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…
Some instructors motivate their students to reach the top of that hill because of the way it will make them feel, for the confidence it will build in them, for the realization that if they can do that, they can do anything they set their minds to. Others yell at riders to push to the top of the mountain so they can fit into a certain dress for the summer, or because they’ll look good when they go out at night. Which one are you?Read more…
This is a great question for new instructors about how often to repeat music and profiles. I give my advice, but I’d love it if some of you longtime instructors can share what your experience with this is. It may partially depend on the market and culture of your facility, but mostly it depends on your style and tolerance.Read more…
I was interviewed for an article in ACE Fitness magazine by Amanda Vogel called “Are Celebrity Trainers Making People Fat?” The tongue-in-cheek title of the article mimics the headline that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar magazine last fall called “Is Spinning Making You Fat?” Amanda asks whether fitness professionals stay silent or take a stand against the popular but misleading headlines propagated by the media.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…
As an indoor cycling instructor, I believe your job is to lead your students to greater fitness, provide motivation and inspiration, educate them, and have fun in the process. In fulfilling these obligations, you want to have a mix of the elements listed in this article in your quiver of classes. These aren’t energy zones or specific types of profiles, rather they could be what is stated as an objective (or sub-objective) for your profile.Read more…
Bryon Black has auditioned over 100 prospective new instructors as a co-director of his club’s cycling program. He brings you some valuable tips with so much meat on them that I’ve divided this into a 4-part series. The first three articles each cover three tips, and the final article is devoted to one incredible tip on its own; it’s that impactful. It will not only get you the job, but it will raise your own coaching to another level. In fact, most of these tips are excellent suggestions simply for being a better indoor cycling coach whether you are auditioning, or working at the same facility with the same students for over a decade!!Read more…
What do you say when you want to push your students beyond their threshold? Here is a list of inspiring cues to help them achieve what you are asking so they can reap the benefits that you are seeking (the objective of the profile). Some cues are visuals, some areRead more…