by Jim Karanas | Jun 4, 2012 | Zone based Heart Rate Training
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
Everyone agrees that indoor cycling classes using heart rate are more effective and even more fun to teach. This post is not about which HR training principles to use or the best way to determine training zones. You or the facility at which you teach can decide those things.
This is about how to get your students to wear HRMs in the first place.
I’ve used HR-based training in all my classes since 1998. 100% of my students wear HRMs in every class. Instructors ask me how I achieved that.
Use HR-based training yourself.
You can’t convey the benefits of HR training unless you fully appreciate them. Once you adopt a specific training regimen, note your results so you recognize how the body is changing internally. My first awareness was on the rowing ergometer. (There weren’t many indoor cycling computers in 1998.) I was amazed at how my HR/power correlation improved with the use of periodized training.
If you don't prove to yourself the efficacy of HR training, you won’t present it to others with conviction.
Don’t Worry About Understanding Everything at First.
HR training science can get technical. You can use it and appreciate its benefits without understanding the science fully.
For instance, Polar offers Ownzone, a way of determining HR training zones based on Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV is not the easiest thing to explain. It's fascinating but takes a fair amount of study to understand fully unless you have lots of technical training. Still, Ownzone is an effective way to determine a student's HR training zones without a max-effort test.
One of the most interesting things about HR-based training is that it keeps evolving. Yes, there are way too many interpretations of the same information, but it's interesting to read and learn.
Perfect Your Pitch.
Sometimes I hear instructors ask if anyone wants to borrow or use a loaner HRM to try in class. Not surprisingly, the response is minimal. Your pitch is important. This is mine.
I never announce it. I walk over to a new student, hold up a HR strap and say, “Have you seen one of these before? No? This is a heart rate monitor. I want you to wear it today. It’s going to change your life.”
No one has ever refused. There’s no question in my mind that using a HRM will change his/her life. If you have that level of conviction, people will try it. They’re not paying for the loaner and have nothing to lose.
Carry Loaners.
I can't tell you how many of my HRMs have disappeared over the years. What's odd is that just as many HRMs come into my life as I lose. I no longer consider them an expense. If you want to teach with HR, you have to carry loaners. Get them on students at the start of every class.
You won't have enough for everyone and don’t need to. That's part of the fun. Carry three or four, plenty to get the class going. The others will want them next time. Then they’ll buy their own.
Cue Both Ways.
This is the clincher. It comes down to your cueing ability. You must make everyone feel part of the class but still demonstrate the efficacy of using HRMs.
Selective cues will make everyone see that the students using HRMs are actually getting a better workout than those who aren’t. It's extra work, but powerful. Example:
“Great job on that climb. Now spin your legs to recover, but not all the way. If you're wearing a HRM, I want you to drop your HR no more than 20 beats. Those of you without a HRM will not be able to do this as effectively, but you can still do it. Regain control of your breathing, but don’t feel as if you're cooling down. No shift in body temperature. This is only one of the reasons I want you to wear HRMs. They enable you to control the amount of recovery you allow yourself.”
Keep It Simple.
I was just talking about this with Team ICG® Master Trainer Chuck Cali. At ICG® Academy in SF, where we showcase Myride®+, we have many first-time cycling students. As we switch all of our classes to HR-based training, we have to be careful not to give too much information too quickly.
I call this Qualitative HR training. I don't talk about zones, threshold or HRV to start. I ask the students to watch their HR with respect to how they feel and what they’re doing. At what HR do you first start to breathe more consciously? Where’s your HR when you start to sweat? When you can't talk? When your muscles burn? When you’re cross-eyed and drooling?
Don't get rid of RPE. Simply get everyone to have FUN training with HR. There will be plenty of time later for numbers and metrics. And another post….
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by John | Dec 26, 2011 | Heart Zones USA, Zone based Heart Rate Training
Sally Edwards with Paul "Pinkhouse" Camerer
Here's a walking testament to the utter fallacy of (220 – your age) as a predictor of Maximum Heart Rate. Paul Pinkhouse Camerer is having his 93rd birthday today. To celebrate the occasion, Pinkhouse and a few of his friends will all train together at his home/cycling studio. During the training Pinkhouse will spend a large portion of the ride around 150 bpm – which is way above his age predicted maximum HR of 127bpm. Actually Paul has been cycling and participating in running races above his “Maximum HR” for years 🙂
Sally Edwards introduced me to Paul (Pinkhouse comes from the color of his home… which as you can guess is Pink) three years ago at a Heart Zones conference in Colorado. I recorded Podcast episode #18 with Paul while I was there, but many our our newer subscribers may not have heard it as it has dropped off the iTunes feed. Thinking it would be fun to republish it in celebration of Paul's 93rd birthday here it is again.
HAPPY BIRTYDAY PINKHOUSE!
[audio:https://indoorcycleinstructor.com.s3.amazonaws.com/018_Paul_Camerer.mp3]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
by John | Dec 9, 2011 | PRO Deal of the Week, Zone based Heart Rate Training
After his list, Santa checks his Blink
Santa Says; “It’s time you had a Blink Heart Rate Monitor of your own.”
Today’s PRO/Deal of the Week is the perfect Christmas gift for yourself, your family members or friends planning to start a work out program in 2012.
Sally Edwards says, “The joy of working out to blue, yellow or red cannot be understated,” “it takes the ‘work’ out of heart rate training, is simple to use and gives the user tremendous instant feedback.” A perfect compliment to any weight loss program.
This Blink records all time in zone, calories and works perfectly with the latest two threshold, three zone training system popularized by ZONING’s program in a Can. ZONING is a division of Heart Zones USA.
Click here today only, ZONING® is offering the Blink for $42.50
50% off the Retail price of $84.99. There are only 50 available at this price.
With your Blink heart rate monitor you also get instructions on how to perform the The ‘Can You Speak Comfortably’ Foster Threshold Field Test.
Known as the ‘Gold Standard of Field tests, this assessment will help you discover your (or your students) T1 & T2 thresholds to accurately set when the LED changes colors.
And, of course, ongoing support from ZONINGâ„¢
by John | Jul 12, 2011 | Latest News, Zone based Heart Rate Training
In a typical fitness conference “sponsorship”, Company A pays Event Promoter B a bunch of money to to be part of the event. That sounds good, but if you have been following us for any length of time you know that we don't always do what's “typical” here at ICI/PRO.
So when Chuck Cali from Zoning Fitness offered to become a sponsor of this year's conference I said; “only if your sponsorship will add value to the Instructors who attend!”
Chuck's response was “how about if we give the next 75 Instructors* who register a free $80.00 Blink Heart Rate Monitor?”
I love my Blink and see it as an excellent choice for the Club Athletes we teach each week. It's the perfect companion to the 2 Threshold / 3 Zone Heart Rate system we have been talking about.
So I said; “Chuck, we've got a deal!”
Click here to register today and be one of the 75 who will be sporting a new Blink in October.
You can find more info about the conference here.
* Of course all of you who have already registered will receive a blink as well 🙂
by John | Jun 21, 2011 | Zone based Heart Rate Training
Who's really in your class?
Do you look up at a room full of smiling, fit, self-directed, endurance athletes?
Or does your class more closely resemble the population where you live?
In Part 1 I shared survey results that showed that a 20 Minute Threshold Field Test isn't realistic (maybe practical would be a better word) for where most of us we teach – which is primarily large health clubs.
I also stated that;
It’s well documented that a 20 minute Threshold Field Test is effective in determining an Athlete’s T2 (Anaerobic/Lactate Threshold) or FTP (Functional Threshold Power).
Are we training real Athletes in our classes?
I now see that asking an additional question on the HR training survey regarding class makeup would have been helpful in getting a true understanding of class makeup. So please permit me to make this assumption based on personal experience of 15 years teaching (and attending classes) at small studios, large “Big Box” clubs and conversations with hundreds of Instructors; the majority of our students are what could be described as “Club Athletes” who attend class or workout 2-4 times a week. My observation is that a very small percentage <15% are true endurance athletes. Of course every class or club is different. Class format and the time of year has a large bearing on class composition. For example my 90 minute endurance classes in the winter are > 70% endurance athletes… but then that class is designed specifically for them.
The purpose of a 20 minute field test is to determine an accurate Threshold HR for the purpose of setting HR training zones. These HR zones will be used to structure training intensities for weeks or months in the future.
In an early post I talked about using your Heart Rate Monitor as a GPS instead of a Speedometer. I was trying to reinforce something that you already know; maintaining an effort at, or very close to, Threshold for any length of time is painful and difficult for anyone. Like you, Amy and I fall somewhere in that upper 15%. If we choose to, we could ride at a consistent RPE that we feel is our threshold for 20 minutes, for the purpose of determining our Threshold HR and be pretty close.
But what about the other 85% of the students in our classes? How many could maintain a true Threshold RPE over a 20 minute Threshold Field Test?
What happens to the accuracy of the test if your students are finding, over the course of the 20 minute test, a HR average that's somewhere in the middle of T1 & T2?
Fast forward a week, post field test.
All right class, You tell them, I want everyone to build their intensity to Threshold and we will keep it there for 4 minutes. Those students who made it to your Field Test last week are watching the numbers climb on their monitors to their newly determined Threshold HR. Except they find after a few minutes, they aren't really feeling the Threshold signals you are describing. Do they:
A. Ignore the physical clues (RPE) and go with the HR number you told them was their tested Threshold HR?
or
B. Ignore the Field Tested HR and instead push harder till they are feeling the physical Threshold clues you described?
As I see it:
Option A. Has them under training = missing out on potential fitness improvements.
and
Option B. Causes confusion and has some questioning why they took the test to begin with.
What's your experience?
Here's Part 3
by John | Jun 19, 2011 | Zone based Heart Rate Training
I am continually fascinated at the results of the Heart Rate Training Survey over 600 of you completed.
It's well documented that a 20 minute Threshold Field Test is effective in determining an Athlete's T2 (Anaerobic/Lactate Threshold) or FTP (Functional Threshold Power). In the past I've played the cheerleader for using 20 minute Threshold Field Tests in class…
Except for one problem… I can't offer them to my class where I teach… and based on what I'm seeing in the survey results, neither can (or do) most of you 🙁
Which makes sense. The majority of us teach at a large club and the option to schedule and conduct a special Threshold Field Test class really doesn't exist. I know from experience that trying to do something “special” is very difficult to get approval for, from management. Digging a little deeper into the survey shows me that of the 5.6% who report conducting a regularly scheduled Threshold Field Test, the majority teach at a small independent studios. Instructors at small facilities also report a much higher ability to effect changes in class formats and schedules.
Now contrast that with what looks to me as a very high percentage of us who teach with an emphasis on Heart Rate.
What this shows me is that there is a big discrepancy between our intent to help students train effectively with Heart Rate vs the realities of using a 20 Minute Threshold Field Test to help these students determine some Metabolic Marker they can use to accurately set their HR training zones.
Could you ever hear yourself saying this? Don't worry if you missed the Field Test last week Linda… we'll be having another one in six months 🙂
Some anonymous responses to the HR survey:
I personally hold Threshold test 2X year.
We do a threshold test twice a year. I include the zones when I teach and they follow The other instructors do not use it.
FTHR testing is done every 6-8 weeks and we throw in LT rides to give them a sense of what this feels like. They are told specifically, “if you haven't done the FTHR ride, please go off of the RPE scale of 1-10.” I qualify LT as a 5-6.
Wouldn't this be of more value to your students?
Every class I try to establish where LT/AT is, how it feels to be at, below, or above it, and how to move around them. Executed through a combination of speaking, cuing, and guiding them through it as the class goes on.
Here's part 2
