I was in California in January of 2011 to take the Real Ryder certification in Brentwood (Los Angeles) and to teach my Alpe d’Huez master ride at the Real Ryder studio. I had a chance to watch a lot of indoor cycling instructors-to-be on that Saturday, and had some long discussions with numerous California instructors about the other instructors they work with and the average indoor cycling instructor in California. I was, to put it bluntly, aghast at the speed at which these so-called “instructors” were turning their legs as they rode.
As a result of this, I came to an important conclusion. I have thought this for many years, but haven’t verbalized it or written about it with the certitude I am about to give it. I now fully understand what I believe to be the number one error that is being taught in the indoor cycling and Spinning® world. No, it’s not the pushups, squats, hovers, pedaling backwards, lifting weights while pedaling, isolations, etc that are so prevalent at some facilities. As ineffective as those things are, they are not the #1 problem. And yes, there is a huge lack of knowledge about heart rate training and physiology in general amongst instructors. As unfortunate as that is, it’s not the #1 problem that must be fixed first. The most pervasive problem is universal. It’s prevalent in California, I’ve seen it in Texas, it’s all over the North East and the South. I’ve always been confounded at WSSC in Miami, Can Fit Pro in Toronto, ECA in New York, and more, because it was ever present at every single conference at which I’ve ever presented (that makes twenty conferences in 14 years). I’ve spoken with European, South American and Asian Master Instructors who lament about it as well in their respective regions of the world. I see it on Youtube videos of indoor cycling classes and shake my head when I realize that this is what instructors are spreading to their students. It’s everywhere. Everywhere. All over the world.
And it might be you.
Someone has got to tell it like it is. Someone has got to have the nerve to call these instructors out. I guess I get to be the meanie….but it’s a role I’ll happily take on if it means potentially improving even just one instructor’s methods, and ultimately in the process, helping one group of students.
What is the #1 thing that indoor cycling instructors do incorrectly?
this is not on the same subject, I saw an instructor teaching her class to jab to the right with the right hand and then to left, as if punching someone. What are your thoughts about this. Thank you