Welcome to the Indoor Cycling Association
Updated Valentine’s and Anti-Valentine’s Songs!
We’ve done it again. I’ve asked all my contributors for their help in compiling the best Valentine’s and Anti-Valentine’s songs for your entertaining theme rides, and edited and updated last year’s lists. We’ve got 220 love songs and 162 anti-love/heartbreak songs (what I like to call Cupid is Stupid), for a total of 382.Read more…
Teaching With Video: An Interview with Allen Jones of epicRIDES
Allen Jones of epicRIDES tells us what inspired him to enter the world of virtual rides, what makes epicRIDES different, and his latest release—the Race Across America (RAAM).Read more…
Power Training Chapter 6: Stress & Adaptation In Indoor Cycling
This chapter analyzes the physiological response of the body to the process of repeated stress on the muscles, separated by periods of adaptation. Numerous benefits of this process are discussed, including an improvement in fat metabolism with structured training. This is quite vividly proven through actual test results (Gene’s and his daughter’s) following a periodized training program based on power.Read more…
Are We Defacing Tabata?
Leave it to the fitness industry to aggressively destroy yet another sound athletic training concept. Hone in on certain indoor cycling circles and it can be an absolute free-for-all. It is not uncommon to see massive high-speed sprints (with little to no resistance), producing an eye-popping 20 watts (not a typo), upper-body gyrations that appear to be from a scene in the Exorcist, and now Tabata, Tabata, and more Tabata. Read more…
Power Training Chapter 11: Power Zones For Indoor Cycling
Similar to heart zones, power zones are unique for each individual, yet unlike heart zones, there are no biological markers to clearly identify a person’s MSP (Maximum Sustainable Power) or ability to generate power. It is clear that both threshold heart rate and VO2 max are involved in generating power.Read more…
A Super Bowl Profile That Will Rock You Like a Hurricane!
We first posted this Super Bowl profile from ICA contributor Kala Markel two years ago, and have had so many comments and e-mails about how much fun it is to teach and how much students enjoy it. Here it is again for those who may have missed it. Read more…
Power Training For Indoor Cycling Chapter 8: Power to Weight Ratio
We are jumping a little bit out of order with the Power Training ebook chapters, due to an excellent question posed after Chapter 4. So today you will learn about what power-to-weight ratio is, and tomorrow, we’ll post the chapter on training zones. It’s just like a CED workshop on power training, right here on ICA!Read more…
Is Cardio (Including Your Spinning® Class) Bad for You?
18 months ago, following a rash of press that Spinning®, and even just plain cardio, is “bad” for you, Dr. Jennifer Klau and I got together to discuss the lack of science behind these claims. Originally the audio for this interview was for members only, but I am resurrecting this and making it free for everyone to hear. This discussion specifically goes into debunking a Charles Poliquin article about the “negatives of aerobic training”.Read more…
Magic Coaching Minute: Excessive Upper-Body Movement
Jennifer and Tom discuss some of the excessive upper-body movements found when standing during indoor cycling classes and how to coach your riders to proper form.Read more…
Power Training Chapter 4: Heart Rate vs Power Training
There is a silly division between those who train with heart monitors and those who use power meters, as if people either fall into one camp or the other. Because power meters are the latest technology, there is often an attitude that heart rate training is the old way andRead more…