I'll bet Pete Thomas here made a few position changes.

I'll bet Pete Thomas here made a few position changes.

Myth #7 - Once you find a good position, you shouldn't need to change it.

Back in Myth #3 I discussed how your students do want you to make suggestions to their setup, but they may offer some initial resistance because...

People are creatures of habit and routine. We all derive comfort from the familiar. Like robots, we try to do exactly the same thing every time we find ourselves in these familiar situations/places.

For the regulars in your class this means they get to the club at the same time, park in the same general location, attempt to get the same locker, find the same bike and set it up in exactly the same way, every time.

I was referring to making suggestions to students who's position on the bike was less than optimal.

So then once we get them set up correctly we shouldn't touch them, right?

Not always. People can (and do) change - and those changes may require a change in position.

Changes in weight can change more then your belly circumference.

I haven't experienced this personally, but my understanding is that adding some additional body fat can make your pants shorter. True story! Which makes perfect sense. If your butt gets bigger (due to the thickening of the fat layer beneath our skin, more material is needed to circumnavigate cover it, leaving less material in the length of each pant leg. Next people are making jokes about your flood preparations.

The inverse of this is true as well. As we loose body fat, we change dimensionally - hopefully everywhere - as the fat layers become thinner.

Now think about this. Let's say you have a successful student, one who loses a bunch of weight by regularly taking your class this winter. Can you imagine how a lessening of body fat can have an impact on saddle height? [you'd want to raise it]

Or vice versa? [lower it]

The trouble is that weight gain/loss is gradual, so a regular participant will just adopt with the changes.

So keep your eyes open for anyone who's beaten the battle of the bulge and help them celebrate their success by maybe raising their saddle a notch!

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted 2013-01-09 16:32:30.

John

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