This is cool! Professional cyclist Alex Howes taught a class at the Peloton Cycle studio in Manhattan. This article explains how Alex taught what was only his second Indoor Cycling class. My guess is that he doesn't have a IC cert – not that it matters.[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']
He's a World Tour rider for Team Garmin Sharp, which means he races in the big international tours in Europe. This year, he placed third in the professional national road race championships in the US, and won a stage of the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado. In 2014 he finished the Tour de France, and last year, he completed the Vuelta a España.
Wednesday, he became a temporary spin[sic] instructor at the Peloton Cycle studio in Manhattan. It was his first time teaching a class and only his second time on a spin[sic] bike. You can usually find him doing six-hour training rides in Boulder, Colorado or his European base in Spain. He liked it though.
The author's description for the image above jumped out at me; We did a lot of standing work with high cadence, which is like running on a bike.
Is it just me, or were you also surprised that a Professional Cyclist would include high cadence out of the saddle work as part of a class he lead? I really wish I had known about this class because I was in NYC at the time. So even though I wasn't there, I am willing to formulate a hypothesis about why Alex chose to include this in his class: The stability of an indoor cycle creates a unique opportunity to train in a way that he felt would help everyone in his class – including himself. No one had told him that standing (a lot) with a high cadence (which by default can only be with light resistance) is wrong/contraindicated/inefficient/dangerous/etc… IMO Alex added these drills because they felt natural to him 🙂
Here's a short video showing his form.
This post got a strong reaction over on Facebook > It defies explanation how anyone could find fault with a Professional Cyclist guest teaching a cycling class… but they do. Incredible :([/wlm_private]
Image from http://www.acefitness.org/prosource/71/
I just read a press release and accompanying article from the ACE – The American Console on Exercise PRO SOURCE magazine about their study to gauge the effectiveness of High Intensity Training (HIT).
“It seems like everything high-intensity is now called Tabata Training,” says John Porcari, Ph.D., head of the Clinical Exercise Physiology Program at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. “The original Tabata study was done on a bicycle, but people are now doing that 20-second/10-second format with resistance training, plyometrics, calisthenics…with almost anything.”
Because of all of this recent interest in Tabata-style workouts, the American Council on Exercise enlisted Porcari and his research team to gauge just how effective a Tabata-style workout really is.
THE BOTTOM LINE
“The great thing about Tabata is it’s a short workout–only 20 minutes–and it incorporates your total body, so it’s working every muscle group that you possibly can,” says Embert, referring specifically to the Tabata-style workout she designed.
But what to do during the remainder of your 60 minute class?
There was a trainer at Life Time who told me years ago something I've never forgotten; First give them (your class) what they WANT… and then give them what they NEED.
The WANT he was referring to are very intense/anaerobic intervals. There's no secret sauce IMO at SoulCycle > they're just teaching very intense classes because they know that's what people WANT.
The NEED is for solid aerobic training. Not necessarily base building, but solid work below threshold HR / FTP.
Instructor Kathy Palkaninec was a past winner of our profile contest and her profile follows a similar WANT & NEED format.
You may want to announce your intentions to crush them (WANT) during a 20 minute Tabata round that will start fifteen minutes into class. Don't worry about telling them what follows. Keep everyone focused on doing their best effort during the Tabatas.
Give everyone a full 5 minutes or more of complete recovery. It's during this time that I talk about the “Golden Hour” and how most of us have 90 minutes where we can really perform well, before fatigue really limits our performance. The Golden Hour doesn't begin for most of us until ~30 minutes in. At the end of the recovery we're only @ the 40 minute mark of a 60 minute class and I explain how we're only 10 minutes into our Golden Hour – just now ready to perform. It's here where you can coach them through a 10 or more minute sub-threshold effort (NEED) to conclude the class. Here's where you can put that stage button to work if you have one – encourage everyone to ramp up to a big number, Stage Button, now maintain it by keeping your instantaneous wattage at or above the average 🙂
I have a friend, a very accomplished cyclist, who fancies himself a Ferrari. To look at Eddy you'd have to agree; he's long, lean and very sharp looking. But to ride with him may have you thinking more Peterbilt, than Ferrari. You see my friend is very strong and rides with a slow, powerful cadence. Many who ride with him remark; “the guy never shifts… he did the whole ride in one big gear.”
I'm finally continuing with this series, comparing the athletes in your class with the engine in their cars.
Let's explore the difference between small displacement > High RPM engines found in High Performance Sports cars and the large displacement > low RPM engines found in a Semi Tractor- Trailer or Lorie you see running down the highway. Then see if we can draw a a few correlations between them that would be interesting to the Gear Heads in your class… after all, if your class is anything like mine, you're beginning to see more men, now that it's getting cold outside.[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 F430 Ferrari is an incredible car. It will go zero to 60 in 4 seconds, a top speed of 200MPH and you can get one of your own for only $200,000 US. What moves this 3,200lb rocket, when you push on the “fly by wire” accelerator pedal, is a 4.3 liter gasoline engine that develops 483 horse power – once it is spinning at the maximum of 8,500 RPM.
A conservative choice for an engine in your new Peterbilt truck is a Cummins ISX15 diesel engine. This engine makes 485 horse power while turning a leisurely 2,200 RPM
So the F430 and the Peterbilt both have essentially the same horsepower (483 vs. 485) available to the driver.
What's the difference? Isn't Power… Power?
TORQUE
The Cummins engine creates 1,850 Ft Lbs of Torque, over 5 times that of the F430's puny 343 Ft Lbs, while only turning 1/4 the RPM. The Peterbilt needs all this Torque to move the combined tractor and trailer weight of a 50,000lbs up over a 6% grade. To create that Torque the Cummin's engine is massive (weighing over 3,000lbs – about the same as the whole F430) with huge pistons that are (you guessed it) about 4 times as large in diameter!
Torque in an engine is created by the force of combustion acting on the surface area of the piston. While there's a lot of other physics that go into the creation of Power, I'm reminded of an old racer's adage that goes something like; There's no replacement for displacement.
What's true in engines is true in humans… with all other things equal; bigger muscles can create bigger forces = more Torque. But Torque doesn't get you up the mountain – that's Power. So of two women of equal weight, the one with the biggest legs doesn't get to the top first.
The winner to the summit will be the one who can continuously make the most Power, for the duration of the climb.
My buddy Eddy, like most endurance athletes, is a student of himself. Over 10's of thousands of miles, he's learned exactly where his body makes the most Power, the most efficiently. In his case, he understands that his very strong legs work best while powering through at what many would say is too slow a cadence.
Fans of the Tour de France may remember the climbing battles between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich – where the contrast between Lance's 90+ RPM and Jan's 60ish RPM had them climbing at the same speed = they (I'm assuming they have similar body weight) made the same amount of Power. The same Power that is, until Lance turned, looked, then accelerated to 100 RPM and dropped Jan due to his superior Volumetric Efficiency – ability of an engine to process Oxygen, by efficiently moving air through itself.
After all Lance Armstrong is truly a Ferrari – but that's a subject for another post.
A fun class you can offer (if you teach with Power/Watts) is to create a profile that includes a series of laddered efforts of increasing cadences – while maintaining a set percentage of FTP or some baseline wattage. The purpose of the class is to help each student find the RPM range where they are the most efficient, i.e are they a Ferrari or a Peterbilt?
Amy and I experience this every time we ride our Tandem. In His, Hers and Ours Audio PROfile we explore how different cadences can be used to create the same amount of Power, or ground speed, which is essentially the same thing.
You may choose to use only RPE or you could tie each step to a HR. Maybe you cue wattage as a multiple of body weight; Now everyone find their One Watt Per Lb wattage at 70 RPM. Now let's add 10 RPM and reduce resistance to stay at that wattage… after 3 minutes ask, what's the result? Do you feel like you are working harder? HR higher or lower?
This might be a fun exercise to use a few weeks ahead of an FTP assessment – where we first teach everyone their Natural Cadence (best efficiency) and then have them ride at that RPM during their assessment.
Sounds like a question for Cameron Chinatti – stay tuned…[/wlm_private]
If you're teaching with power, there's a good chance you'll have a participant ask you this simple question; how many watts should I be making when I'm working at my threshold? Same goes for any new studio or one that is upgrading to indoor Cycles with power/watts. You will be asked for a number from many of your riders. The reason is pretty simple, many people naturally want to know how they compare.
There are two schools of thought on if, or how, you should answer this question:
There's the “Don't give them a number – ever” school that believes whatever you tell them could be wrong and potentially upsetting. You don't want to demoralize riders, or hurt their feelings, especially with a new rider with no/limited fitness, by suggesting anything. The recommendation is to respond with a question; how many watts did you see today? Then respond positively to any response.
Then the “give them something to work with” approach. My preference is to start with the suggestion of one watt per pound or a little bit over 2 watts per Kg.
They're adults = tell them the truth… they can handle it.
Have you ever had someone lie to or mislead you, under the pretense that they didn't want to hurt your feelings? Did it make you feel valued and respected? If you have experienced a situation where you weren't told the truth, did you feel you would have acted differently, if you had been given accurate information?
Imagine for a moment you're a personal trainer and your client asks you this question; what percentage of body fat should I have? A common question I'm sure. Is the correct response; “what is your body fat percentage now?” And then to positively affirm what ever answer they give? I don't think so… do you? There are established ranges for body fat %, published by credible fitness authorities like ACE. Here's their chart.
Let's see where you fall on this chart…
If your female client told you their body fat is 34% – would you smile and say; “that's great!” ? Of course not. You would probably suggest a diet and exercise program directed toward reducing their fat percentage down, with a goal to get into the average range. The person standing in front of you may not like hearing that they're obese, but don't they need to learn the truth so they can decide to do the work needed to change their body composition?
What about running a 5k? Or bowling for that matter? They both have metrics that define a reasonably achievable level of proficiency for an able-bodied person. Would it be wrong to suggest a goal time of 36 minutes (12 minute mile) for a 5K or 120 pin score in a bowling game?
Teaching with power for two years has me in the “give them something to work” with camp. And that something is a goal of one watt per pound of body weight*. I've asked multiple dozens of riders; “are you close to your body weight in watts?” Are they all there? No, but it's been very few. I'll bet if you were to privately poll your regulars, at the end of a 3-4 minute sustainable threshold effort, you would hear wattage #s around body weight.
At the end of the PST (Personal Spinning Threshold) assessment I did at WSSC, MI Janet Toussaint allowed me to ask the class this exact question. The majority agreed that their PST was at or above their body weight. Now a room full of fit Instructors may not be a representative sample, but it reaffirmed my experiences.
If you'd like to learn more about this concept – listen to this podcast where I first learned about it.
*I've heard other Instructors suggest using lean / goal body weight, which would reduce the number slightly. This calculator provided by ACE might be helpful.
Better late than never they say. It certainly applies to this season's Performance Cycle classes – now we're in full swing after some initial confusion that came from a sudden change on GFDH's.
We kicked off this past Sunday with an assessment to find the wattage numbers we will be using going forward. I like to use very simple terminology that minimises any mathematical computations.
… Instead I base my Life Time Performance Cycle classes on two numbers; PTP (Personal Threshold Power) and JRAP (Just Riding Along Power — AKA > Base Watts > VT1 / First Ventilatory Threshold Power). From these two rider identified threshold wattages, we can construct three meaningful power Zones;
Recover zone — watts below JRAP
Perform zone — watts between JRAP and PTP
Improve zone — watts above PTP
Today we added one more wattage number – their 20 minute FTP watts. As you can guess, riders should have a lower 20 min average than a 3-4 minute PTP / Best Effort and be above JRAP / Base Watts.
Wait John, you just said you only use the two thresholds in class.
What's the point of adding a third number?
Adding the third point of reference helps you draw a straighter line. At least that's what my high school drafting teacher taught me. It's much easier to draw between two distant points, if you add one in the middle = it helps you understand if you're on the right path between the two known points!
[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']
The process of sustaining a 20 minute effort is helpful to many riders – it validates and reinforces the two threshold numbers and confirms that people are understanding my cuing.
Before/during and after these twenty minute efforts I tell everyone; this effort should fall between the two thresholds. Which you would think I shouldn't even have to mention… until you hear the confusion I heard after the effort was completed:
I really surprised myself – my 20 min watts was the same as my 3 minute level!
There must be something wrong with me – I couldn't sustain my base watts for the whole ride 🙁
Teachable moments here
In the first example; my 20 min watts was the same as my 3 minute level! I was able to ask him; “what does that say about your 3 minute effort?” He understood before I completed my sentence; “I'm not working hard enough!”
The women who told me I couldn't sustain my base watts for the whole ride also had a revelation and asked me; “Do you think I'm working too hard at my base level?” I didn't even need to answer her.
Do you now see the value of adding that third number?
A continuous state of observation
I asked my class on Sunday; how many of you are on a specific training plan? None. Not a single hand went up. This is very typical for my very diverse group of middle age men and women. Yes most ride outside – but their objectives aren't structured beyond not rolling over and hitting the snooze button. They come to my Performance Cycle class to get a nice combination of intensity and endurance work, in a fun group.
My object in this class is that everyone learn from observing their performance, make adjustments and observe again. Over time they learn exactly where they need be. When it's time to work hard – they WORK HARD and when they should work easy – it really is easy.
Make sense?
Here's my playlist –
I'll get the rest of the profile up later in the week if you want to try this in your class.
No more hunting for new music or counting out cues to develop your ride profile. Here is your ready to ride profile for a fully choreographed ride, that can be displayed from your phone, or printed out onto cue cards for your class. This ride is timed out, down to the second, to make your life as easy as possible!
