“Hello… My name is Karen and I stepped out of the box last year. I am also the self proclaimed spokesperson for KEEPING IT FUNâ„¢ Indoor Cycling. I’m committed to helping other indoor cycling instructors who aren't afraid to approach indoor cycling differently.”
I wrote it a little over a year ago.
I wrote it after making the commitment to add variety into my own studio's Indoor Cycling program.
I wrote it because in order for me to continue to transform lives through Indoor Cycling I recognized that my program needed to evolve.
If you are an Indoor Cycling studio owner/manager the brutal truth is… maintaining the integrity of the road may be the demise of your studio/program.
Soon after I opened my studio in November of 2012, I realized this NOT SO FUN fact.
So, I took an honest inventory of what our studio offers, what our customer wants, and what future projections were for the Indoor Cycling industry. I listened to our customers. I observed what classes they gravitated to and away from. I asked them what they found FUN.
I took into account my personal evolution as a GroupEx instructor, my observations of the Indoor Cycling industry, as well as input from other instructors and studio owners. And then … I charted my Indoor Cycling course and set sail by following my heart. I stayed true to my WHY. I honored both my vision and our Mission Statement of creating the ultimate Indoor Cycling customer experience. I added variety to our schedule.
In addition to traditional Indoor Cycling classes, our studio also offers
CB2 Rhythm
CB2 TotalBody
CB2 Performance IQ
CB2 Rhythm & TotalBody and
CB2 Revelation Revolution Christian Indoor Cycling … all of which we did not offer when we opened. It wasn't easy … but we did it … and it was worth it!
Is offering variety the key to success for future Indoor Cycling studios? ABSOLUTELY NOT
The key is recognizing that the Indoor Cycling industry is evolving and will continue to evolve.
Only you can figure out where you and your studio/program fit in. I suggest you start by revisiting your WHY.
Make decisions that maintain the integrity of your brand mission (which I hope you have) and honor your brand vision (which I also hope you have). Talk to your customers and look at it through their eyes. Look at it through the eyes of customers that ARE NOT customers. Talk to your peers. Ask for help.
Regardless of the path you choose… BELIEVE in it and be ALL IN
Words of Wisdom From An Outdoor & Indoor Cyclist “People need to realize clients have different goals, something your team is exceptionally respectful of. Those who say dance has no room in spin* need to check why they are in the business in my opinion. I love cycling, fitness and helping people improve and grow. I know that may violate an ideal that orbits the bottom line comes first mindset, but it is how I feel. If you want to have limited appeal to a small clientele offer nothing but high powered, intimidating classes that serve Tour de France, Ironman Kona specialists, otherwise open your mind and look at he every day folks that are interested in mixing it up and developing fitness via different methodologies.
I'm admittedly novice in your world and likely idealistic to a fault, but I have trouble dealing with folks that are close minded, dismissive and risk averse. Try things live and learn!” Phil
* “spin” has not been identified as Spin® to maintain the integrity of the customer's own words.
Click below to see (clearly amateur) video of Phil riding in a CB2 class taught for the purpose of media photos. The testimonial after class is unplanned and a beautiful testament to different being a good thing. How do you feel about Phil's testimonial?
As a training tool – running a PTP test/assessment is invaluable!
We had some excellent questions from Studio Owners this past weekend during our Full Psycle/PRO PIQ workshop. Paul Harmeling addressed these two related questions during the Q&A – I wanted to offer my thoughts on it here:
When, or how often, should we be using using the PTP (Personal Threshold Power) mode screen?
What exactly should we have our riders doing, during the PTP (Calc) test/assessment?
First, for those currently not using a Display System in your studio, let me explain what we're talking about. NOTE: I'll focus on Performance IQ because I know it much better – all of this has similar application with Spivi.
On a related note, I learned a little known trick that could potentially save a new studio enough money to pay for PIQ or Spivi – contact me if you're interested in learning more.
The PTP (Personal Threshold Power) mode screen in PIQ offers a quick (just three minutes) and simple tool to give your riders an approximate understanding of their maximum sustainable power wattage. Then through the wonders of technology, PIQ creates 5 power zones and displays them as different colors. The system calculates PTP as 90% of the highest sustainable power each rider can sustain for the length of the three minute test.
Is PTP as accurate as a 20 Threshold assessment? It doesn't matter to ~98.5% of your riders. What is important is that PTP answers the question that I've heard over and over the past 3 years I've been teaching with power: how hard should I be working… when you ask me to work hard?
So on to the questions:
When, or how often, should we be using using the PTP (Personal Threshold Power) mode screen?
Paul and I are in agreement here – we both feel you should be including PTP in most, if not all classes. There are of course exceptions. You may have a teams challenge scheduled or focus on a class that's directed toward handicapping everyone based on watts/pound.
What exactly should we have our riders doing, during the PTP (Calc) test/assessment?
Here's where Paul and I diverge in our thinking. I see this as a time for a focused effort in the saddle with a consistent cadence, where Paul was saying (and he demonstrated during the Master Class) that he's open to varying position and/or cadence. So who's right? I feel we both are 🙂
You see we each teach very different classes. Mine are typically focused efforts in the saddle = how I would run my PTP tests. Paul's classes are much more frenetic, with frequent changes = that's how he conducts his PTP segments.
Here's mine:
Running a PTP test isn't any different from the Best Effort intervals we suggest you use in a power class that doesn't have a Display Training system. Here's one I included in a recent Performance Cycle class.
Track #2 — the first PTP track is important. We’ll use this average wattage for each of the four PTP efforts to follow. Everyone seemed to enjoy Billy Idol — Rebel Yell — 1999 — Remaster — maybe suffered a bit as well. At 4:47 there’s plenty of time to explore PTP.
We use the Stage button to reset the averages at the beginning of what I describe as; Your Best Sustainable Effort. It’s normal for riders to miss-judge where they should be, so I’ll often have everyone make needed adjustments and hit the Stage button again to reset the averages.
My experience is that everyone will benefit from from a few mini (30-60 secs) PTP efforts to figure out where you should be. On any of the magnetic bikes I like to have find a reasonably challenging climb at around 65 RPM and then have riders accelerate to over 80RPM and observe what it feels like (RPE) and the wattage.
Two or three of these short intervals should give your peeps a watts window they can shoot for during the actual 3 minute PTP test.
I ask everyone to stand and walk, without touching the resistance, for a minute recovery.
To start the PTP test, I'll cue up a track like 83RPM Billy Idol — Rebel Yell and cue finding the cadence. Ten seconds to get everyone there and I will click Calc PTP. Encourage everyone to do whatever it takes to complete the assessment and let the technology work it's magic, figuring everyone's training zones.
Do you find yourself using the same kind/ genre of music for specific work? For example, does most of your ‘climb' music sound much the same, and your ‘flat road' music has a tell tale sound as well?
Mine does! When my daughters hear my playlist they'll say, “Oh, this is a climb”, or “Is this a flat?”
But every once in awhile, it's fun to throw everyone for a loop and ask for high intensity work with a hypnotic sound. It encourages feeling and embracing the work on a different level.[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']
This song, from the 25 year old Canadian, Kiesza, is 4:27 long, with rpm's of 65. It's highly motivating for a top effort climb, but promotes a ‘look within' while doing it.
Yep, I'm teaching another class where we're using weights!
I'm pretty excited. I'm subbing a Cycle Sculpt class tomorrow! Cycle Sculpt is a branded class format at Life Time Fitness, designed to attract the crowd who would be interested in a SoulCycle like class. This won't be my first time teaching this format – a little over a year ago I had the privilege and wrote about my experience here.
This class format has been evolving. Instead of using weights/bands while on the bikes, now we split the class up into two groups; half ride while the other half completes Boot Camp style circuit training on the floor.
It's like herding cats
Yesterday I discussed with Kadi (it's her class) how she conducted the class. She explained that it can get a little chaotic with so many people moving around the room – she typically has ~50 people. “Give each group a simple objective that they can complete on their own” was her advice, along with doing my best to keep everyone smoothly moving and focused.
As a side note I will be interested to see how many people I recognise. My previous experience was that most of the participants were completely unknown = they don't come to regular cycling classes.
I'm all about self-directed work. So I created the simple profile below and I'm (pretty)confident everyone will be able to follow it successfully 🙂
[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']
I'm doing a pretty normal warm up with a series of accelerations during the second track.
A.R. Rahman — Bobbleheads Life Time calls these a Reset = not a real recovery, but a reduced effort ridden to a short fun track.
Avicii — Heart Upon My Sleeve 3:30 Best Effort (this class will still incorporate Power/Watts) that starts one minute into the song. Here's where everyone can observe their PTP.
Jens Buchert — Crypton Recover and discover Base Watts – the wattage that has you working just above “Chatty” (early part of Zone 3 HR using a 5 Zone system).
Each track that follows is about five minutes long. The “On” (riding) group will directed to complete these distances each time they're on the bike:
Men ride 1.5 miles (at 20 mph this should take about 4:30)
Women ride 1 mile
Then complete the segment at “Base Watts” If you get Chatty that means you're not working as hard as you've been assigned.
Disclaimer: this method may not be socially acceptable in your club or studio – but it works great out on the road riding solo – don't even think about trying this on a tandem!
The condition is called exercise-induced rhinitis > your nose runs when you exercise. Mine does, a lot and it always has. I don't normally give a second thought to how I go through two or three hand towels in a typical class, to keep my sinuses mucus free .
I hadn't, that is, until this interesting exchange after my class this morning…
“I appreciate how you use two towels.” The woman speaking was a long time regular and her comment came as I was thanking people at the door as they were leaving.
“Come again?” “I'm not sure what you're talking about.”
“You use two separate towels while you teach the class.” “One to wipe the sweat off your face… and the other to blow your nose.” “I appreciate that” she said with a big smile.
I didn't know how to respond. I stammered for a few moments until I could offer a sheepish (and slightly embarrassed); “Thank You!”
As she walked out I felt a bit guilty. Yes I had two towels on the bike, but I wasn't very particular which one I used and for what. You can bet I will be in the future 🙁
Exercise-induced rhinitis is one of those weird maladies. Some people are prone to getting a runny nose when they workout and some don't. I'd add it to the list that includes the sweat-ers and non-sweat-ers. I'm not sure > is sweat-er even a real word? You get the point… people who leave a big puddle under their bike and those who appear to no more than glow during a hard effort.
To the best of my knowledge, beyond taking an antihistamine before you teach, there's really nothing can do other than ensure you have a supply of towels or plenty of tissues.
Which brings up the issue of towel management
Found this at http://blog.rateyourburn.com/blog/post/2012/08/01/which-indoor-cyclist-are-you-16-types-of-spinners-i-always-see-in-class.aspx
Toweling off during class is an integral part of what we most of us do (those of you who just glow consider yourself lucky). So it surprised me to find we've never discussed proper Instructor “towel management” here at ICI/PRO – ever. In fact I did quick google search and found nothing beyond this graphic from rateyourburn.com poking fun at anal retentive particpants. Like everything else we do, you'd think there's a Best Practice. Here are my thoughts.
Towel(s) size and placement
Having a towel hanging from your handlebars can look a little tatty – not to mention it obstructs the view of your legs like you see here.
The better place to hang your towel is on the seat slider that extends beyond the saddle on most indoor cycles. This Spinning® Master Class shows good towel placement.
With your towel behind you, it's always within reach, but partially hidden from your participants – and ready to whip around your head when you really want to stir things up!
At LifeTime we have two sizes of towels: big bath (not beach) size and hand-towels. My preference is to start the class with three hand towels; one on the handlebar (which is small so it doesn't impede rider's vision) and two spares on the stereo cabinet.
One of which I'll only use to blow my nose 🙂
What's your solution… or do you just plug one nostril and let-er-fly?
Do you ever have a week where you're a ‘day off'? That was me this week- I was a day behind- many apologies for this week's Free Music Friday showing up on Saturday!
Never being a good vinyl, 8 track, cassette or CD music buyer because I tire of music so quickly, Spotify is great for me. If I choose a song more than once, randomly coming across it, I know I truly like it.
That's what happened with this song. Plus, there's a really good free download- in fact I'm going to use the free download instead of the original this time around.
Funny story about this band….years ago (our kids couldn't drive- so at least 9 years ago), John picked up our daughters and niece from this concert and was APPALLED at the language he heard. FYI, there is a ‘hell no' in this song if that's offensive to you or your class.
The original version is 80 rpm's and 3:46. Last year, I used it coming out of intense climbing work when I still wanted everyone engaged and working hard before a reset or lower intensity work.
The free download is a bit faster at 90 rpm's and puts up the same time at 3:45. Now I'm using it for some harder flat road work.
Do you find yourself using the same kind/ genre of music for specific work? For example, does most of your ‘climb' music sound much the same, and your ‘flat road' music has a tell tale sound as well?
