If you’re cycling indoors, stay on track.
One of the common challenges that indoor cycling instructors face is how to make the repetitive revolutions of pedals interesting and engaging. Some focus on their delivery of the workouts and others focus on varying the manner in which the class is run.
At it’s core, indoor cycling should recreate the experience found on a bike outdoors. This means participants should experience flat roads, hills, changes in pace and a small number of position changes.
The skill in coaching an indoor cycle class is the structuring of the session and it’s coaching.
Unfortunately, in an attempt to improve the experience for participants, instructors have begun to introduce hand-weights, cycling with only one foot in the pedal, push ups on the handlebars and all other manner of modifications. Some of these are at best harmless, whilst others are downright dangerous. The golden rule for indoor cycling is this:
If you wouldn’t do it on a bike outdoors, don’t do it on a bike indoors.
If you’re struggling to keep participants engaged, consider the following:
- How much of a mix do you have between seated and standing work?
- How long do participants spend in any one position?
- How often do you change resistance levels?
- How often do you vary cadence/RPM’s?
- How much variety do you have in the programming?
- How much variety do you have in your tone, volume and pitch?
- How much do you vary your energy levels during the class?
The beauty of indoor cycling is that it gives you the chance to put your own style and character into each class. Just remember that it’s an indoorcycle class, not aerobics.
If you would like more inforamtion on our indoor cycling courses, give us a call on 0207 2929 140.
