Throwback Thursday: Have you ever had a rider pedal way too slowly with too much resistance, yet she didn’t respond to your cues? It may be time to offer a little physiology lesson. You have to be careful not to go over their heads and have their eyes glaze over, so here is a short, interesting, and easy-to-understand way to explain why they might want to increase their cadence. Read more…
In part 2 of our discussion on teaching recovery, I define workload, recovery, and adaptation and give you examples of when you ABSOLUTELY do need to teach recovery classes. You will also learn how to teach your students about taking responsibility for their own recovery.Read more…
Here in the Rocky Mountains, the snowline that has already covered our higher peaks is getting lower and lower, and it won’t be long until snow is an almost daily reality. I thought I’d share some photos of our last-ditch efforts to squeeze out some mountain bike rides in the high desert, before we hang up our bikes for the winter and ride exclusively inside. And yes, there is a reason why I wrote “refugees” in the title of this post. Please continue reading to find out why…Read more…
For today’s TBT (Throwback Thursday) we are reposting one of the articles that became the foundation for ICA’s philosophy of heart rate training. Instructors should understand why maximum heart rate is not a good anchor for training zones, and instead learn how to perform field tests and talk tests so they can more accurately guide their riders to success.Read more…
The final segment of this series addresses two of the benefits of teaching off the bike that have the most impact: assessing intensity of your riders and teaching HIT intervals. You now have all the tools you need to be a highly effective indoor cycling coach who knows how to teach off the bike.Read more…
This profile is a series of climbs that get progressively longer. Each one is very different from the other, not just in length and cadence, but also personality. This is manifested in the music choice. I took a previous ICA profile and kept the terrain, but completely changed the music and objective to create an entirely new profile.Read more…
Creating new profiles is one of the more challenging aspects of being an indoor cycling instructor. But you may have a deeper well of profiles at your own fingertips without even realizing it! Here are 6 tips to take your existing profiles and double or even triple them with a few tweaks. Read more…
Throwback Thursday (updated). Teaching off the bike is a skill. With effective and judicious use, you can empower your students beyond what you could do from the saddle. But you can also overdo it and alienate your students. Dismounting occasionally is different from teaching an entire class off the bike. Here are specific steps to elevate your coaching from the floor.Read more…
Part 3 of this series on effective coaching off the bike gives you the remainder of the 12 ways to make sure that you enjoy the process so that you can empower your students. Read more…
Part 2 of knowing whether your class is too hard or too easy means digging in deeper into what “hard” really means and how to convey it to your riders. I link to seven articles to help ensure you fully understand this level of effort. This includes 23 cues to empower your riders to give everything they have to reach the level of effort to actually realize the HIT benefits. Otherwise, they’re awash in mediocrity.Read more…