Welcome to the Indoor Cycling Association
Strategies for Strength: Synchronized Breathing
I started experimenting more with breathing technique after adding yoga to my training about ten years ago. We all know breathing is important, but I was unaware of the hidden benefits of developing breathing technique until I experienced it firsthand on the bike.Read more…
Mainstream Music Monday: Great Song to Coach Off the Bike
Want to bring the intensity to your next class? Then check out this song and its choreography!Read more…
Strategies for Strength: Activate Those Hip Flexors
This strategy for strength dips in the world of biomechanics—one of my favorite topics! We can sometimes spend hours working on our pedal stroke seated, but neglect full muscle usage when standing. When proper pedal stroke technique is not emphasized out of the saddle, riders usually resort to simply mashing down on the pedals. This only activates the quadriceps and reduces efficiency, endurance, and power. So let’s throw some hip in there.Read more…
Strategies for Strength: A Sprinter’s Take on Climbing Strategies
Before I contribute a few of my favorite climbing strategies, I want to share my perspective on climbing. Because I’m mostly a sprinter, one might wonder what climbing strategies I have to offer. Well, if anyone has strategies for climbing, it would be a person who knows suffering is always involved.Read more…
Strategies for Strength: Counting Pedal Strokes
This climbing strategy helped me get over climbs of two or more hours in the Alps and New Zealand. I’ve found a way to use it in my classes and really get students to zone inward when their road tilts upward for long periods. It’s not quite what you think!Read more…
Strategies for Strength in Your Spinning Climbing Classes
Climbing big mountains is a rite of passage for cyclists. Getting you and your bicycle up that hill in defiance of gravity is one of the most difficult aspects of riding a bicycle, but it is also one of the great attractions to cycling. Overcoming the mountain challenges you—it bares your soul; it asks you to perform beyond what you thought was even possible. Over the next few weeks, Tom and I will be giving you our favorite strategies—both physical and mental—to get you and your students over that hump. We’ll be drawing from our own experience climbing long, hard mountains.Read more…
Connecting to Your New Rider’s Mindset
When is the last time you did something you had never ever tried that was so far outside your comfort zone that you considered backing out at the last moment? Nothing connects you to your new rider’s mindset like actually doing something new yourself. Here are a few things to keep in mind when teaching new riders.Read more…
The Asthmatic Athlete
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for riding…that is, unless you have asthma. Today’s article provides you with teaching tips for your asthmatic students.Read more…
Theme Ride Thursday: This Vampire Marriage Must Be Stopped!
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes mama vampire with a baby carriage! Read more…
Use “Classic Spinning” Songs to Celebrate International Indoor Cycling Day!
Angela van Baal is an ICA member from the Netherlands who is planning on playing some of the old classic songs first used in the early days of Spinning® for her International Indoor Cycling Day ride this weekend. What a GREAT idea! I decided to put together a list of some of my most favorite classic Spinning songs from back in the day. Use these for your IICD event—or any event that celebrates Spinning!Read more…