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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Originally posted 2012-06-04 09:34:53.
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Hear, hear. All of my students wear HR monitors as well and it hasn’t been a battle. All of your suggestions are great ones. I would add that I always ask a random person sitting near a student to whom I am loaning a monitor to chime in and describe what they have learned since they adopted use of HR in their exercise. It is clear that I didn’t plant that person and the non-initiated are really struck by the passion of their fellow student(s).
Now that it is time for the televised coverage of the grand tours I do not hesitate to point out the widespread use of monitors by the pros. It makes it clearer that these are ‘forever’ tools – not just a fad or a sales opportunity.
I am pleased to report that as we train outside for our Cabot Trail ride I don’t need to remind the participants to wear their monitors. They have them even when they forget their cell phones!
I could not agree more with Jim’s great advice. Hard sell was not the pitch. Try it, you’ll like it is.
Still, as instructors and/or studio owners I would not sell short the sales opportunity that goes with such training. If you are going to do the work introducing the tools and concepts you – or your facility – may as well be ready when your riders want to buy. Jim does not address this in the post but 100% of his riders got their heart rate monitors some place.
I know in 1998 Jim was teaching quite a bit. So, doing some simple math, number of classes x number students per class = the sale of many heart rate monitors.
Today, the new generation of indoor cycles are coming equipped with small consoles that – – among other metrics – – display heart rate. All of the new bikes I’ve tried (And I think I’ve tried them all) require and work well with the most common 5Kh analog signal that comes from the chest strap. Most important no wrist top monitor is needed. Analog straps for use with the new bikes are available at reasonable wholesale prices, also allowing for resale opportunity.
For the first time, this opens up the possibility for indoor riders to explore heart rate on the cheap; buy the strap let the bike do the rest. Between Jim, I and other instructors we’ve managed to rummage through our personal inventory of straps to equip most of the room at the ICG academy. Yet, fewer and fewer riders need to borrow the loaners. That can mean only one thing. They bought their own.
Increasingly I am finding that many people own HR monitors but have never really used them. My loaners serve to illustrate the utility of monitors and demonstrate that I can show the students how to get value from theirs. After just one try with the loaner, they show up with their own monitors. Unfortunately that means that I have had to become an expert in using all the darn buttons! (We have a mixture of bikes so not every bike can provide HR data.) I keep PDFs of the manuals for the most common models I see on my iPad so I can figure things out during the warm-up. All I can say about that is d*#% G _ _ _ _ _!
Well said Christine… It is the downside of heart rate monitors to be sure. Moreover it illustrates that the manufacturers don’t really know how to make a heart rate monitor for someone not training for the tour or the iron man.
I applaud your willingness to come equipped with electronic owner’s manuals.
Now that is connecting and caring on a whole different level.
I hear what you’re saying, Christine.
I’m not sure whether it’s still an ongoing thing but Polar had a scheme years ago whereby *fitness instructors* had an incentive to market their product to the public (buy for less, sell for more) A nice idea in theory……but down on Long Island where I was teaching at the time (a mere 5 miles away from Polar US headquarters, BTW) the ramifications of doing this in a meaningfull way…..business licences etc……made it a cumbersome and expensive undertaking. I did it anyway…..for a short time.
What I was doing was to *sell* a choice of 3 models (whatever they were at the time…..but based on what I perceived as “value”) and at the recommended retail price suggested by Polar. After a while I noticed that a few of my regular class members who’d manisfestly heard my speech WRT heart rate monitors were pitching up to class with models that I didn’t know how to set up……..and who’d apparently been advised by the instructors who sold them at their own mark-up that *VIVIENNE* would be able to help them.
I’m not a mean spirited person but, I’m sorry….there’s a heck of a lot of thinking about, wondering about, paying for any and everything that pertains to HRM training and that’s why *VIVIENNE* can do the do.
Long story short…..I decided to limit my advice to whatever I advised upon in the first place. I still invest time and $$bucks to make sure I know why….and why NOT….my advice might be worth listening to. But these days I tend to claim that I don’t have my reading glasses with me if folk want to do the Libertarian thing.
Vivienne