I love having a full class of students. But first they need to know my class exists. I'm continuously frustrated with how poorly my own club promotes the Indoor Cycling classes we offer. Based on comments offering similar frustrations, I'm guessing that I'm not the only one.
So why not take a few minutes to do a little self-promotion?
The other day a received a request from an ICI/PRO member to join FourSquare, the social media site where you can check in, so other people know where to find you. Like Yelp, FourSquare acts as a search engine to find where there friends are, in the hope to meet up with them. You can also leave and read reviews there. I hadn't spent any time there so I decided to check it out to see what I could do with it to promote my class. At first I thought that only actual businesses could create a listing. Instead I discovered you can create a listing for anything that is an actual place, even if you don't technically own or manage the facility. I saw listings for specific seat rows at a concert, events in a local park and even a listing for a specific airline flight to Europe – maybe they were interested in who they would be sitting next to for eight hours.
In the name field I suggest; Your Name, Time/Date and theKey Words that describe your class.
In the address field; Club Name and address.
Then fill out the other fields – you may want to use the club's phone number.
Click save when completed.
You will then see your new listing. Check that the marker on the map is in the correct place. If it's not you can click and drag it to the proper location.
Now when anyone searches for a Spin class near Minnetonka, MN they will find:
We know it is safe to keep both feet attached to the pedals and simply focus on one leg at a time, but is it safe, and should we unclip one foot to perform pedal stroke drills in our indoor cycling classes?
To stay on point I’m not going to discuss if and why 1-legged drills are effective, but rather limitations or concerns that should be considered when attempting them in our indoor cycling classes.
First, do outdoor cyclists perform 1-legged drills? Yes we do. They have been part of our training program, usually during the base training months (Dec-Mar) for as long as I can remember. Over the last 20 years I have spent countless hours in my basement riding my road bike on an indoor trainer. A considerable amount of time each week was devoted to 1-legged pedal drills with a goal of creating a smooth pedal stroke. So why wouldn’t we want to use this same training technique during an indoor cycling class?
1-legged drills can present a safety risk during an indoor cycling class for 2 reasons: (1) most indoor bikes use a fixed weighted flywheel and (2) it is difficult to maintain cycling form and proper biomechaincs.
As we know, the weighted flywheel on the indoor bike simulates the effects of inertia and momentum experienced when riding a real bike outdoors. Since the flywheel is “fixed” (the pedals can turn the wheel in both directions), it can apply forward pressure on the legs and joints once it picks up speed. When a rider pedals with both legs, often the weaker muscles of one leg (hamstrings and hip flexors) are counter-balanced by the stronger muscles of the other leg (glutes and quads) creating a smoother rotation. I’ve seen riders struggle in classes to maintain a smooth pedal stroke with both legs — remove 1 leg from the equation and their pedal stroke becomes very choppy. This happens because the weaker muscles cannot generate the same about of force as the stronger ones (flexors vs. extensors). However, due to the momentum created by the weighed flywheel, the pedals keep turning even though there is little to no force contribution for practically half the pedal stroke. In reality, half of the pedal stroke is not under the rider’s control. This can place a tremendous amount of force on not only the joints of the legs (hips, knees and ankles), but stress other stabilizing joints and muscles such as the back, shoulders and neck. 1-Legged drills are best performed on bikes that coast because the rider is forced to activate the muscles throughout the entire pedal stroke. As a result, it is usually VERY obvious which muscles are not contributing properly because the rider will experience “dead-air” and awkwardness often at the bottom and top of the stroke.
The other problem is “where do you put the leg that is not clipped in?” Back in the day….it was common for cyclists to have 2 milk crates. Maybe you’ve seen those plastic bins at the grocery store which hold four 1-gallon jugs of milk. As a kid growing up in Brooklyn NY, I remember the “milkman” placing one of these crates full of milk on the front steps of our house. Anyway, cyclists will place 1 crate on each side of their bike (locked into the indoor trainer) as close to the moving pedal as possible. To focus on one leg, we’d simply unclip and rest our foot on the crate. It was a perfect height to enable us to maintain our form and balance (BTW, 2 chairs will also work nicely). Unless everyone in your indoor class comes prepared with their own milk crates, riders are usually forced to do a number of things with their foot in order to pedal with one leg. They can try to dangle it in the air, prop it up on the center of the bike frame, reach way back and rest it on the back legs of the bike or even lift it up on top of the handlebars. I’ve tried them all but was not able to get my foot on the handlebars (stink'in hamstrings). Regardless of which leg position you can achieve, your pedal mechanics will be affected and you will place your joints and muscles at risk with little to no benefit. A number of years ago, an unstable rider was attempting to perform 1-legged drills with his leg suspended next to the bike. His foot wandered too close to the whirling pedal and he chipped his ankle bone (medial malleolus). The instructor of the class was overwhelmed with seemingly endless paperwork and scrutiny.
So from a health and fitness risk stratification standpoint, 1-legged drills (with one leg unclipped) should not be performed in an indoor class unless both the bikes have the ability to coast and riders are either wearing diamond-plate steel anklets or until clubs start equipping cycling studios with milk crates.
What a treat it was to learn we have a Sports Psychologist (and former professional bicycle racer) among our ICI/PRO members!
Meet Dr. KC Wilder
KC and I had an interesting conversation about motivating your students that was completely off topic from what we had intended to discuss. Oh, well. I guess I'll have to have her back again.
ICG Master Trainer Jim Karanas presents our latest Audio PROfile. Race-Day rides have been part of indoor cycling since it began. However, few instructors use the profile effectively. The Criterium is the most fun and simplest race to simulate in an indoor environment. Also, you don’t have to have raced a crit to cue this workout. It is, in my opinion, the easiest and most fun race-day workout to offer your students. Here is the PROfile .pdf to download and print.
Here's a fascinating video that may give you some perspective on what goes on during the opening laps of a crit 🙂 Watch the amount of power that's required to stay with this very competitive bunch of Pros and the jockeying that occurs… and then consider they will do this for 90 minutes! This video is one of twelve that you can find here.
Tom Scotto from Stage 5 Cycling joins me as the “pinch hitter” Master Instructor for this weeks Audio PROfile. I'm calling this a sort of Hybrid Audio PROfile/PRO Podcast as Tom goes into a lot of additional detail that you will enjoy learning. Here is the link to the companion .pdf
Here's your Spotify PRO/Playlist!Deezer. We have made every attempt to replicate the original playlist. In some instances the tracks specified were unavailable in Spotify. When necessary we have substituted individual songs of similar length and tried to maintain the Instructor's intent. [/private_PRO-Seasonal] [/private_PRO-Platinum]
Have you every purchased something that seemed really expensive at the time, but years later thought; “I'm really glad I bought these!”
I'm guessing that I bought these Pearl iZumi Lobster Gloves back around 1998. Now, 14 years later, I dug them out of the “Dad's Bike Stuff” box in the front closet, as Maxx and I prepared to tackle our first snow.
Global Warming hysteria was at it zenith during the late 90's here in Minnesota. We were experiencing very warm, near snow-less winters – perfect for Mountain Biking 🙂 “Warm” in the winter is a subjective term. It's still cold. My training buddy Eddy suggested I get a pair of these weird looking gloves after watching me ride one-handed (with the other stuffed in a jacket pocket) at some point. So I did.
I'll never forget chasing my kids around the house with them on, pretending that I was Lobster Man… OK, I guess you needed to be there.
I'm not doing much winter riding now that most mornings are 10°F – but these gloves continue to serve me during my second favorite form of cardiovascular winter exercise; snow shoveling!
Anyway, you can get your own pair here for $75.00 – it looks like they have made substantial improvements over what I bought in 98.
Maxx checking out my work. His jacket says; “BAH HUMBUG!
ICI/PRO Annual members can treat themselves (or finish up their Christmas shopping) while saving 40% here on Pearl's complete line of winter clothing + everything else they sell.
