I need to publicly thank both Cameron Chinatti, the Education Director for Stages Indoor Cycling along with Marketing Director at Foundation Fitness & Stages Indoor Cycling, Laurel Mylin for believing in ICI/PRO and co-sponsoring our conference this year.
Cameron will be conducting the Stages Essentials Instructor Certification as a Pre-Con on Friday 9/30 and will also be presenting four sessions during the conference.
Of course this turns our conference planning on it's head. I plan to have the final registration details completed by Monday 5/9 night for ICI/PRO members to make their selections.
I have opened early registration for those of you wanting to get a jump on everyone else. This year we are offering you the chance to make multiple payments, rather than one lump sum. Here is the link to register.
Last year the hotel sold out. Even if you are thinking about sharing a room I would suggest that you reserve a room here’s the phone number to the hotel 978-750-7987 and tell them you are in the Indoor Cycling group. We will be helping connect those looking for room-mates. NOTE: Our block of reserved rooms extends from September 28th to October 4th for those of you wanting to come early or stay a day or two longer.
Listen to the Podcast below for more information about Stages Indoor Cycling and their participation in the conference.
Bill Pryor from Spynergy Consulting visited the annual IHRSA Show last week to learn what’s new for cycling studio owners and entrepreneurs. Here are some highlights and photos from his report.
“……once I got over the sensory overload, I made a point of visiting all the bike manufacturers to ride the bikes and hear about new trends. I also tried to see what kinds of metrics, programming and video content are out there. I even spent some time with the flooring, lighting, sound system and insurance folks to see if there's anything new studio owners might want to hear about……”
StarTrac. The market leader in bike sales, they were of course showing the NXT and the Blade which have been recently re-designed (very cool styling.) One of their engineers also walked me through a demo of a new console (measuring power) that will be built into the Blade within the next year. You'll be able to get the Blade with or without a power console.
Schwinn. I also rode the magnetic resistance Schwinn AC and got a close look at their console. Power is measured as well as heartrate, cadence and more. Data from the console can be downloaded to a USB pen drive, or wirelessly transmitted via ANT transmission to a garmin or other device.
New Keiser handlebar
Keiser. A new handlebar design for the Keiser M3 should silence complaints from some smaller riders who had troubles with bike fit. They have an established power console and also numbered resistance which lots of people really like. Performance IQ was co-exhibiting with Keiser…they have a system for projecting on-bike data to a screen so instructors and students can view their data.
RealRyder. This uniquely designed bike with the swaying motion is becoming a favorite with some studio-starter who want to have something to clearly delineate them from the large gyms and health clubs. Optimizing the experience does require some special training for instructors and students, but they make a compelling case about the differences and benefits once folks learn.
Freemotion. These guys are the newest player but have created good buzz as they have made the power console and related programming an integral part of what they provide. The design of their console is well organized and highly readable. At this show, they also introduced a quieter “carbon drive” to make for a more smoother, quieter ride, with good durability
Livestrong. I had not ridden their bike before and found it really comfortable. Outside riders will love the fact that there are a wide range of hand position options including actual “drops”. The bike was cool, but to be honest it was hard to focus on the bike because they were showing it in conjunction with the MyRide virtual ride video system with was absolutely astounding….more on that below.
MyRide video management
Non-Bike Highlight: No matter what bike you have or choose….the good news is that if you want to use a video system, there's an amazing one out there. I have seen a lot of video for indoor cycling classes, but the MyRide systems from Matrix/Livestrong was absolutely stunning. The video itself (multiple terrains and imagery), but also the control system interface.  There are systems deployed in Europe, but this is brand, brand new in the U.S. A pilot studio is up in San Francisco.
Bill Pryor owns a 48 bike studio in the Boston area and is also founder of Spynergy Consulting, helping entrepreneurs launch and develop their businesses.
When I'm asked to review a product or service that includes new technology, I'm always a bit hesitant. You see I like simple and I tend to see many new products trying to solve a problem that really doesn't need to be solved or will add another (needless) layer of complexity/frustration/distraction to the lives of Instructors and/or their students.
Power indication in our classes is a perfect example. Seeing our watts is a huge step for many of us and equally so for our students. We see the value of all this information (metrics) about the amount of work we're doing in class. Many of us are excited to use that data as the basis for improving our fitness.
But what do we do with all this new information?
Collecting your data is a good place to begin. Both the FreeMotion and Schwinn Power Meter consoles offer the option to plug in a USB flash drive. After your training session you can download the ride to your computer to see what you've done. Which is interesting, about two times. Then you realize that looking at a snapshot of a single day isn't really telling you anything of value. If you're an Excel expert you can build a fancy spreadsheet to show graphs where you can see trends. Or you can subscribe to an online service like Training Peaks ($20 a month if you want the graphing features), upload your results and track your fitness. I see online services as an excellent choice for a committed athlete, but a bit over-the-top for the Club Athletes that make up the majority of our classes.
When Cameron Chinatti from Stages Indoor Cycling explained their new iPhone App, which is designed for use with the FreeMotion console, I saw it as a potentially useful tool that could benefit both you and your students.
So I agreed to give it a try to see if it was in fact useful and not needlessly complex or distracting.
I have a “Is it intuitive and easy to use?” test, which is simply; “do you turn it on and it works… Yes or No?
The App passed – and as long as I followed the proper procedure, every time I turned it on it worked.
The console is designed to “Pair” fancy word for connecting to both a Heart Rate strap and/or your iPhone during “Warm Up” mode. Once you advance to Stage 1 Pairing is no longer available. With the Stages App turned on, pedaling the bike and the console in Warm Up you will see:
Pressing the Stage button brings you to the main screen.
My second test is; “what value does this product provide, beyond some fancy graphics?”
Something we all need to know.
The Stages App will calculate your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) and your Heart Rate at FTP over a series of rides. Understanding your FTP is as important as knowing your Threshold Heart Rate. With both these metabolic markers you can create specific training zones. Once your student's know their Power Zones your class will be a whole lot easier to teach for you and more understandable (and beneficial) for them 🙂
Here's the setup screen where you can select to App to calculate your FTP or you can manually add it if known.
Auto-Calculate FTP is HUGE
I talked to Cameron about the auto-calculate feature because after three rides it was showing my FTP as 186 Watts vs. ~240 watts which I'm normally seeing during a long hard effort. Her response was; “how hard did you ride during those classes?” I admitted that I hadn't worked as hard as I could have. Cameron explained that App is looking for your best 20 minute average wattage and if I don't provide a hard/long effort the App doesn't have the necessary data to work from. It didn't have any trouble calculating my FTHR 🙂
There's much more to this App and I am planning a Podcast with Cameron to explore all it's functionality in more detail. For more now please check out this Quick Start video and if you are teaching or training on a FreeMotion S11 series Indoor Cycle I highly recommend that you start using this App – ASAP. Order your Freemotion S11.0 Indoor Cycle – with Power Sensor Console
The “Heads Up Display” of student's performance data (watts, calories, cadence, HR, etc…) from Performance IQ looks like a fascinating addition to any club or studio. While not for everyone, the competitive element it introduces can make for a very exciting and motivating class experience.
But I had felt Performance IQ it was missing a few things:
The pre-class setup (entering all your students into the system) was a lot of work for the Instructor during the frenetic moments before class time.
There wasn't any option to collect or retain the each student's data.
The system only worked with the Keiser M3 Â Indoor Cycle.
All of that has changed now that Performance IQ is partnering with ZingFit who has a full-featured management system system for cycling studios. The beauty of this partnership is how well they compliment each other's service
Now…
Participants can reserve their bike online when they register for class using Zingfit's registration system. This in turn tells Performance IQ who's on which bike. No more need for the Instructor to do anything beyond starting their class and pressing the GO button.
Zingfit collects all the ride data from Performance IQ and displays it on a secure section of the Studio's website. Zingfit can even send an email to each of your students at the end of each class.
Performance IQ is now compatible with all Power bikes that use Ant+ (FreeMotion S11, Schwinn AC and CycleOps)
Listen to the Podcast below it hear all the details.
