I love my birthday (quite frankly, what I call my birthday week) and in honour of our nation’s birthday, I would like to share a couple ways to use the theme “birthdays” in a cycle class.

1.       Throw a birthday party! Invite cycle participants to celebrate a birthday, such as Canada Day. Have birthday games (you remember your childhood favorites such as Pin the Tail on the Donkey) and modify them into cycle drills, decorate with streamers and balloons, and provide party hats. Consider having prizes or “goody-bags” at the end of class for all those who attended. And don’t forget to play the song “Happy Birthday”.

2.       A less involved way to incorporate the theme “birthdays” is using birth month to group cycle participants. It is an easy and quick way to separate the class into distinct groups. Regardless of what drill you want to do with class participants, calling out a month of the year, cycle participants who are born in that month will respond without even thinking! When grouping, I would suggest three or four groups, which include either three or four months together (e.g., cycle participants born in January, February, and March participate together).

3.       And finally, for registered classes where you could access participants’ birthdays, consider at the month end, celebrating the birthdays. What a great way to make participants feel special in their birthday month!

My countdown is on as my birthday week is fast approaching. Enjoy Canada Day!

Picture Courtesy of: Edmonton Journal

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P.S., As we roll into the summer months, my blog post may become fewer as I will be out on my bike enjoying the nice weather. Don’t worry - I am cooking up more blog post ideas for the Fall! Happy Summer! Happy Riding!

Interested in reading another blog? My colleague, Angela Torry, from the Alberta Centre for Active Living recently started a Physical Activity Blog. Check it out for some unique ideas and inspiration to get more people physically active!

http://centre4activeliving.blogspot.com/

It feels like my wheels are still spinning after a great weekend at the Provincial Fitness Unit’s Fit Rendezvous. I find that attending conferences sets in motion new creative ideas to bring back to your classes. With volunteering, I was able to observe Lisa Kingston’s Endurance and Extreme Training session and that is the inspiration for my warm-up drill below.

Dynamic warm-ups prepare cycle participants for the workout ahead, particularly if the planned workout is of increased intensity. It helps participants increase blood flow to their working muscles by increasing cardiac output (heart rate and stroke volume). Mentally, participants are engaged from the start. They are forced to focus from the very beginning!

Have cycle participants set their tension at a steady state, moderate intensity with a cadence between ~80-88 rpm. When everyone has settled into that cadence, prompt cycle participants to:

1)      Increase to ~100 rpm while they stay seated for 10 seconds

2)      Then slow leg cadence back to ~80-88 rpm for 20 seconds

3)      Repeat up to four to six times

Now that cycle participants have become used to sitting with quick cadence, have cycle participants add resistance to the fly wheel and stand on their pedals. Maintain cadence at ~80-88 rpm while standing. Body position should have hips slightly set back so knees are directly above the pedal axle. Again when everyone has settled in, prompt cycle participants to:

1)      Increase cadence to ~100 rpm while they stay standing for 10 seconds

2)      Slow leg cadence back to ~80-88 rpm for 20 seconds

3)      Repeat up to four to six times

By starting with some cadence work at the beginning of the workout, it will enable participants to be ‘quick on their feet’ for the rest of the ride.

Not sure when my post-conference high will slow my wheels down. Enjoy the ride!

This past weekend, my husband and I competed in the team event of the 26th Annual Subway Coronation Triathlon. Guess who rode the bike course!?! The course was riding up and down a notorious road in Edmonton – Groat Road. It has a continuous hill climb that deviously plateaus, for what you think is the end, to be followed by a short climb to the top of 111 Avenue. It was with great pleasure that I got to ride the hill four times!

I reincarnated the climb for my cycle participants in class. I wanted them to have a chance to experience the Groat Road climb. Here is how it unfolds...

To start, have cycle participants start with a tension that mimics a hill (cadence will slow down).

The hill has five distinct climbs, which vary in duration. Prompt cycle participants to add a ‘gear’ (read: add resistance) with each hill climb.

Picture credit: static.flickr.com

Hill 1: 30 seconds

Hill 2: 60 seconds

Hill 3: 60 seconds

Hill 4: 90 seconds

Hill 5: 15 seconds

After the cycle participants reach the top of the hill, set the stage for the downhill portion. Groat Road has six turns, which are ~ 30 seconds each. With each turn, instruct cycle participants to drop a ‘gear’ and increase their cadence to the bottom.

I would encourage you to explore the various, hilly terrains of your community and make them into drills for your cycle participants. Take a ride for yourself and see how the hill would be best described. Draw the hill on a poster or white board as this will help participants visualize the course and allow you to place landmarks of interest (i.e., road signs, bridges, shoulder/run off lanes, etc.). On Groat Road, my two major landmarks were a traffic sign indicating a change in speed limit and the 107 avenue bridge which you ride under.

Setting up a drill that can be applied to an outdoor location can help cycle participants’ transition from indoor to outdoor riding and give them an opportunity to imagine riding local terrain.

The first couple classes of a new session are a great time to get the class practising fundamentals – using resistance and cadence to dictate their workout. These two drills are great for the first few classes as they are interactive but also introduce some important concepts. The drills are also good for the beginner classes to give cycle participants a taste of what a cycle class can be like.

Stand Up, Sit Down Wave

As we know, it is important to add resistance to the flywheel as we stand up out of the saddle. The drill emphasizes this principle but also allows cycle participants to ‘play’ with their resistance.

Starting at the front of the room, prompt the first cycle participant to stand up and add more tension. As soon as the first participant stands up, the next participant follows suit by adding tension and standing up. The ‘wave’ begins and participants remain standing until the last participant joins the others.

The wave can continue from the back of the room, where the last cycle participant decreases his/her tension and sits down. The wave will move through the group quickly and can last several cycles. If you want to change it up, try starting at the back of the room, this forces participants to watch for the wave especially with their peripheral vision (excellent skill to have when riding on the road!).

Encourage cycle participants to add more resistance on each round of the drill. An alternative to this drill would include having cycle participants maintain the same tension they set for standing in the sitting position.

Musical Bikes

One of the fun parts of being a cycle group fitness leader gets to play DJ! This drill focuses on cadence by using the music volume to dictate speed. As the song starts, keep the volume low (slower cadence) and progressively add more volume over 30 seconds to take cycle participants into a sprint pace. Hold the sprint pace for 30 seconds then slowly decrease volume and prompt participants to slow their cadence. Repeat up to six times. Choose a song that is between 140-150 bpm.

Note: To ensure auditory health, keep the high music volumes below 90 decibels.

Games are always fun to play in a cycle class. Try these two games with your beginner participants to help them learn the basics on the bike!

With Earth Day a not so distant memory, consider sharing these statistics with your cycle participants courtesy of www.egreenrevolution.com.

Now, if we could harness this energy production on our spin bikes, we could maybe power our stereo during class!  

What other eco-friendly things can you do in your cycle class? Comments are welcome.  Please share ideas and suggestions!

As discussed in my last blog post, Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is one way to monitor intensity in a cycle class. Being a visual learner myself, I appreciate any form of visual cueing during a cycle class. I have created individual RPE cards, which are affixed to each bike (see picture below for an example). I encourage cycle participants to use the card throughout the class to monitor intensity. The cards cover the modified Borg RPE scale (0-10), which seems to be easier to follow than the traditional Borg RPE scale (6-20).

When I use the cards in class, I start with a brief overview of what the numbers represent and how the scale is a subjective assessment of each individual’s exertion level or intensity. Ensure to clearly describe!

The following two drills are one way to use the cards in your class:

To start, set a baseline tension and cadence to match a 3-4/10 for a moderate to somewhat hard exertion. This can be tricky to begin with so take time to let participants juggle tension and cadence to find the right balance.

1.Use tension only to set the exertion. Maintain a cadence of 80-90 rpm. Each section can be held for 30-60 seconds depending on the physical fitness of your group.

Add tension to a rating of 5/10 (hard)

Take tension off to a rating of 3/10 (moderate)

Add tension to a rating of 7/10 (very hard)

Take tension off to a rating of 2/10 (light)

2.Use cadence only to set the exertion. Maintain tension at moderate or slightly higher resistance (steady state tension). Each section can be held for 30-60 seconds depending on the physical fitness of your group.

Increase cadence to a rating of 5/10 (hard)

Decrease cadence to a rating of 3/10 (moderate)

Increase cadence to a rating of 7/10 (very hard)

Decrease cadence to a rating of 2/10 (light)

These two drills give the cycle participants an opportunity to monitor their own exertion level, as well as, manipulate their exertion by using either tension or cadence. I would encourage asking cycle participants which version was more effective to mimic the assigned exertion level.

This is just one (visual) tool to help monitor exertion/intensity in a cycle class.

The University of Alberta's Campus Recreation is hosting a workshop that might be of interest. It is not a cycle workshop but it might give you new ideas and skills that could be applied to your fitness classes and workouts.

Here are the details:

"Feel the Music - how to integrate dance based choreography into a group fitness class.  Choreography based classes have made a comeback to be one of the hottest fitness trends for 2010.  Join Jennifer for a fun-filled latin-dance and hip-hop based Master class, followed by an interactive session outlining how to put the choreography together and then try it for yourself.  You will leave this session invigorated, inspired and dancing out the door”

Taught by Jen Potocnik – AFLCA trainer, Bender method master trainer, Stott pilates and Zumba instructor.

May 2, 2010
12:30-4:30pm
E-19 Van Vliet Centre
University of Alberta

Registration at the Activity Registration Zone-Sales Office.
780-492-2231
Course Code: 15426
Course Cost: $75.00
AFLCA credit: 4 CECs

Recently, two separate cycle participants have made comments about fitness leaders using percentages, such as “cycle at 50%”, in class. In both cases, the cycle participants both stated that they didn’t know what 50% means. They found it challenging (and frustrating) to interpret the percentages on the fly as they were being used in the class.

Monitoring intensity is an essential part of any cycling class. The difficulty lies in communication. Not only do instructors need to effectively communicate their intended intensity but they also rely on feedback from the participants indicating they are working at the intended intensity (something that is often difficult for the instructor to judge directly).

Over the 10 plus years I have been teaching, I have explored a number of ways to describe and monitor intensity during cycle classes. I find a combination of various tools helpful:

1.       A simple check of “How is everyone doing?” and interpreting the response from the group (i.e., no response means “I’m tired” and enthusiastic response means “I’m ready to push myself”).

2.       Showing of hands in response to my questioning. For example, “I am doing great”, “I am doing so-so”, and “I am ready to get off my bike because I just can’t ride anymore”.

3.       Setting a specific resistance and revolutions per minute (more to come in future blog posts) and having class participants continually check if they are maintaining the set intensity.

4.       Individual Rating of Perceived Exertion cards that dictate how hard class participants are to work.

If planning to use percentages to monitor intensity ensure the following:

1.       Explain and explain again to ensure you are communicating how you would like class participants to quantify/qualify their intensity.

2.       Consider discussing how to gauge individual intensity during the warm-up. Best to be on track from the start.

3.       Use visual cues such as a Rating of Perceived Exertion poster or individual cue cards that explain what each level represents.

4.       Ask for clarity from the group and if they understand how you would like them to monitor their intensity during the class.

Using percentages is one way to monitor and describe intensity during a cycle class. Find the combination that works best for you and your class participants.

I just want to thank everyone who supported me in the quest to be the next W Network expert. Unfortunately, I was not picked for this task. What I have gained from this experience is the understanding and appreciation for the wonderful people in my life. Those of you who provided the high star ratings and kind words; I thank you!

My on-going passion of promoting physical activity and health will continue on and I will find other ways to permeate my message. My goal is to build my website as one of these outlets. Stay tuned!