For the past two year's or so I have been lobbying for a universal “Standard” for the description of Heart Rate Training Zones. The purpose is to get all of us talking with a common language, so we aren't confusing our students and help them reach their weight loss goals by training more effectively.
I love what we have been calling 2T/3Z or Two Thresholds / Three Heart Rate Zones and feel it is perfect for the “Club Athletes” who make up the majority of our classes.
Now there is a multi-week Heart Rate training program, designed around 2T/3Z & the Blink Heart Rate monitor, that you can offer to the clients at your club or studio. Zoning was developed by Ms. Zone Based Heart Rate Training herself; Sally Edwards, along with her partner (and ICI/PRO member) Chuck Cali.
Zoning is literally a Turn-Key fitness program in a can. I mean it will actually arrive at your studio in a can 🙂 The Zoning can contains everything you need:
Handouts and training video to educate your instructors
Promotional materials to help you sell your 6 week Zoning program to your clients
Class plans for leading each of the 6 weekly small group classes
Having seen the complete program I'm confident you will want to offer Zoning
Zoning is due to be released on November 15th and they are currently interviewing potential Beta sites. If you own or manage a fitness studio and would like to be considered as an early test facility (or you would like to be contacted when the program is released) follow this link to submit your contact information.
Recently John posted another excellent piece related to the power of three. He concluded with ICI/PRO’s own version of three-zone power training. I applauded him in the comment section thanking him for getting back to basics.
As a primary facilitator of ZONING (a two threshold three zone heart rate training system) with Sally Edwards I couldn’t agree more with John’s support and suggestion that our club athletes don’t need more.
Yet as an instructor who been teaching daily (M — F) for some time now, I’m convinced that few if any riders in ‘spin classes’ theses days are there for structured training. Three, five or seven zones, they could mostly care less. They don’t want any zones. They want to feel like they worked out and it wasn’t so bad. Heart rate and power were not at the top of their minds when they walked through the door.
And yes, I called it ‘Spin Class’. Like John, I’m getting back to basics. We’re looking 2014 square in the face. I think it is time we regard what we do in the context of what our paying customers call it. It is time to understand that just keeping it real is making it boring. We can offer sound training without our riders even knowing about. In fact I say don’t tell them.
Our riders come to Spin Class and I’m all about my riders! Thanks to Johnny G., we have Spinning. Spinning is what they come to do. No I don’t mean the Spinning most of us learned during our certification though spinning is still the number one certification out there.
I mean the fun spinning classes that everyone was raving about not that long ago. The community of fun, energetic sweat filled rooms that SoleCycle copied, repackaged and gave back to us at four times the price. Three zones not required.
So when I talk about coming back to basics I’m not kidding. The goal is still well attended popular classes. That is what management is looking at. More than you think. And let’s face it; teaching to a full room is cool.
So apply the following rule of three for sustainable well attended popular classes:
LEARN, LOVE AND BE LIVELY
LEARN as much as you can about indoor cycling, (as it pertains to the indoor bikes you teach on) cardiovascular training and outdoor riding. Just don’t try to sell it to your riders.
LOVE. Show up for class in time to make a friendly connection with your riders. Stay connected during class. See my post on connections.
BE LIVELY. Play music relevant to your plan for the class, which should be, to use your extensive cardio/bike riding knowledge and experience to give your riders a sense of community, some fun, and a good workout that DOES NOT include lessons on road riding, power or heart rate training.
Please understand I am in NO way suggesting we all abandon the sound fundamental principles we’ve championed here for so long. I’m recommending that you use all of it. Just don’t tell your riders.
Indeed my choice has been to cover it all up with a laugh, music playing somewhat louder than I would listen to in my car and cues that make sense to regular people. People coming to your class because they know it’s good for them and they can count on you to help them through on those tough days when they’d rather be somewhere else.
Which also happens to be the National Flag of Romania
PROFILE DESCRIPTION
This profile is an introduction to effort management that can be delivered by any indoor cycle instructor simply by relating effort to a color through the use of verbal descriptors.
OBJECTIVE
This profile introduces to our riders the concept that heart rate and breathing change with exercise intensity. That these changes are sensed by comparison to verbal descriptors and are related to a simple color coded three zone aerobic exercise system called ZONING.
I love the simplicity of the Zoning Heart Rate program. Three zones (Easy-Blue/Moderate-Yellow/Hard-Red) that are created using two thresholds; T1 Aerobic Threshold & T2 Anaerobic Threshold – AKA: AT or LT. Simple to communicate and easy for anyone to understand – perfect IMO for our Indoor Cycling classes.
We've discussed Zoning multiple times here at ICI/PRO. Here are some links where you can learn more about Zoning and how this three zone system is recommended by ACE – the American Council on Exercise as their preferred Heart Rate Training program for our “Club Athletes”. We've also got some excellent class profiles that follow the Zoning format.
Tia Kilpatrick is a Zoning Specialist who works closely with Sally Edwards. You can virtually meet her in the video below where she leads her Falling in Love with the Golden Zone class at the past Heart Zones conference held in conjunction with Cycling Fusion.
Tia has an upcoming ebook; 44 ZONING Rides for the Indoor Cycling Enthusiast. We'll let you know when it's available.
If your objective is to communicate (sell) the value of either Training With Heart Rate – or – Training With Power, teaching your class using Three Zones will be the most easily understood, accepted and remembered… here's why.
The Rule of Three
It's no accident that throughout history – thousands of years in fact – three (3) is the magic number in many, memorable fairy tales, myths and marketing campaigns. They're easily remembered and shared because they follow The Rule of Three…
There were three little pigs, three blind mice, Goldilocks and the three bears, Three Musketeers, three wise men and the Three Stooges.
1st, 2nd, 3rd – who ever remembers (or cares) who came next?
This copy writing blog explains the Rule of Three very well in the context of effectively communicating ideas.
It all comes down to the way we humans process information. We have become proficient at pattern recognition by necessity, and three is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern. This combination of pattern and brevity results in memorable content, and that’s why the Rule of Three will make you a more engaging writer.
Sticky Ideas
You see the Rule of Three used all the time across diverse areas of life. Why?
Because information presented in groups of three sticks in our heads better than other clusters of items. For example:
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people”
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen”
“Blood, sweat and tears”
“Location, location, location”
“Father, Son and Holy Spirit”
“Faith, Hope and Charity”
“Mind, body, spirit”
“Stop, Look and Listen”
“Sex, Lies and Videotape”
“I came, I saw, I conquered”
I'm confident you can add a bunch more to this list, which kind of makes my point. All of our brains are hard wired to create and retain patterns of three concepts… not four, five, six or seven – three is the magic number.
Sally Edwards understood The Rule of Three. Her three heart rate training zones concept called Zoning is designed to appeal to as many people as possible.
Please note that I didn't ask; What's the most accurate/precise/correct number of HR or Power zones? My question was; What's the best number of Heart Rate and/or Power Zones in our classes?
Cameron Chinatti with Stages Indoor Cycling says the answer is 7 Power zones. So does Joe Friel, Dr. Andrew Coggan. Chris Carmichael appears to use five. All super smart and knowledgeable people to be sure. Administered properly to a committed endurance athlete, 7 power zones is probably the most accurate/precise/correct number of HR or Power zones for them to train with.
But 7 Power training zones is too many IMO for our classes filled with Club Athletes.
The ICI/PRO Power Training Zones follow The Rule of Three.
