only focus on the actual music for 2-3 songs per class then I use it to control the energy and/or motivate during the tougher segments of class.
I have posted a number of “The Power of 3” song sets on the ICI/PRO website that include music, set profiles, video and recordings of me teaching these sets during an actual class, these may help you “find the flow” you are looking for.
These are great suggestions Krista and Dennis > I'd like to add…
Irene, there was a time when most, if not all, of us have had difficulty with (to use your words) music- music flow, and knowing what drills or activities to do to what music. After 17+ years, and thousands of classes, this has become second nature. I'm thinking I should add your question to the list of things I struggled with as a new Instructor and have now forgotten, it was so long ago.
Wow… I just found the world's first 5% flat road.
Indoor Cycling has IMO too many “rules” that I feel constrain new Instructors and create frustrations similar to what you've expressed. Take for example the “rule” that; “X” cadence = “Y” terrain – i.e. 60RPM is a Climb, 90RPM is a Flat, etc… Rubbish. Yesterday I was riding outdoors. Looking down at my Garmin bike computer on a long, seated, threshold intensity climb, I saw that my cadence was hovering around 90RPM. Wait, that's completely wrong… isn't it? I am climbing a hill with a 5% grade, shouldn't I be peddling slower?
My point is that there are songs that, independent of their BPM, communicate something you can follow. By “follow” I mean responding in a way that feels natural to you – what could also be described as improvising. Hearing those “cues” contained in a particular piece of music, and then acting on them, is something you might need to learn. And for most people that requires, 1] practice and 2] developing the confidence to go whatever the music leads you.
Yesterday I shared a 40 minute mashup as the Free Friday music. Twenty three different tracks, of all different BPM's and intensities, professionally joined together that I feel would make a great practice session for you to practice your improvisational skills.
by John | Apr 10, 2015 | Best Practices, Big Box Instructor, Instructor Training, KEEPING IT FUN, Music
Improvisation in theatre, comedy or Indoor Cycling is an art that can be improved through trial and practice. Learning to improvise is an important skill that will improve your class presentation and make you a more entertaining Instructor. Disappointedly, I'm just now realizing that we haven't spent much time educating our ICI/PRO members on this important skill.
One of my all-time favorite TV shows was Whose Line Is It Anyway? – In each unscripted episode a troupe of comedians improvise a skit, after being presented with unique/goofy props or are presented with an interesting storyline. The results were often hilarious:
https://youtu.be/mN4paCZXy7M
Why Whose Line Is It Anyway? was, IMO, so entertaining, was how confident the participants were. They just-go-with-it > instantly responding to whatever situation they faced… no matter what it was. Part of this was natural ability, but I'll bet that each member has years of experience reacting to external forces, developing their instincts to the point where they're found to be funny/entertaining.
Instructors need to know how to improvise… to their class and playlist
[wlm_private ‘PRO-Platinum|PRO-Monthly|PRO-Gratis|PRO-Seasonal|Platinum-trial|Monthly-trial|PRO-Military|30-Days-of-PRO|90 Day PRO|Stages-Instructor|Schwinn-Instructor|Instructor-Bonus|28 Day Challenge']
In the series Hey Team > How Would You Answer This Question?, we had a bunch of great suggestions on how to connect music to your ride. I didn't share my ideas in the first two parts. I will be tomorrow and it will be geared toward practicing to improvise: adapting your cues, activities and intensity in response to what you're hearing… what the music is prompting you to do.
Depending on your relationship with your riders, you might get away with a running a fully improvisational class. Announce at the beginning that you plan to just-go-with-it and have fun. NOTE: if you're ever surprised to have a DJ show up and plan to control the music in your class > you'll be thankful for this training.
A better option may be to cue up today's free track and ride it by yourself. 40 minutes of constantly changing songs and mashups that will keep you on your toes as you improvise with each change. Give this a try and see where the music takes you. You might discover you have an undiscovered talent 🙂
Improv practice track Mashup Germany – Right Click, Save As
https://soundcloud.com/mashupgermany/mashup-germany-1live-zeitreise-megamix-1995-2015
Go and have some fun![/wlm_private]
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