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Connections

Connections

I'd like to welcome Chuck Cali as an official member of the ICI/PRO Team! - John By Team ICG® Master Trainer Chuck Cali When asked by ICG® to write a post for ICI/PRO, I thought, “OMG.” 🙂 Seriously, as Jim Karanas or John Macgowan can attest, I have a lot to say. So choosing the topic for my first post was daunting. I’m the new guy, after all -- now sharing screen space with some of the country’s premier indoor cycle instructors. What could I say that would be of value to the indoor cycle instructors out there in the trenches? It felt right to start with the simple things that mean so much, the least common denominator, the place from which you can become a star, ‘the’ instructor everyone talks about. John calls it community. I say connections. Making everyone...

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The Tao of Training, Part 1

The Tao of Training, Part 1

  By Team ICG® Master Trainers Jim Karanas and Joan Kent Over 12 years ago, Jim developed an athletic training program that eventually earned the tagline “Stop exercising.  Start training.”  At ICG®, we think there’s a difference between the two, one...

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The Weekly Ride – 031119 Stopwatch – Renee Shapurji

The Weekly Ride – 031119 Stopwatch – Renee Shapurji

Welcome to the The Weekly Ride by Cycling Fusion Welcome to our new era of The Weekly Ride, you get: Full Ride PDF Apple Music Playlist Spotify Playlist File to Download the Ride directly into My Fitness DJ (Yes, no Programming) The Ride will be available for purchase...

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The Great Spotify Enigma Survey

The Great Spotify Enigma Survey

e·nig·ma [uh-nig-muh]  noun, a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation: Spotify is such an awesome service for Indoor Cycling Instructors, it's an enigma to me... why so few Instructors are actually using it. Or maybe it just looks that way. I'm basing my...

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FREE TACOS !!

FREE TACOS !!

- It worked for Subway so now Taco Bell has launched their "Drive-Thru Diet" complete with a spokesperson who supposedly lost 54 pounds eating at Taco Bell. What began with Subway Jared will be continued by Drive-Thru Christine. As you know, the Drive-Thru Diet® menu...

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Messaging

Messaging

By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas I’ll switch gears from my recent posts on using public speaking techniques to enhance our teaching to talk about what we say.  In The Art of Cueing, I discussed the use of cues to bring depth to the class and make it...

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Indoor Cycle With Power Survey Says!

Indoor Cycle With Power Survey Says!

We got great responses to our two surveys asking for feedback from both Instructors and Studio owners about the Indoor Cycles they're riding and the impact power is having on their classes. Now the challenge becomes; "how do we publish all of this information in a way...

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All I want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas

With the season of giving upon us, I have a question for all of the Indoor Cycling instructors out there. What one "gift" could your facility add to your Indoor Cycling studio that would help you improve the experience you try to create for your class participants?

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The Weekly Ride – 121718 The 2018 Holiday Ride

The Weekly Ride – 121718 The 2018 Holiday Ride

Welcome to the The Weekly Ride by Cycling Fusion Welcome to our new era of The Weekly Ride, you get: Full Ride PDF Apple Music Playlist Spotify Playlist File to Download the Ride directly into My Fitness DJ (Yes, no Programming) The Ride will be available for purchase...

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Recover Faster

Recover Faster

Whenever I think of recovering faster, I hear my dad in the back of my head telling me to sleep faster when I only had 4 hours until the morning. I by no means want you to start short changing your recovery time nor trying to psychologically speed up the process.  I...

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Free Music Friday 1/23

Free Music Friday 1/23

A rock solid climb for this week! Super motivating with lots of twists and turns for coaching moments and power adds. This Russian DJ hit the scene in 2009 at the age of 19 and has been pumping out the hits ever since. This tune is 4:08 and has an rpm at 68. I cue...

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Survey Says – Keiser M3

Survey Says – Keiser M3

As promised, I'll be posting the results from our Indoor Cycles with Power survey. I'll start with the Kesier M3 which represented about half of the total responses. Which makes sense as Keiser has been selling the M3 consistently for much longer than any of the other...

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Moving Beyond Base

Moving Beyond Base

A number of instructors (and riders) have asked me how one should approach the next training phase and how to know their class is ready. These instructors are usually believers and followers of a periodized format for delivering the focus of their indoor classes.  So...

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Staying Open

Staying Open

By ICG® Master Trainer Vanessa Wilkins Cycling instructors are a special breed, and all a little different.  There are those who coach, those who teach choreography, those who talk heart rate and RPM, and those who teach meditation on the bike.  I always strive to...

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ICI/PRO Podcast 0021 – 2018 Holiday Ride Podcast

ICI/PRO Podcast 0021 – 2018 Holiday Ride Podcast

  This week features the 2018 Holiday ride from Joey. The ride is primarily focused towards strength, but there is a fair mix of cadence work. Good luck and have fun. Joey Get all of the ride details HERE. Get all of the ride details HERE. Joey's "2018 Holiday...

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ICI Podcast 28 Getta Grips handle bar covers

ICI Podcast 28 Getta Grips handle bar covers

This Podcast is was originally published on January 8, 2009, I have updated it with our new Podcast host information and I am representing it now. Note, the company is no longer in business, however there are pleanty of grips out there in the marketplace, so still a...

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It is NOT Just Cardio!

It is NOT Just Cardio!

Indoor cycling has had a reputation of being a good cardiovascular workout. And that is absolutely true. However, when an aspect of any activity is touted vigorously, the reputation that is created can become definition. Even a recent indoor cycling certification...

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Rethinking Heart-Rate Training?

Rethinking Heart-Rate Training?

It refers to the idea that if your input data/information is inaccurate (GARBAGE IN), then any computations, using that inaccurate data/information can’t be anything other than GARBAGE OUT.

Over the years I’ve come to believe that you should carefully consider G.I.G.O as it could apply to the Heart Rate & Power training you offer in your classes.

Spinning® Master Instructor Danielle Foster alerted me to this article: Three Reasons To Rethink Heart-Rate Training from running.competitor.com. While they don’t identify G.I.G.O by name as the cause of their concerns, a quick read through their list shows, and I’m confident you’ll agree, that’s the case…

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Todays Secret Word…Eustress

Todays Secret Word…Eustress

Amy and I went to a Halloween party last weekend dressed as PeeWee Herman and Miss Yvonne. Yes my costume included a "shoe mirror" 😉 During the party someone asked me "what's the secret word for today PeeWee?" and I thought why not add a similar feature to ICI.com....

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The Weekly Ride – 10/22/18 Halloween Endurance

The Weekly Ride – 10/22/18 Halloween Endurance

Welcome to the The Weekly Ride by Cycling Fusion Welcome to our new era of The Weekly Ride, you get: Full Ride PDF Apple Music Playlist Spotify Playlist File to Download the Ride directly into My Fitness DJ (Yes, no Programming) The Ride will be available for purchase...

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ICI Podcast 3 What to eat?

ICI Podcast 3 What to eat?

Monday's I'm up at 4:30 to teach my 5:45am cycling class. Many mornings the last thing I want to do is eat something, although I know I probably should. My club has a lot of smart people so I asked our nutritionist, Tyler Young, her thoughts on what all us early...

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Think Like A Researcher – Blog Post #9

Think Like A Researcher – Blog Post #9

Long climbs of modest grades are the ideal terrain for Muscular Endurance Before we get to the fun of actually conducting our experiments (from a nearby but unknown location comes the sound… “Moo hoo hoo ha ha ha” said with a deep and ominous voice) — sorry about that...

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Zoning – So Innovative Its Patented!

Zoning – So Innovative Its Patented!

Now, as a patented inventor myself, I'm intimately aware of the difficulties of securing a US Patent. Hat's off to Sally Edwards and Chuck Cali for making the case that their Threshold Training System is truly original and worthy of U.S. Pat. #8092381! On January 12,...

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Recovery Required!

Recovery Required!

In my last article entitle “Make Recovery Work” we looked at how we as instructors can efficiently use recovery time to our advantage.  Two of the main points were to use recovery as a time to provide instruction to prepare our riders for what is ahead and as a way to...

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I spent the morning volunteering at the Life Time Fitness Commitment Day 5K run in downtown Minneapolis. It was the perfect morning to prove your commitment to fitness; sunny and 10° below zero... that's -10° Fahrenheit = painfully cold.  That's why the smart people...

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The Weekly Ride – 07/09/18 Strength

The Weekly Ride – 07/09/18 Strength

Welcome to the The Weekly Ride by Cycling Fusion Ok, this is the week that I have been working towards, this is our new era of The Weekly Ride. This week and moving forward you will get: Full Ride PDF Apple Music Playlist Spotify Playlist File to Download the Ride...

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The purpose of openers

The purpose of openers

ICI/PRO member question from ICI/PRO Podcast #203 Cycle Strong Audio PROfile What exactly should the "openers" in the warm-up consist of? In Tom's "Getting Started with Intervals" audio profile, he described them as 30 seconds of maximum effort followed by 30 seconds...

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The Weekly Ride – 02/26/18 February Race Day!

The Weekly Ride – 02/26/18 February Race Day!

Welcome to the The Weekly Ride by Cycling Fusion: No more hunting for new music or counting out cues.  Here is your ready to ride document, that can be displayed from your phone, or printed out onto cue cards.  This ride is timed out, down to the second, to make your...

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