“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So…get on your way!” Here are 18 famous inspirational Dr. Seuss quotes to apply to what we do in our indoor cycling classes. Feel free to share this article with your club or studio!Read more…
One of the best ways to grow as an instructor is to attend other instructors’ classes. You can assess what you like and what you don’t like, you can look for similarities with your style, and you can seek out coaching styles that you would like to adopt. And if you suspect you may have a bad habit, you can ask yourself poignant questions like, “Is that what I sound like when I yell ‘Go!’ all the time?” Here are 30 things to evaluate when you take another class.Read more…
For so many years I’ve heard cycling instructors lament that “Students get bored if the class is cycling specific, so I need to [add silly move here] or they won’t come to class!” Well, I have news for you…maybe it’s not the moves or technique that are boring; maybe it’s you! Here are 13 ways you can be sure to keep students engaged while riding and committed to your classes without resorting to silly gimmicks on the bike. Read more…
Cori Parks pens an open letter to all indoor cycling studios asking them to put safety before popularity. Read more…
While teaching and instructing certainly happen in every indoor cycling class, the ability to act as a coach sets indoor cycling apart from many other group fitness formats. Cori explains the difference between each one, and how they are utilized in the cycling studio. Read more…
This is a discussion of a Joe Friel article on a common misinterpretation of a heart rate response to training. DON’T LET THIS BE YOU! Make sure you understand how your riders’ heart rates respond to training! In this post is a list of resources and articles (some free, some books, some premium articles) to help enhance your understanding of heart rate. This is important EVEN if you don’t teach with a HR monitor. It also helps your coaching using RPE and optimizes your use of power training. Read more…
Have you ever dreamed of becoming a master instructor for an indoor cycling program (or any fitness program)? I believe that the steps to becoming an MI are similar to the steps of simply being be the best indoor cycling coach possible. In other words, even if you don’t care to present at conferences or train other instructors, if you take many of the steps outlined in this post, you cannot help but grow into an exceptional kick-butt coach and trainer!Read more…
The suggestion that there is a difference between keeping it “real” and keeping it “fun” in a Spinning® class or indoor cycling class is a false dichotomy. It assumes that the population of clients for cycling classes is homogeneous in their definition of what is fun. Read more…
The term “Keep it Real” in regards to indoor cycling has gotten a bad rap lately. This subject has been talked about a lot lately on online forums and websites, so it’s time to put the stake in the ground and describe exactly what it means and what it does NOT mean. I wrote the e-book Keep it Real in 2008, and wrote the workshop for Spinning® in 2006 which was based on that concept, so I have skin in this game.Read more…
Tara asks, “How would you describe how you should be feeling at 75%, 80%, 85%, and 90% of maximum heart rate?” This may possibly be the best question of the year! When you can help your students hone in to what various intensities should feel like, you can help them not only understand how their bodies respond at various intensities, but also where their threshold likely lies. This article tells you how you can make sense of MHR zones, and is the beginning of another wonderfully educational series on heart rate and perceived exertion!Read more…