That would be your FTP looking back at you… catch him if you can.
Now that I'm an official Stages Indoor Cycling Master Educator, I figured I needed to create an Audio Profile so you can hear how I teach one of my Power classes. My profile is “Racing Your FTP”.
The goal is very simple; beat your FTP or “Threshold Check” numbers on every set. The ride will consist of two warm up songs, a “Threshold Check”, and three efforts of around 12, 18 and 9 minutes with a 1 minute recoveries after each interval.
I love mixing my class music and I've provide you with the MP3 below. I have also included an actual recording of me coaching this complete class. I suggest riding to this class by yourself, to experience exactly how I present this profile and you'll have a better idea of where & what I'm cuing during the class.
[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']
Enjoy and please let me know how it works for you as a comment below.
Have you ever met someone and liked them instantly? You can't explain why but you immediately felt an emotional bond. I'm not talking about sexual attraction, but rather a genuine and wholesome feeling of fondness and respect towards this person.
In a job interview, you are more likely to be hired if the interviewer connects with you as a person. In a business situation, you are more likely to get your foot in the door and seal the deal if the client connects with you as a person. As a cycling instructor, you are more likely to have students follow you to the ends of the earth and never dream of skipping a class if they connect with you on this personal level!
Although your technical skills may be outstanding, if class size has dwindled it may be time to develop some love-ability skills! The qualities of a lovable instructor can actually be cultivated with these simple tips. (more…)
I love getting emails like this and wanted to share it with you!
Hi John,
I just wanted to say “hi” and also a big “thank you”. I teach cycle classes in Melbourne, Australia. I was looking at some inspiration for my Cycle classes and found myself totally hooked to your podcasts, which opened a whole new world to me. I've been teaching cycle classes as a part time job. I also teach other classes (Les Mills Bodypump/Combat and boxing). I lost my full time job a few weeks ago and group fitness classes have been my daily job since. I have to say it's been quite a challenge to keep all the workout fresh but most of all to keep up the passion, enthusiasm and fun about teaching classes. I had moments of self doubt whereby I thought I wasn't made for this industry.
I find it very inspiring to listen to all your high profile athletes/master instructor guests talking about their experience and passion about indoor cycling, how they got to indoor cycling and what make them so unique. I have to say having knowledge of this could be intimidating for someone like me who's just a part-time cycle instructor teaching 2 hrs cycling classes a week but at the same time, everyone comes from different backgrounds and that's what make a class experience unique at the end of the day. I guess that's what I'm taking with me before teaching a class.
Our Cycling Studio Owners will want to check this out ASAP…
For years we've promoted Working Fitness Vacations – where you, the Instructor, teache a few fitness classes in exchange for a very low cost, Caribbean vacation. Hundreds of Instructors have followed our recommendations and have really enjoyed their all inclusive vacations.
Now there's TripTribe.com. They specialize in assisting fitness professionals who want to take a group of clients (your tribe) on a fitness retreat. For leading these trips you, the Instructor, will be paid as the Trip Tribe Ambassador!
To learn the actual scoop on these trips, I asked the marketing representative at Trip Tribe if she'd connect me with an Ambassador that I could interview…
Coach Kelly McCormack owns Club Inhale Exhale in Billerica, Massachusetts. This past May she traveled with a group of her clients to a ranch in the mountains of Costa Rica. It sounds like everyone had a great time and best of all, the check TripTribe.com sent her at the conclusion of the trip paid all of her expenses🙂
Listen to my interview with Kelly to learn if this would be something you could do with your tribe.
TripTribe.com offers dozens of exotic locations across the world, in a wide range of pricing, including;
Go here and create a free profile. Spend some time working with their retreat planning wizard to get an understanding of the possibilities. Then I'd encourage you to call and discuss your ideas for a group trip with one of their advisors.
Hi John,
I hear you talk about your ninety minute endurance class and I would like to work up to a 90 minute class at our gym. Could you give me the details of how your class is structured for the 90 minutes? I have done some steady state rides in my class but this has been a difficult concept for my group to accept as some of them still feel that you have to “cough up a lung” to get a workout. Thanks for all that you do.
Teaching 90 minute Endurance classes can be tough for many Instructors, dare I say impossible for those of you who don't understand what I'm calling an “Endurance State of Mind” (with apologies to Billy Joel).
So you have some background, I've been teaching winter endurance classes since 1999. My Instructor job with Life Time Fitness resulted from one of my students (who was also a Lifetime member) complaining to the department head about the lack of “cycling specific” classes offered at their Athletic Level clubs. His recommendation lead to my 90 minute Sunday endurance class being the first regularly scheduled class of it's type. Along they way I've developed a class that seems to play well to those who desire this type of class.
NOTE: My class typically transitions to a full 2 hours in mid March. This year we will be starting March 11th – feel free to join us if you're in Minneapolis some weekend 🙂
So, what do I mean by an Endurance State of Mind?
Endurance is all about being able to endure something over time – and it's something you experience independently from others.
I can endure something along with you… but I can't endure something for you – that's for you alone to experience.
I talk frequently in class about the four components of Endurance:
Muscular Endurance
Cardiovascular Endurance
Saddle Endurance – we spend a long time seated
Mental Endurance
In a normal class your students are conditioned to look to you for direction, for the full time of the class. This isn't the case in my endurance classes; I'm trying to remove as much of me as possible from the class and teach everyone to look to themselves for direction, focus and motivation = Mental Endurance. It's very normal to find me riding in with the class and I may not speak for long periods of time, after laying out the basic profile. I see my role as creating the Place where we are all riding virtually. I find it helps to use structured video that includes a terrain profile.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still offering encouragement and cuing, it's just that it comes from a “we're in this together” rather than the “do this…now do this” typical teaching mode many of us follow in a normal class.
Here's where this maybe difficult for you – having an Endurance Frame of Mind requires you to trust in the capabilities of your students…. and then let them run with it. By capability I mean viewing every student as a self-directed endurance athlete. I actually tell them; I came here this morning believing each of you has the capability to successfully complete this class… now it's up to you to show that I was wrong.
How can you tell if you do or don't believe your students are capable? So many of us have spent our Instructing careers feeling as if we need to direct every minute of the class; every surge, hill, jump and recovery, or our class will become bored or lost.
Could you give them some short (yet specific) instructions and then let them do their own thing? Or create a place for them to be accountable for the time they are spending in your class… and then get out of their way?
Try this sometime: Lay out your plan in the introduction and explain that today everyone is doing what they feel they need. Then find a bike in the middle of the room, keep your cuing/coaching to the absolute minimum – and ride 🙂
Myth: Rider Setup / Bike Fit should be done before class.
Common sense says that the best time to help someone with their bike setup would be before class. After all, this new student has just walked in and they have 45 – 60 minutes in the saddle ahead of them.
So pre-class would be the best time, right?
Well… no, it probably isn't. And when you think about it for a few minutes, I'll bet you'll agree.
I got this myth from our local bike fit guru Chris Balser, who's actually known as The Bike Fit Guru.
4. Saddle Height is not static. To demonstrate, bend forward and try to touch the floor. Do it again. Try repeating the exercise when it is cold, hot, at the end of a hard ride, before an easy ride, etc. It will never be identical because our activities and climate are always changing. Remember this when prescribed the “magic number”.
The point I think Chris is making here is that there are a bunch of external factors that can influence setting a rider's saddle height properly… the most important being the temperature.
Living here in the “Frozen North” we face the issue of “shrinkage” when we're cold – no, not that shrinkage silly 🙂 I'm talking about how your muscles and connective tend to shorten/tighten when they are cold. One of the worst feelings imaginable is how your back tenses up after climbing into a car, when it's been cooling all day in a 10° parking lot. You're forced bolt upright, with your back muscles near spasm and you can't bend forward to save to save your soul. Thank heavens for heated seats!
The opposite occurs when we are warm. We relax. Our muscles loosen and can extent completely. Is this beginning to make sense to you?
It's only after a thorough warm-up can a leg (or legs) comfortably extend. And proper saddle height can only be set with full extension.
So wouldn't it make more sense to check/adjust participants at the end of class?
When I rode with the top level cycling team here in Minneapolis, it wasn't uncommon for one to the club leaders to ride by and offer; “You need to raise your saddle 2 millimeters”. So I would. Except I can remember thinking the next morning when I went off on a training ride; “that can't be right… my seat is too high”, as I would feel the pulling in the back of my knee with each revolution. But then it would go away, or I forgot about it. Either way, once I was warm and could fully extend, my saddle height was exactly where it belonged.
Outdoor riding tip in cool/cold weather: If you leave home and don't feel slightly chilled for the first mile or two (or a slight pull in the back of your knee), you're wearing too many clothes – or your saddle's too low… or both.
But what about a new person to class?
I say get them close, but don't forget about them at the end of class. You could discuss this during your into/warm-up and then remind everyone during the transition/cool-down that you will be available post class to assess everyone's warm position.
I'm guessing you'll get more than a few takers – because I can guarantee that they've never heard this before.
