By Jennifer Lintz, Registered Dietitian and ICI/PRO Contributor
If you strive to bring variety to your classes, consider using your personal workouts for inspiration. Certainly, going to other instructors' classes and perusing the web can be a great way to pick up new ideas, but so can your own workouts. I run quite a bit when I'm not on the bike and have found it to be a gold mine for fresh routines, coaching cues, and new music.
Fresh Routines
Whether you swim, bike, run, row, do the elliptical or something else on your own for cardio, you can likely pull bits and pieces into your classes. Here are some examples.
Speed Workouts: These provide plenty of options for a ride. Whether I am doing 200s, 400s, or mile repeats, I can apply some of the same time frames and techniques to cycle. For instance, if I was doing timed miles, that might look like 3 long (6-10 minutes) efforts spaced throughout a cycle class. For shorter bursts of hard effort, I might take a sandwich approach and squeeze in 8-10 minutes of high intensity intervals at the beginning and end of the ride, or perhaps just the middle. There are many ways to create an interval-based ride.
Hills: After doing a hilly run or ride, I'm instantly armed with great content for my next class. Here are some ideas:
– Pyramid of Hills: Start and finish with short hills and build a longer hill in between.
– Progressive Hills: Make each hill either progressively longer at the same intensity or progressively harder for the same amount of time.
– Hill Sandwich: Do flat roads at the beginning and end of class with a long hill in the middle.
– Flat Sandwich: Do hills at the beginning and end of the ride and a flat road in between.
Other Ideas:
– Tempo Ride: Begin at a very comfortable intensity, progress to more challenging work in the middle and end of the ride, and finish with 5-10 minutes of moderate work before cool down.
– Out and Back: Do the same drills on the way out that you do on the way back.
– Loop: Terrain here should vary. If there is a big hill at the beginning of your ride or run, a couple of short ones in the middle, and a flat finish, create something similar for class.
Coaching Cues
Just as yoga instructors are encouraged to have a solid personal practice, I think we could argue that cycle instructors would also benefit fromba dedicated personal workout once or twice a week. If our goal is to challenge participants and help them sustain an uncomfortable effort for a set period of time, it is important that we know what that feels like. As instructors, we can view the challenging parts of our own exercise sessions as opportunities to become a better coach.
Let me give you an example.
My husband and I essentially live on a plateau in Rochester, MN. The only way out of our neighborhood is down. That means – whether we are on the bike or on our feet – the start of the workout is a cinch, but the end is always another story; that's where my coaching nuggets come from. One route has a gradual 2 mile hill at the finish, and the other is very steep but only 3/4 of a mile. Yesterday, I ran the 3/4 of a mile hill four times as part of a workout. Guess what we are doing in cycle this week? Hill repeats 🙂 They will thank me later!
In all seriousness, I walked away from my run with a handful of coaching strategies that I will sprinkle into the classes I teach in the coming days. Instead of becoming overwhelmed with the incline and the number of times I commited to running up it, I took a step-wise approach. First, I focused on making it to the sign; then, to the tree; next, to the stick lying on the ground; and finally, to the top. It helped me to break each of the hills up into segments, so it's likely I will apply that same strategy to my coaching in class.
New Music
Finally, consider using your workout time to snag some new songs. Regardless of your stance on multitasking, Pandora, Spotify, and iTunes Radio make it possible to find new, motivating tunes while you exercise. If you have a smart phone or access to any of these apps, pay attention to the music that comes on as you move. If something pumps you up, chances are it might have a similar impact on your riders.
With the battle raging in indoor cycling between scientifically proven training techniques and fun workouts, I believe there is a place for both.
The HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) portion of the class will be structured intervals while the Party on the Bike portion will be music mapping to some classic “Happy Hour” tunes. Both types of interval sets will be performed at a high intensity.
Coach Dennis Mellon is a Certified Personal Trainer/Performance Enhancement Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, Certified New Leaf Metabolic Testing Specialist, as well as Certified Spinning, Schwinn Indoor Cycling, IndoRow and Energy Zone instructor.
Dennis was voted the Mountain West’s top Spin Instructor by Competitor Magazine in 2012. He has a Bachelors Degree in Physical Education and a Minor in Coaching from the State University of New York College at Cortland. Dennis has been working in the Fitness Industry since 1992 and has helped numerous clients and athletes of all abilities reach their fitness and racing goals.
Dennis has completed 8 ironman distance triathlons as well as ultra distance mountain bike events, marathons and shorter events like sprint triathlons and 5k’s. He's coached first timers to elite level endurance athletes. He is most proud of the fact that all but one ironman distance athlete he has coached has reached the finish line and many have set personal records.
Spinning® Instructor and music expert Chris Hawthorne provides our latest class profile that uses the four cornerstone movements in the Spinning program®:
Think of this profile like a square track. You will be taking your riders around the track four times. The first time around the track, each movement will be given 4 minutes. The second time around, 3 minutes. The third time around, 2 minutes. Your final lap will be 1 minute per movement.
Each square, or corner on the track is a ‘cornerstone’ movement:
Square One = Seated Flat (80-110 RPM)
Square Two= Standing Flat (80-110 RPM)
Square Three= Seated Climb (60-80 RPM)
Square Four= Standing Climb (60-80 RPM)
This to me is one of those profiles we all need to have in our “back-pocket” – and it will be perfect for a less experienced Instructor to use to teach a great class. As Chris says during the recording, her participants appreciate her simple & predictable profiles. Combined with her excellent playlist, Chris and I feel your class will enjoy Four Corners.
Not practicing the hand-off – but what comes next…
One of the many benefits of riding and training indoors, is not worrying about crashing and ending up on your head. So we practice our; pedaling technique, or Sprint form or whatever, without thinking about balancing or where we're going.
Now if we were riding our road bikes on trainers we could also practice reaching down, grabbing a bottle, taking a drink and then returning it safely into the cage. Not an easy task for many new (and a few old) outdoor cyclists.
Bicycle Safety Tip
2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins pictured above/right may be an awesome cyclist with phenomenal bike handling skills. But he's not demonstrating proper hand position with one hand off the bars. The correct (safe) position for his left hand is on the cross bar, very close to the center / stem. Why not out at the end where he has it in the picture?
It's a matter of leverage. The further you hand is, away from the center/pivot, the easier it is to turn the bars. Without your other hand to counteract the force, riders with just one hand, on the outer end of the bars, tend to ride erratically = not in a straight line = dangerous.
Speaking of proper hand positions > I discovered this video while researching this article. Nothing to do with cycling, but it will get your heart rate up when you watch it 🙂
In celebration of today being the Super Bowl (the biggest sporting event in North America) we played drinking games. Not the typical; take a shot whenever an announcer uses some predictable cliche – that comes later today.
In class we played a different type of drinking game.
Although we're not on real bicycles, there's still a valuable technique we can safely practice during class; drinking at a high level of effort > @ or over FTP/Threshold/AT/Lt whatever you call it. More specifically; learning to regulate your breathing so you don't choke, launch into a coughing fit, swerve over and ultimately take down your riding buddy – or end up in the ditch.
NOT drinking enough during a long ride is the sure path to early fatigue. During a hard group ride there may not be a lot of breaks where you can recover and hydrate easily. So today we only drank during hard efforts, not during the recoveries when you would normally towel off and take a sip.
The first Sunday of each month is an FTP Assessment. Here's my class.
Class length 75 minutes + Cool Down
Warm Up — 10 minutes. 5 minutes of gradual increases in wattage. During the second 5 mins. we’re finding the wattage where everyone is first noticing a change in breathing; VT1 / Aerobic Threshold = the top of the Recover Zone. This establishes a rough understanding of a base wattage that we use throughout the rest of class.
3 x 30 sec. Hard / 30 sec. Easy – Openers to AT/LT. I cue these by first having everyone find the amount of load @ 70 RPM that has them feeling they should (not just could) come out of the saddle. The 30 sec. Hard is then simply accelerating to 90+ RPM which results in some pretty impressive power numbers. The 30 sec. Easy is back to 70 RPM — many will stand during the Easy portion.
1 minute rest – I encourage riders to focus on their recovery. Once they feel calm in their breathing, bring back the Base level work wattage.
3 min. Hard Effort — Here’s a “Best Effort” to establish a benchmark PTP Personal Threshold Power (top of the Perform Zone) or ride at 110% of FTP if known. It’s very helpful to riders to have that understanding of their personal upper wattage number. The “Best Effort” Threshold # + the Base Threshold # we found earlier form the three Power working zones I use in class.
2 min. Rest
3 x 1 min. Hard Effort x 1 min. Rest. These should be above the 3 minute average wattage.
3 min. Rest
20 min. TT / FTP Assessment effort – Quickly establish the average wattage at or near the 3 min. Interval. > Stage Button and then maintain. You may want to offer slight changes in cadence & load, while keeping wattage = to the initially established watts #. I was off the bike at the 10 min. to go, coaching, encouraging and then just watching them with a big smile on my face. This is a great group and they looked incredible — I’m so in my element with these classes
5 min. Rest
Base Wattage (aerobic) flat road to finish — use these time to congratulate everyone and give tell them a bit about what you have planned for them next week.
In keeping with the Nonlinear Periodization training prescribed by Coach Troy, today was a combination day of strength (climbing) and building endurance @ Threshold HR/Watts.
Experienced cyclists know what a real climb feels like. While Indoor Cycling may get close, nothing can truly replicate climbing outdoors, on a road bike, over a long, steep climb. This morning's profile includes 4 long climbing efforts; 2 x 8 min., 1 x 10 min. and the final 11.5 min. to the summit. The final 2:48 features “The Wall” – an all out effort paced to my favorite Black Sabbath track Paranoid. Only available from iTunes.
Long duration efforts, at reduced pedal cadences, offer time to work on other components of efficient cycling; pedaling technique, body position and breathing control. Today we focused on what I call disruptive breathing, i.e. consciously breaking each rider's innate breathing rhythm, for the purpose of bringing focus to each breath and making each as complete as possible.[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']
There's some interesting literature about this. Here's an excerpt from one article.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
First, practice deep breathing. With a normal breath we generally use only 10 to 15% of our lungs capacity. And during exercise, we tend to increase the rate, not the depth of our breathing. Although deep breathing is more work, and uses a bit more energy, the pay off can be that 1 – 2% edge in a competitive situation. Here are 4 changes you might consider:
Exhale more completely. After a more complete expiration, it is easier to take a deep breath. The usual rhythm is exhale to a count of 3 followed by inhaling to a count of 2.
Belly breathe. As you concentrate on deep breathing, you will push your diaphragm down and thus the abdominal contents out. If you are doing it correctly, your abs will expand more than your chest.
Widen your hand position. A 2 cm wider hand position will open up your chest and decrease the difficulty of drawing in a deep breath.
Synchronize your breathing. Try to synchronize your respiratory rhythm to that of your pedal cadence. Remember the 3:2 ratio of exhale to inhale.
I cued variations on all four of these concepts throughout class.
Quick Tip: years ago I learned first hand how widening your hand position can improve your O2 uptake / power while cycling. My first road bike (Schwinn Paramount) came with somewhat narrow handlebars. Not knowing anything different, I rode with them for about a year. Until during one group ride one of the “Old Dogs” riding next to me asked; “why do ride with such narrow bars?” Not having a good answer, I just shrugged my shoulders and said they came with the bike. Taking the hint, that week I bought new bars in the width recommended by my team's sponsor/bike store. They made an amazing difference in my ability to breath and with wider width bars, I felt better in control of the bicycle.
Warm Up — 10 minutes. 5 minutes of gradual increases in wattage. During the second 5 mins. we’re finding the wattage where everyone is first noticing a change in breathing; VT1 / Aerobic Threshold = the top of the Recover Zone. This establishes a rough understanding of a base wattage that we use throughout the rest of class.
3 x 30 sec. Hard / 30 sec. Easy – Times Like These Openers to AT/LT. I cue these by first having everyone find the amount of load @ 70 RPM that has them feeling they should (not just could) come out of the saddle. The 30 sec. Hard is then simply accelerating to 90+ RPM which results in some pretty impressive power numbers. The 30 sec. Easy is back to 70 RPM — many will stand and walk during the Easy portion.
2:35 rest – The Best Is Yet To Come ~ Tony Bennett. I encourage riders to focus on their recovery. Once they feel calm in their breathing, bring back the Base level work wattage. I'm talking/motivating everyone about how important it will be for their “Best Effort” to be a BEST EFFORT!
3 min. Hard Effort — 4:03 Race Against Time ~ U2. Here’s the “Best Effort” to establish a benchmark PTP Personal Threshold Power (top of the Perform Zone) or ride at 110% of FTP if known. Song is @ 70 RPM – which is perfect to establish PTP at a climbing cadence. Have everyone find the tempo and add gears > STAGE Button about one minute in and I coach them off the bike during this hard effort.
1:16 Rest – Quick drink before we start Climb #1
7:58 Climb – Bermuda ~ Fluke. Right back to 70 RPM and have riders quickly establish their wattage to 10%-15% below the 3 min. “Best Effort” power. > STAGE Button and then maintain this average until the end. You may want to offer slight changes in cadence & load, while keeping wattage = to the initially established watts #.
4 min. Rest – Delirious ~ Prince
8:02 Climb – Tribal Force ~ Higher cadence @ 84RPM with the same wattage. This moves more of the work to the aerobic system and is a little less stressful on everyone's legs.
4 min. Rest – White Flag ~ Dido
10:03 Climb – Final Frontier ~ Juno Reactor. Back to 70 RPM and encourage riders quickly get as close to their 3 min. “Best Effort” as possible and sustain it to the summit. Many of your athletes are strongest now – help them take advantage of their full strength here!
2 Min. Rest – Last Impression
Final 11:33 Climb – Starts with Come together ~ Joe Cocker at 83RPM. This is more of a tempo effort in the middle of the Performance Zone / between the two power thresholds. Continues with Time Will Crawl ~ Bowie as the road steepens and pedal speeds slow to 63RPM > keeping the same watts, with a bigger gear, as we approach the the final challenge of the day…
The Wall – 2:48 Paranoid ~ Black Sabbath. The beauty of riding magnetic cycles is how simply accelerating a big gear = a huge increase in work. Those big pedals accelerating from 63RPM to over 80RPM should produce the biggest #s of the ride and at less than 3 minutes this should be achievable by everyone 🙂
Base Wattage (aerobic) flat road to finish — use these time to congratulate everyone and give tell them a bit about what you have planned for them next week.
