With over 1800 articles in our archives there's a good chance that our ICI/PRO members may have missed some of our best stuff. So every Wednesday we are republishing some of our favorite articles and podcasts - enjoy!
By Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas
I love looking for music for my class. I”™ll spend hours searching. When I find a good song, I”™m ecstatic. I”™ve always loved listening to, hearing and feeling certain rhythms. There”™s even a hierarchy in my appreciation of a song: first, listening to it; second, riding my bike to it. But the absolute best is leading a class to it. It”™s an awesome feeling.
I”™m not the only one. Many indoor-cycling instructors feel the same way.
If you teach indoor cycling, you”™re an Exercise to Music (ETM) instructor. ETM instructors work in fitness centers, health clubs, community centers, church halls, schools — in fact, wherever there's a suitable space and some sort of sound system. Most of us work freelance, delivering several classes a week and enjoying the flexibility of working around our existing lifestyle. Some teach full-time and often become involved in running a club as studio coordinators. Wherever ETM instructors go career-wise, however, they share a love of teaching to music.
Music influences us so deeply that the body reacts. Our pupils dilate, our pulse and blood pressure rise, the electrical conductance of our skin drops, and the cerebellum, a brain region associated with bodily movement, becomes more active. Blood is even re-directed to the leg muscles. Some speculate that this is why we tap our feet (or ride harder). It”™s obvious that music evokes emotion, but it”™s still not clearly understood why.
Recently, a team of Montreal researchers screened 217 respondents to ads seeking people who experience “chills to instrumental music.” The researchers asked the subjects to bring in a playlist of favorite songs and monitored their brain activity while the music played.
The music triggered the release of dopamine in the dorsal and ventral striatum. No surprise. Those regions have long been associated with response to pleasurable stimuli. The more interesting finding emerged from a close study of the timing of this response, what happened seconds before the subjects got the chills.
Just before the participants”™ favorite moments in the music, dopamine activity increased in a different portion of the brain called the caudate. Researchers called this the “anticipatory phase” and suggested that it signals the coming of a pleasurable auditory sequence, triggering expectation of euphoria, a “reward prediction.” The reward was the sense of resolution — hearing what they expected to hear.
We typically associate surges of dopamine with the processing of actual rewards. And yet, in the caudate, while listening to music, dopamine release is most active when the chills have yet to arrive, when the melodic pattern is still unresolved.
This is why musicians sometimes introduce a theme or note in the beginning of a song and then avoid it. The longer we”™re denied the pattern we expect, the greater the emotional release when the pattern returns. That”™s when we get the chills.
But that”™s just listening to music. Why is teaching to it even more pleasurable? When we know a song really well, it becomes more predictable. Yet, when we teach to it, that doesn”™t seem to matter. Or maybe we like teaching to music we love because it”™s familiar, not despite that. We”™re anticipating our favorite parts and getting the reward when we ride as they play.
There”™s no research that explains this phenomenon in ETM instructors, so I tried to think of a similar situation.
Teaching indoor-cycling to music is not unlike a musician”™s performance. I”™m not creating the music, but I”™m channeling my feelings for it into classes. I build and repeat patterns. They”™re biomechanical, but they”™re still patterns.
So I checked the forums and found statements on why musicians like to play and perform. These were some of the accounts I found:
I play simply because it brings me a kind of enjoyment that I can”™t find anywhere else.
There”™s no better feeling than creating something that cannot be recreated.
Because I have ideas and feelings that I can't express any other way.
To bring an audience into the moment is satisfying.
It's like a body part. I was just born with it. I can try to ignore it, but it will always be there. I can enjoy myself and do what I was born to do and love to do, or I can stop doing it and be miserable.
By the pure manipulation of sound, you can bring out emotion in yourself and others and express yourself when words fail. Well, that, and chicks.
For me, playing music reaffirms that there is magic and wonder in this world.
To end war and poverty, to align the planets and bring universal harmony and contact with all life forms from aliens to household pets.
Every one of the above statements describes my feeling about teaching indoor cycling to music. The last one is my favorite because the musician can”™t identify why he/she loves to play. People ask me why I”™ve taught exercise to music for over 30 years, why I spend hours looking for the right song to create what I hope will be a good ride. I can”™t quite explain it, either.
Becoming a good indoor-cycling instructor requires an incredible amount of work, and having a passion for music helps to motivate us to put in the many required hours. Studying music, staying open to sources of new music (e.g., a movie soundtrack), learning to play an instrument, or just listening to musicians perform are powerful ways to improve our craft.
- Spinning Our Wheels:Can’t We Go Faster? - February 24, 2024
- Still More on Motivation - January 1, 2024
- Differentiation:ICG® Academy Opens in San Francisco - December 23, 2023
Thanks for this Jim. I am a ‘music freak’ when it pertains to my class. For years I have counted the beats per minute and matched rpm’s, known when surges in the music happen and matched surges in the ride to them, used phrasing and feeling in music to phrasing and feeling in my rides. Other instructors (and good friends of mine) have just looked at me with puzzled expressions and said, “Music is just background for my classes.” I even had one instructor say, “Music is a crutch!”
Well, for me it’s worth the extra time and effort to feel exactly what you describe above. And, although class members cannot often put their finger on why, I often hear, “You have the best music”, or “Your music just works the best for class”. This makes it all worthwhile. (Please note I am not saying they are saying “You have the best class in the world or anything like that…”)
When we got power bikes, and finally could see our rpm’s instead of having to guess, I actually had a few panicked members ask if I was going to stop correlating my music with rpm’s. Absolutely not!
Music is the universal language. It motivates, encourages and stirs emotion- all things we want to do as coaches and instructors. I want to use all the tools I can to do the best job I can. I love that we have so much control over our cycling playlist. I remember in the ‘olden’ days of aerobics, our music selections were dismal. They are much better now, with the ability to pre-listen and formulate blended consistent bpm playlists on line. Thank goodness!
Thanks again.
Amy
Thanks for writing this Amy. I feel the same way as you about music. I feel it is important to keep emphasizing the power of music for the very reasons you state in your reply. It is still being underused by many instructors. If someone begins teaching indoor cycling that comes from a strong cycling background and not an ETM background, they often don’t empower their class with great music and they definitely don’t use the music’s structure for increased ergogenic impact. The class becomes more about numbers and correct technique (which are great, don’t get me wrong) but not about experience.
I also agree with your last point. We have so much flexibility these days with genres and our ability to find music and craft a playlist, that I am often amazed at what we were able to do back in the days of aerobics. Thank goodness is right.
Ahhhh Music… What would we do without it. The more time, care, and thought I put into my music selection; The more often I look up to see a packed room of enthusiastic students ready to ride. I have started to think about my classes as relationships and pour over songs and select music as if I were making a “Mixed tape” (some of you old school instructors may remember doing this) for my best friend or lover.