This is a blog post by group fitness instructor Erica Barker (reprinted with permission). She accurately describes what most of us go through as we prepare for our one-hour fitness class, of any format. It’s a LOT more than that one hour, isn’t it? Share this with your peers and even with your students; it’s helpful when they understand how much your passion drives what you do!Read more…
Energy in science can neither be created nor destroyed. What about energy in your classroom? Energy is one of the primary things that distinguishes a good class from a poor one. A class with good energy is almost always a good class. A class without energy is, well, dead. Here are tips to keep the energy high.Read more…
Alisha Shulter is an indoor cycling instructor who recently taught her first class off the bike. But, she hadn’t planned on doing it that way. The results, however, were magical and taught her a lot about herself and her students. She wrote this blog post about it and gave me permission to share it with you here at ICA.Read more…
Last week I posted a video of my iTunes filing system, a result of years of trial and error to find the best way to organize and categorize songs so that making playlists for profiles will be much easier. Here are some close-up screenshots of my category folders and playlists. In addition to organization, this will give you ideas for naming your profiles as well as many fun theme ride ideas!Read more…
This article on managing a participant’s bad attitude by guest contributor Nancy Korf is very relevant to any type of group fitness class. It is a situation that many of us have encountered in our cycling classes so we wanted to share it with you. There are some real gems in the advice she gives here!Read more…
If you haven’t seen Simon Sinek’s TED Talk yet, it’s a must-watch. Sinek’s central message, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it,” holds profound implications for those of us in the fitness industry. This principle encourages us to reflect on our motivations and infuse our teaching with a deeper purpose.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…
In my e-book “Ten Ways to Stay Motivated as an Indoor Cycling Instructor,” one of the things I discuss is to always be prepared. In doing so, you reduce your potential stress level because you are confident that should something happen, you have a way to address the problem and not skip a beat in your instruction of your class. In this post, I give you a Plan B so you can avoid the challenge I dealt with!Read more…
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…
Like many of us, I had gone through a number of life transitions, which can distract us from basic principles we all know well and usually practice, like RECOVERY. I’ve spoke about this to instructors at conferences and have given lengthy diatribes on the importance of adequate rest to those I’ve coached. Yet, here I am (again) finding myself fatigued.Read more…