Over the past week, I've observed or participated in 11 Indoor Cycling classes, lead by Master Trainers and everyday Instructors. In the very first class I attended, by a popular MI, I found myself critiquing the quality of her amplified voice. It was terrible. I could hardly understand what she was saying and it really diminished what she was presenting. I'm sure that if she was aware of how poorly she sounded, she would have taken steps to correct the problem.
I'm super anal about the sound quality of my guests on the Podcast. I request demand that we use Skype when recording remotely. It's typically crystal clear and has the guest sounding like they're in the same room with me. I'll only accept using a phone line on very rare occasions.
So with all that in mind I made a point of critiquing every class I attended, listening for the following:
Can I clearly understand what's being said?
Was there a clear difference in volume between their speaking voice and the music?
I'm not going to call out anyone in specific, but in a number of the workshops and classes I had a difficult time understanding the cues given. None of the classes lead by men had the issue – only the women… and only those with naturally high voices. Now I realize that many of these classes were at a conference, with temporary sound systems, but that didn't appear to contribute to the difficulty understanding the presenters. I sat in on two team taught rides, where multiple presenters spoke (male and female) and it was only the female presenters who I had trouble understanding. I wanted to be sure it wasn't just me, so each time I had trouble hearing I asked other's in the class. In each instance they confirmed the issue.
The importance of hearing it for yourself.
I've encouraged you to record your class, so you can hear firsthand what your class hears. We devoted an entire podcast to the subject that featured communication expert Alexa Fischer.
You maybe surprised by what you hear.
I recorded this short sample a few months ago for another Instructor. She cringed when she heard it and instantly understood that she needed to make some major changes, if she wanted her class to understand what she was cuing. As it was, you barely understand anything she said 🙁
So, what are potential solutions?
#1 Get off your bike. When was the last time you walked to the middle of the room while you're teaching? If you've been reluctant to do this, here's another reason to hop off and work the room; you'll hear your amplified voice as your class hears it. If you don't like what you hear, then make some changes and run back out to see if it's improved.
NOTE: I don't feel you can depend on your class to give you accurate feedback. If you ask “how do I sound?” they don't have anything to compare to and will typically say “great” so they don't hurt your feelings. Better to hear for yourself.
#2Deliver from your lower register. Women (and men) with high-pitched voices need to learn to deliver their voice from their diaphragm. The feeling should be that you're breathing out while speaking, not like holding your breath.
#3 S l o w d o w n y o u r s p e e c h… Slow down and breath = your words will come across much better. If you ever feel short of breath while teaching, your vocal quality is probably suffering. The easiest fix for this is just stop talking until or limit your cues to short sentences.
#4 Consider purchasing a different microphone. I don't have specific knowledge about what mics work best with what voice type, but I do know that every mic is different and you may improve your delivery with a different mic. Would this make for an interesting Podcast?
Cameron Chinatti with Stages Indoor Cycling has an interesting webinar series going that she calls “The 7 Layer Cue Cake”.
Calling all indoor cycling instructors: It's time to get cookin'! If you spend countless hours slaving away over your playlists, substantial time concocting the perfect class plan and you still feel at a loss for the right words, then this webinar series is for you! Join CameronChinatti, Director of Education for Stages Indoor Cycling for this 7-part webinar series dedicated entirely to the art and science of meaningful cuing.
You can learn more and register for the other live presentations here.
Download the first presentation here > Right Click > Save As. Or click the link and it should open in a player. It's a big video file so you'll need to wait for it 🙂
This ride is from Gene Nacey!! – “This week’s episode of The Weekly Ride was an amazing pleasure for me; I was able to take, and record, Gene Nacey delivering this weeks ride, which he authored.
As an instructor, I find that I have very little time to get out an take classes that I am not delivering. But when I can break free for a class, it is a pleasure. As many of you may know, Gene and I have been friends, and business associates, for years now, and getting to take one of his classes is a rare treat as when we are together at a studio, we are usually working.
This class was an interval based ride design, and boy was it hard. As always, use your discretion when cueing intensity and tension. Gene delivered this ride using Keiser Bikes, so you will hear him refer to “gears” but you can certainly cue tension without the gears you need to.
Remember, you can get the full PDF of the ride choreography, the Apple Music and Spotify playlists, and the downloadable file to put all of the cues into MyFitnessDJ, as well as the link to purchase the class for iClass Builder at indoorcycleinstructor.com. There is no other monthly service out there that does as much for you, the instructor.
I hope you enjoy this ride as much as I enjoyed riding and recording it.” Joey
ICI/PRO Podcast host Joey Stabile talks with Suhail Maqsood of the Wheel House in San Francisco and John Bogosian of Zingfit about the importance of keeping your customers.
This was a great conversation, and many of us overlook the most valuable asset that we have in our businesses, our customers. Suhail and I have a great talk about the importance of the customers and what we can do to increase their experience with our club and how we can safeguard their privacy while retaining our branding.
You can learn more about The Wheel House here at their website.
You can learn more about Zingfit here at their website.
Over the last 8 years, I’ve come across a number of indoor cycling studios that don’t provide a microphone for the instructor. Albeit, these studios are generally small (but not all were) and all of the instructors appeared confident that a microphone wasn’t needed. “My voice really projects” was the common response I got from instructors. I dare say that not one of the classes I’ve seen taught without a microphone (near 100 from around the country) was acceptable. Now I’m not saying the instructors were not good. Many were excellent. However, the absence of a microphone stole their effectiveness as an instructor and robbed the riders of a much better experience.
I Don’t Feel No Music!
One of the ways instructors can compensate from lack of vocal support is to lower the volume of the music. Makes sense. However, music is a major motivator and an excellent tool when training indoors and out. Without a microphone, the music was so weak that any emotional component was lost. Although I am biased on this point (being a musician), many research studies have been conducted that prove the body’s response to pulse, volume and emotion of music. This is the reason we spend so much time on our playlists. The music is an inseparable part of the workout.
The Angry Instructor
If the music volume is appropriate, then most-often the instructor is simply yelling at the class the entire time. I’ve even seen instructors try to smile the entire time (while they yelled). This just made them look mad (not as in angry). Even with the yelling, which is NOT projecting by the way, I could still barely make out what they were saying. Forget giving any audible instruction, they were just short guttural tones “SAANN…….SIIAA……SAANN…..SIIAA!” This was the instruction given for 8 MINUTES of jumps. Of course it didn’t help that I don’t do jumps (not in the way they have been traditionally taught) which made all of the harsh yelling and ineffective movement all the more aggravating.
Effective Vocal Inflection
It is not just that we need to be heard clearly, our voice is an instructional tool that guides riders through the physical and emotional profile of the class. Yelling or even speaking at the same volume and/or tone for the entire class is not only boring, eventually riders will tune you out. We need to build a vocabulary (pun sort of intended) of vocal volume, emotion and even cadence (the speed and rhythm at which we speak) that keeps riders engaged and matches the intensity, focus and characteristics of our class. You should have a vocal inflection for educating, recovering, steady-state work, hard efforts and the like. I honestly think more instructors have the ability to do this, but they are either hindered by lack of sound reinforcement of they’ve never been taught properly how to mix their voice and the music.
We Want to KEEP Teaching
One of the major reasons I was distracted watching these instructors unknowingly strain to deliver their class, was the potential vocal damage they were causing. As a drummer, I didn’t experience much of the vocal issues personally, but have watched a good many singers in my bands suffer. They experienced vocal nodules, polyps, cysts (these are all lesions or bumps on the vocal folds), and even vocal fold hemorrhage (blood vessels on the surface of the vocal fold ruptures and bleeds). As indoor cycling instructors (microphone or not), we may be at a greater risk due to a lack of vocal training, high physical exertion while teaching, temperatures and improper breathing (I’ll talk about this more in another post).
Dr. Lee M. Akst, director of the John Hopkins Voice Center, said “Red flags for an over-used voice are frequent hoarseness, a sense of strain while talking, or discomfort while speaking. Chronic hoarseness is an occupational hazard not just for singers, but for coaches, teachers, broadcast journalists, clergy, attorneys and other people who use their voices a lot as part of their professional responsibilities.” Some of his suggestions for protecting your voice: drink plenty of water, don’t overuse your voice (like talking too much on a cell phone), don’t smoke, pay attention to how your voices feels and sounds so you know when it needs time to recovery AND use a microphone.
We do what we do because we love it. We love the fitness, the teaching and seeing people's lives change for the better because of what we give. Let’s ensure we can keep giving buy protecting one of our needed assets — our voice.
I beg you…PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE…if you do not teach with a microphone, talk to your facility about obtaining the proper sound equipment. It's not about being loud(er), it is about being safe and professional.
TIP: Place a recording device somewhere in your class and listen back to what your riders are hearing and pay attention to how your voice sounds. Our voice and ability to teach and coach is such an important part of our effectiveness as instructors. Let’s continue to sharpen our skills together.
