Below you'll find Week 2 of July's Keep it Simple and Progress indoor cycling profile.
In order to keep it simple and progress I have kept the same series of intervals as last week but reduced the rest to just 45 seconds. Due to the reduced rest there's extra time, so I added three 30 second maximum effort intervals at the end of the workout.
Workout Basics:
5 minute warmup
3 x 4 minute intervals with 45 seconds recovery after each
3 x 3 minute intervals with 45 seconds recovery after each
3 x 2 minute intervals with 45 seconds recovery after each
4,3,2 minute intervals with 45 seconds recovery after each
3 x 30 second intervals with 1 minute recovery after each
5 minute cool down
3 x 4 minute interval goals and specifics:
1st 4 minute intervals should be ridden seated at 80-110 rpm at Threshold wattage, HR or RPE
45 second recovery or reset
2nd 4 minute interval should be ridden seated at 60-80 rpm at the same wattage, HR or RPE as the 1st.
45 second recovery or reset
3rd 4 minute interval should ridden standing at 60-70 rpm at the same wattage, HR or RPE as 2nd.
45 second recovery or reset
3 x 3 minute interval goals and specifics:
1st 3 minute intervals should be ridden seated at 80-110 rpm a wattage, HR or RPE that is higher than the last 4 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
2nd 3 minute interval should be ridden seated at 60-80 rpm at the same wattage, HR or RPE as the 1st 3 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
3rd 3 minute interval should ridden standing at 60-70 rpm at the same wattage, HR or RPE as 2nd 3 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
3 x 2 minute interval goals and specifics:
1st 2 minute intervals should be ridden seated at 80-110 rpm a wattage, HR or RPE that is higher than the last 3 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
2nd 2 minute interval should be ridden seated at 60-80 rpm at the same wattage, HR or RPE as the 1st 2 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
3rd 2 minute interval should ridden standing at 60-70 rpm at the same wattage, HR or RPE as 2nd 2 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
4,3,2 minute interval goals and specifics:
4 minute intervals should be ridden seated at 80-110 rpm at Threshold wattage, HR or RPE
45 second recovery or reset
3 minute intervals should be ridden seated at 60-80 rpm at a wattage, HR or RPE that is higher than the last 4 minute interval
45 second recovery or reset
2 minute interval should ridden standing at 60-70 rpm at a wattage, HR or RPE that is higher than the last 3 minute interval
60 second recovery or reset
3 x 30 second interval goals and specifics:
The 3 x 30 second intervals should be ridden at the riders choice RPM or position and should be ridden at maximum effort followed by a 1 minute recovery.
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Trainer Road Profile (If you're Trainer Road Member join my Team to get this and all profiles)
On July 3rd my family and I were lucky enough to see the very first concert at Coors Field in Denver Colorado. The headliner was the Zac Brown Band and the warmup band was a Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Big Head Todd and the Monsters is a local band and have a huge local following, it was great to see these local boys be the first play Coors Field. Zac Brown was AWESOME! If you have not listened to their new album, Jekyll and Hyde, I would suggest you give it a listen. It really shows the bands versatility as musicians. You may think of them as a country band but this album hits many different genre, there's something for everyone!
When leading a class I feel one of my most important jobs is to control the energy of the room. Too mellow and riders get bored and never come back, too intense and riders burn out before they reach the finish line. Whenever I go to a concert I pay close attention to how the band controls the energy of the crowd. At most shows the band usually starts a few of their most popular songs to elevate the energy of the crowd then they usually transition into some of their more mellow or lesser known music and finish with their most popular tracks while whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
When using music to control the energy in an indoor cycling class I follow this same technique. Always start strong with a high energy song you know the class will enjoy, you can back off the energy or try some new music in the middle of class, but ALWAYS finish with your best stuff so everyone wants to come back.
If this approach works for Rock Stars it most certainly will work for you.
[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']If you use video I also mixed together the videos of these three songs.This week's mix includes:
Last month I started this “Keep it Simple and Progress” profile post. In my classes this has been a huge success! Many riders have excitedly shared with me their wattage and/or resistance improvements. It's so rewarding to see and hear how we, as instructors, are changing lives through health and fitness everyday.
I've been using this 3 week progressive training technique, with great success, for many years as a coach, personal trainer, athlete and group exercise instructor. When I'm in a coaching situation I'll have my athletes work through a 3 week progression then take a week for recovery so they can “unload” all the accumulated training stress. In a group exercise setting, where you don't know the exercise consistency of your participants, a recovery week my be frowned upon. To incorporate this sound and proven training techniques in my indoor cycling world I'll set up progressive profiles for 3 weeks and on the 4th week I'll do something completely different. This 4th week is where I'll experiment with new music or video or use an old profile, maybe I'll even have my class cover their consoles and we go “Old School” and ride by perceived exertion only. I tell the riders that have been very consistent with their training the previous 3 weeks that it is time to take it easier and let the body recover and rebound from the straining stress of the previous 3 weeks. This is the time for them to enjoy their fitness level and have fun in class and not to worry about their metrics because we are going to get back to serious training very soon.
In order to provide the members of ICI/Pro with my class recordings, I'm always teaching one week ahead of these posts. This allows me time to experiment and perfect the profiles before I provide them to you. It also lets me hear the feedback and reaction of my class. I'm still amazed at the adaptive ability of the body. In week 1 of most progressions I usually hear how difficult the workout was. This makes sense because the body has not experienced these exact training stresses before. Then in week 2 after the body has had some time to adapt to week 1 the workout is not such a “shock” to the body, but I make some subtile changes to the workout so that the body still needs to adapt as we progress to week 3. Week 3 is, by far, the most difficult of the progression, but since we have taken “baby steps” from week to week this workout is doable. Progression is the only scientifically proven method to safely and effectively improve fitness. There has been a lot of talk in the media about “Muscle Confusion”. To be frank, “Muscle Confusion” is BULLSHIT and I challenge you to find one scientific study the proves it effectiveness. I'm working on another post on “The Myth of Muscle Confusion”, I'll let you all know when it's completed.
As many of you know I am a Master Educator for Stages Indoor Cycling and at our Stages University workshops one of our topics is the creation of “Simple Sets”. Next week I'm going to discuss using the technique of “Lather, Rinse and Repeat” on a micro and macro scale to help make you an even better instructor.
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Below I have provided a snapshot of this new profile provided by Trainer Road.
Trainer Road Profile (If you're Trainer Road Member join my Team to get this and all profiles)
Here is the 3rd post of my new “The Power of 3 – Keep it Simple and Progress” profile feature on ICI/Pro. My goal with these profiles is to show how easy it can be to create just one profile every 3 weeks and with some subtle changes in riding position, RPM, interval and recovery duration as well as a new playlist each week theses workouts will “feel” different but the similarity of each ride will help class participants increase their fitness in a scientifically proven way.
This week I reduced the rest in the main sets and added two more 1 minute max efforts.
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Trainer Road Profile (If you're Trainer Road Member join my Team to get this and all profiles)
Last week I wrote about how my simplest sets and profiles are most often my most popular. I have also found that if I simply progress profiles from week to week, usually in 3 week blocks, my classes enjoy the familiarity of the workout and see progressive improvement.
To add progression to a block of workouts all you need to do is add time to each interval or reduce recovery or increase intensity to each interval set. This allows the body to adapt from workout to workout. Check out this article from Training Peaks about progression, How to Build Workouts.
I inevitably get the response from instructors that their riders like every class to be different or they'll get bored. My response is, “Even class IS different!” I use different playlists and videos from week to week, I may keep similar yet progressive profiles but I'll change around how each set is ridden, for example, seated vs standing or fast rpm vs slower rpm. This makes each week “feel” completely different but is similar enough that the body can adapt from week to week and a progressive training effect can occur.
If you used my profile from last week with your class, progress with this new one below and let me know how it goes.
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