_ As comical as this above joke is, it really makes me think about spider webs as safety nets. What are the safety nets your facility uses or alternatively, what sort of safety nets do you put in place for yourself?

One of the many roles I have is an AFLCA Trainer of Leaders and I get to observe new AFLCA cycle designation candidates. Recently while observing a new instructor, she demonstrated great care and diligence. She had all participants complete an informed consent and a short medical history to inform her about any health concerns. Smart or what!

What waiver does your facility use? Or do you have participants sign a waiver or what about informed consent? And then there are the physical activity readiness questionnaires, where do they fit in?

Let’s review what each type of form will provide.

Waiver: provide coverage for the facility and associated staff in case of an incident

Informed Consent: form outlining the potential risks and benefits to participating in an exercise program

PAR-Q: simple screening tool used for participants 15 to 69 years to determine if it is appropriate to start an exercise program

PAR-MEDX: medical clearance form that must be provided to participants who answer questions positively on the PAR-Q. This form is completed by the participant’s physician.

PAR-MEDX for pregnancy: medical clearance form that must be completed by all pregnant women by their physician before participating in exercise program

These forms are all examples of safety nets. Ideally, having one or more of the forms completed by participants will demonstrate that you value your participants’ health and safety. As well, in some cases it may also protect you in an event of an incident.

What other communications tools can you use to keep your participants safe? Do you ever ask who is a new participant at the beginning of class or inquire with participants about anyone have any medical conditions you should be aware of? These types of questions can provide some valuable verbal information about who is participating in your class and better enabling you to provide an appropriate class (i.e., suitable intensity, drill types, etc.). It is just another way to avoid having any incidents during your class.

In the past couple years, “safety nets” have become more common such that U of A Campus Recreation program has now implemented waivers for all participants who partake in group fitness classes. Take a look at their form for an example.

What are the ways you protect your participants and yourself in your indoor cycling classes? What is your “spider web”?

 

I am very fortunate with my work as an AFLCA Trainer of Fitness Leader to meet both new and veteran indoor cycling instructors. In my most recent AFLCA Cycle Designation Course, one such participant shared with me a recent article she wrote.

Lisa Wojna is a journalist with a fitness column in the Leduc Representative and she shared with me (and now you) this great article on visualization. Take a read and get inspired!

Those of you who’ve ever participated in a spin cycle class will likely agree that a good spin instructor is a master of visualization.

They can take you to foreign lands, favourite childhood haunts, or on imaginary scenarios while coaching you to push yourself up a hill or sprint to that someplace, or someone, you’ve envisioned at the end of your workout.

Add a great mix of music to the scenario and any discomfort you might feel in your quads or on your backside is washed away by an otherwise exhilarating experience.

I recently participated in a course for prospective spin instructors and was fortunate enough to have an amazing leader. And as I listened to her verbal promptings, and painted my own journey scenario during our workouts, I thought about how closely this method of teaching reflects a healthy way of working through many of life’s challenges.
 
Whether it’s preparing for exams, putting the finishing touches on a work project, or getting ourselves in top physical condition, envisioning the end result and its many rewards helps take at least some of the stress and strain off the process.
 
The idea of using visualization to reach a goal took me back 29 years, to the later stages of my first pregnancy, when I employed a similar method to propel me through my modified walking program during those last few weeks before my first child was born.
 
Every weekday morning I’d don my heavy winter coat at around 11:30 and waddle my way toward the hospital where my husband worked. We’d enjoy our lunch together, and then I’d waddle back home. Between the two walks I clocked about 60 minutes of gentle exercise.
 
Now anyone who has ever lived in Winnipeg likely won’t need to read this next bit, but let’s just say frosty, frigid, freezing, and furious are just a few of the adjectives one could use to describe winter weather conditions in that corner of our country.

To get myself through those walks, especially on the most inclement days, I’d envision the stages of my pregnancy. I’d mentally divide the distance between home and the hospital into sections, with each section representing a different stage of my pregnancy.
 
Sometimes those sections would represent trimesters, and as I passed each section I recognized I was moving closer to my due date—those were usually days when I didn’t need as much of a distraction from the weather or how my body felt under the heavy strain of pregnancy.
 
Sometimes I’d get quite detailed, reviewing the major milestones that have already occurred with the growing baby inside me, and what was still to come. Those added details demanded more mental energy and distracted me from the weather on particularly cold days.
 
Of course, reaching the hospital on my way to lunch, and reaching my home afterward, always signified the birth of my firstborn.
 
Some might think this is a silly game, but it kept me moving and exercising during a time in my life when I would have much rather been resting—or eating chocolate ice cream. And like the techniques employed by a good spin instructor, they propelled me toward my goal of keeping at least moderately active during my pregnancy.
 
What story could you tell yourself to propel you through your morning workout? What kind of journey could you take yourself on that would thrust you through a challenging boot camp session, or that dog walk you’ve been putting off all week?
 
It’s great to stay focused on the task at hand, but we all need a little encouragement every now and again. If taking your mind off your squats by thinking nice thoughts keeps you on your exercise program, then dream away.
 
And before you know it, you’ll be reaching that goal and plowing on to the next one!
 
Happy dreaming!

And with that, I wish you a happy summer! I`ve already slowed my pace (and blog posts) and will be taking a break over the summer. But will be working on my promised series on using the energy systems effectively with cycle drills and skills. Check back in September for more posts about one of my favorite things to do...ride my bike!

Keeping your spin bikes in tip top shape is key for the participant experience. No one ever appreciates a squeaky bike!

A recent post on Fitnet.ca discusses the how-to on brake pads. Check out their YouTube video too!

It may not be part of your formal job description but having some idea about how indoor cycling bikes work is always good to have in your back pocket!

At the end of my last registered session, I taught a class that for a lack of a better word was a “mixed bag” of different drill types and durations. I realized while teaching that cycle participants were able to do certain drills much better than others. I thought to myself, what is going on here? I too was feeling stronger with certain drills. Reflecting back on the last 12 weeks of classes, I soon recognized that our focus was on many 30 second drills. In comparison, there were far fewer shorter duration (i.e., 15 second) and very long duration (i.e., >3 minute) drills. Variety is a focus of me, and as much as I thought I provided it over the term, it was obvious that in addition to just “changing things up” regularly, I needed to focus more on ensuring drills worked with all energy systems.

How can we as group fitness leaders provide that variety which keeps classes interesting, while ensuring that we’ve covered all the key elements?

I reflect on a current tag line that I am using in my fulltime work – PDSA. Well, what the heck does that mean? That’s not a word! It is the short form for Plan, Do, Study, and Act. I plan to learn from my recent experience and use it to improve my classes. Let’s explore more...

PLAN

This part is really the no-brainer. We plan out our classes with music, drills, themes, etc. each time we ride in front of a group. As educated group fitness leaders, we plan our registered classes from start to finish by slowly progressing cycle participants into the harder drills. Some of us use a written lesson plan (always my suggested way of doing it!) while others might have a plan based on a playlist and/or have at least mapped it in our heads beforehand. In my situation, this past term my plan primarily used multiple drill types in 30 second work increments including hills, power, and sprints.

DO

Again, we are brilliant at implementation. That is what we do. At times we may modify our plan on the fly based on our groups’ needs but in most cases we do what we do – ride an indoor bike and lead our cycle participants through drills and hopefully, an experience.

STUDY

Now this is where things might start to break down. How do we measure how effectively we planned and how well we implemented that plan? Depending on your studio, cycle participants might complete a survey, but this usually it doesn’t provide all that much information on your specific class drills and your cycle participants’ physical fitness improvement. This is where you as a group fitness leader need to take a step back and access how your participants are doing. Is there a way you could test their ability to do a certain type of drill? The easiest way is through different drill types and observe how they use our bodies’ energy systems. It only makes sense as the energy systems provide energy to allow our bodies to do what we do – move!

ACT

Once you’ve determined how to STUDY your group, and then act. In my situation above, I was a bit late out of the gates. I wasn’t able to make changes to our workouts because the class was just to finish. Ideally, a perfect time to measure your group’s ability would be at the half way point of the class. Giving you the opportunity to re-assess, and if need be, change your plan for future classes.

The idea of PDSA can be applied to just about anything. How else could you study your class? I’d love to hear your ideas and share them on my blog. Drop me a comment or two!

I might have tweaked your interest - energy systems. Remember from your training? In the next handful of blog posts I will be reviewing the energy systems (there are three of them) and providing ways to incorporate each of them into your cycle drills and skills! Check back soon for your first instalment!

Recently, I was thumbing through iTunes podcasts and stumbled upon a fantastic find - SpinTastics playlists by Jason Hammers. It is a well stocked list of podcasts full of single one hour mixes of spin songs. And the best part is that they are FREE to download!

I contacted Jason to hear his take on his 20+ playlists.

He told me that initially he made the playlists available to his clients and cycle participants particularly for those who missed a session and wanted to get their workout in on their own time. The idea grew and Jason started to share his playlists with other instructors who needed help finding good music. At which point, he decided to design a podcast and post them on iTunes.

Jason’s playlists are chalk full of your favourite songs and they are all from the original artists. Take some time to listen to each and build your class drills based on the sequence of the songs. Songs can range in beats per minute from fast (140 bpm) to slow (90 bpm) so apply drills appropriately!

Jason also told me that he is considering building spin profiles/drills and packaging with his playlists for a small fee. Keep an eye out on Jason’s website for when they become available.

To get your copies of SpinTastics, simply download iTunes to your computer (if you don’t already have it) and search “spintastics”. It should be the first item to pop up in Top Results.

As you can agree, music is essential to our classes and making a playlist can take a fair amount of time. Thanks to Jason we’ve got access to an extensive choice of playlist podcasts.

Kudos to Jason for designing great playlists!

I’ve been working on a workshop for the upcoming 11th Annual YMCA Spring Training Conference on reinventing your spin classes and a word keeps coming up as I put it together: creativity. A colleague and friend of mine forwarded me this and wondered what thought! Take a peak!

 Not to give away what’s in store for the upcoming workshop, what can we learn from these daring acts on the bike? Let’s put on our creativity hats...

· A couple words come to mind – enthusiasm and energy. How do you bring these two attributes to your classes?

· The use of percussion and sound cues with clapping. The individuals are using clapping to set the rhythm and beat in the song. Could you add another layer of cuing to the music you use?

· Pedal cadence is consistent with the beats per minute (bpm) in each song. For example, in the first video, the song is 150 bpm and the cyclist is pedalling between 75-80 rpm. Look at how effective the music is setting the intensity and pace. Do you use the bpm of your songs to dictate cadence in your classes?

· Synchronization! Matching partner or group leg movements were set. This is a great way to foster teamwork in your class. How could you promote synchronization in your classes? 

· It is all about taking your cycle participants out of the norm for a spin class. How can you do this? Well, bike placement might just do it. The second video demonstrates a pace line option. Now, I don’t recommend the bounding over the bikes, but perhaps this could be the inspiration for participants rotate through bikes in a safer way? How can you shake it up for your cycle participants?

· Just like a round in music (two or more voices sing exactly the same melody, starting at different times), the cyclists in the second video glide into a round on the bike when each move from sitting to standing starting at the next phrase in the racing music. When can you include a round in your drills?

· Did you catch the theme in the last video? Kevin Bacon in a tight white shirt and jeans bring anything to mind? The cyclists are ‘dancing’ to the song Footloose on their bikes. Decked out in tight white shirts (minus jeans of course) and tapping their feet just like some of the moves from the movie. Now it maybe that we won’t ‘dance’ on the bike (although that might even be something to consider) but think about themes for you classes. What themes would interest your cycle participants?

Now I would be neglectful if I did not mention that some of these moves are not particularly safe for many (if not all) of our cycle participants. Uncontrolled high cadence, lifting the stationary bike off the ground, standing on the handle bars, uncontrolled single leg work, the v-sit on the saddle, and clap push ups are not recommended in a regular spin class. So maybe don’t try this at home or in the studio with participants.

Let’s look at these videos more as a spectacle versus functional training, but anything can be the inspiration for a great spin class!

Keep creative!

I'd like to start off the new year with a freebie - an E-book on Resistance Training with Thera-Bands® !

Use it with your cycle participants (Spin and Resistance Class, anyone?!?), share with other clients you work with, or start a Thera-Band® program yourself!

To get this E-Book:
1. join my new Facebook page, Medical Fitness Consulting (you'll see my picture),
2. click on LIKE this page, and
3. send me a quick email at info@lisaworkman.com so I can send you a copy!

You have until January 31, 2011 to receive your free E-Book.

By joining my Facebook page, you'll get automatic updates when my blog is updated! Woowhoo!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!