Exercises to Boost Hip Strength Originally By Dan Kehlenbach – Active.com When discussing muscles involved in the pedaling motion of cycling, most people think of quadriceps and hamstrings. While these muscles certainly play an important role, the many muscles of the hip also deserve attention, and the weight room is the perfect place to keep them functioning properly. Before discussing different strength and mobility exercises, we should first look at
Protein Power: It’s Not Just for Muscles (Part 2 – Appetite Control)
Protein Power: It’s Not Just for Muscles (Part 2 – Appetite Control) By Joan Kent, PhD, and Shawn Bevington Protein is used to make hormones, which are messengers in the body. They’re produced in one part of the body and then distributed – through blood, interstitial or other body fluid – to other organs or tissues. There they modify activity and function. This brief post will focus on just a
Protein Powder: What’s the Use Of It?
Frequently, I recommend protein powder to supplement dietary protein, but my clients aren’t always sure exactly what to do once they have it. That’s the topic of this post. Why Protein Is Important Protein has numerous functions in the body, starting with the obvious one that it can be converted to glucose for energy. Because I’ve covered protein in previous posts, I’ll keep this part brief. Protein is used to
Pedaling Backwards?
Talk about opening “Pandora’s Box” – this is bound to get a few conversations going… Cameron Chinatti from Stages Indoor Cycling alerted me to this. ACE (American Council on Exercise) published a scientific study that looked at the effectiveness of pedaling backwards. Please download the PDF and read it in it’s entirety, so you have a complete understanding of the purpose and results of the study. That ACE chose to study
Stomps: High-Resistance, High-Intensity Intervals for Indoor Cycling (Very Cool)
If you’ve done stomps in your cycling workouts, you may think I’m crazy when I say this, but I’ve always liked them. They’re extremely tough but appeal to that twisted part of me that enjoys hard training. (I know: you’ve got that part, too.) If you haven’t done stomps, they’re designed to increase power in the saddle. I believe Chris Carmichael is generally given credit for the training, but his
Movement Prep – My Warm-Up
Many of my riders know that I’m also a Personal Trainer, so I often get asked questions about all aspects of fitness. Warm-Up is a subject that comes up again and again. I’ve been using the Movement Prep Warm-up featured below for nearly 15 years. Cycle training is an exclusively linear exercise and I believe it’s important to activate the lateral movers as well as muscle groups that are not emphasized while
Would this create a more beneficial pedaling workout?
I just became aware of a new Indiegogo campaign for an innovative* method of pedaling a bicycle. Similar in functionality to a KrankCycle, the Caron Bicycle uses independent left/right crankarms that create 6 different pedalling movements. They have their crankset installed on a conventional IC in this video. Watch and then tell me if you feel these added exercises would improve your class… or is it just a solution in
B Complex Can Trample Sugar Cravings: So Why Does It Sometimes Not Work?
Liquid B complex is the only Nutrition Magic I know. It can stop a sugar craving within a few minutes. But every so often, people will tell me they tried it and it didn’t work. How could that be? Careful questioning revealed a few common reasons that prevent B complex from working effectively. Here’s what I’ve discovered. Not Using Liquid B Complex The liquid formulation seems to speed up the
Losing Weight To Increase Power
As a nutritionist, I hear many clients say they want to lose weight – to look better, have more energy, improve their health. But losing weight can also help you increase your power on the bike. Ratios intrinsically provide two ways to improve the ratio – by manipulating either variable. The results of improving both variables can be dramatic. As covered in a previous post, efficiency – the ratio of
ICI Podcast 319 – Developing your fitness product or service idea and then selling it to a large fitness brand
If you’ve ever had an idea for a new, fitness related product or service? Dream about building a company around your new widget and then selling your company to a larger company? If that sounds like you, you’ll want to listen to this interview with fitness entrepreneur Sara Shears. Sara invented the Ugi ball to help her personal training clients train more frequently. After years of effort, she was
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Standing burns more calories than sitting in an Indoor Cycling class
New research sponsored by ACE demonstrates that standing (vs. sitting) burns more calories, as long as you keep everyone out of the saddle long enough. This study was conducted by a team lead by Dr. Len Kravitz at the University of New Mexico.Dr. Kravitz’s team has done a number of other studies that you may find of interest. I interviewed Doctoral student Micah Zuhl in 2012 and discussed the article he co-wrote
