Countdown to WSSC

WSSC, the World Spinning and Sports Conference is in one month!  May 29- June 1, Miami, Florida.  

This will be my 10th WSSC conference, the 8th one at which I've been a presenter. The following are my scheduled sessions:

Thursday (pre-conference) 

Cadence, Heart Rate and Class Design. Using the Spinning Computer.  8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Friday

Lactate Threshold Field Test on a Spinner.  7:00 - 8:30 am. Make sure to be well-rested, and bring a heart rate monitor with an average function that you already know how to use, and make sure to put fresh batteries in it! Your results will depend on your average HR over the duration of the field test. This information is so important to know when your goal is performance improvement as well as weight loss. Stop using those stupid age-predicted charts and find out some information about your own body!

The Triple Threat.  1:00 - 2:30 pm. Three types of HIT intervals (high intensity training). We will work hard, to motivating music. When you understand what physiological adaptations take place at different intensities (lactate threshold and above) you can use HIT to your advantage and to fine tune your performance. Far too many instructors are too haphazard about their high intensity training, and therefore miss out on potential performance improvements.

Saturday

Moving Mountains. 8:30 - 10:30 am. This is my favorite ride to some of my favorite music. Make sure to bring an open mind, and some personal goals to work on. Be ready to climb for a looooong time, and to be very introspective...

The Tour de France and Alpe d'Huez.  1:00 - 2:30 pm.  Also one of my favorites, since the Tour de France is near and dear to my heart. I bring some personal experience to this ride (well, not racing the TDF! But watching it many times, and riding ADH 3 times). This class has some very fun music to inspire you to the top. You'll experience this ride from the eyes of a "domestique", a Tour rider who has already worked hard to support his teammates and is faced with the 21 switchbacks. You'll also learn some fun ideas to implement at your club for creating your own Tour de France program.

Sunday

Pedal Stroke Drills. 8:30 - 9:30 am. Everyone can benefit from these, especially your students! This will be just drills, drills, drills that you can take home and use immediately in your classes.

The Secret Ride. 12:00 - 1:30 pm. This will be a very special experience. It's a NEW ride this year and I'm looking forward to it. Based on the hit DVD and book, The Secret, we'll uncover your self-imposed limitations and blocks that are keeping you from the success you deserve (in your life as an instructor, coach and athlete, but also transferable to your personal life and career). You'll need an open mind as well, and must be willing to be honest with yourself. You may very well walk out with the breakthrough you're looking for, knowing that you can Have, Do and Be whatever you set your mind to!

I'll be posting my music lists from my rides as well as the outlines right here on Funhogspins. So if you can't make it, you'll at least be able to get the outline. BUT, there's no substitution for experiencing the real thing.  Attending a WSSC, if you have never done so, can change your experience as an instructor forever. Your students will notice a big change, and you'll have more fun and learn more than you ever thought possible. Not to mention the fact that you'll get some great music ideas, and maybe even a tan in between sessions! The people you'll meet at WSSC are amazing, and many make friends that will last a lifetime. Go to the Spinning website for the complete list of sessions (there are hundreds! Includes pilates, yoga, resist-a-ball, physiology, and of course, anything to do with Spinning).

I'll also be presenting many of these sessions (and a few others) at Can Fit Pro this August in Toronto, if you can't make it to Miami. This will be my second time at Can Fit Pro and I am excited to get back to Toronto.

To get you amped up, check out this video promotion from 2007. I have a very quick appearance at 1:00 minute and 1:30 minutes!

If you're coming to WSSC, leave a comment here, and I'll keep an eye out for you. If you can't come but wish you could, leave a comment as well - but we'll miss you!

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Climbing Independence Pass, May 18, 2008 from Aspen, Colorado

This isn't a Spinning Profile (although I can turn it into one! Just sit and climb for 2 hours with very little standing climbs until the very end)! It's an annual ride my husband and I do with friends each year. It becomes our benchmark for our cycling fitness. It's the harbinger for summer riding around here. Independence Pass is one of the highest passes in Colorado and goes over the Continental divide at 12,095 feet. From Aspen, it is 18+ miles, with over 4,000 ft of elevation gain, at an average of 4% grade (much steeper at the top). This will be our 7th year riding the pass the weekend before Memorial weekend. They clean the road, clear it of snow and debris, and hold an organized race on Saturday. We go on Sunday, with just a sprinkling of other dedicated cyclists in Colorado. It is still closed to cars until Memorial weekend, so it is an amazing experience, and strikingly beautiful.  

It takes between 2 and 3 hrs for the average cyclist (depending on your training and your bike). Elite cyclists of course can do it much faster. My goal is to beat 2h15 this year. Mind you, almost all of my training is in Spin classes, because I am a wimp, and I just do not like riding outside with lots of clothes on, and I get very cold, very fast. I do not mind, however, climbing while staying warm and then piling on the clothes for the cold descent. 

Except if  snow is actually falling - I draw the line there. Only once in the last 6 years of riding The Pass did I turn around about 2 miles from the top when it was snowing and my teeth were already chattering. On the descent I was shaking so much I could barely brake.

Now, don't let that scare you if you are thinking of coming to join us on this ride! I get cold faster than almost anyone I know - many others we ride with (including my husband) don't even bother with leg warmers, heavy gloves and might only put arm warmers and a windbreaker on for the descent, and they tease me about the amount of clothes I personally need! Besides, 5 out of the past 6 years we've had great weather, often with very warm temps at the bottom, and sun the entire way until the very top.  There's always snow at the top, but that makes for great photos.  This year, with the record snowfall in Colorado, I imagine there will be walls of snow for the final few miles, but I am still counting on a sunny day (the eternal optimist in me). And if it's not, we're still climbing! (Uh, unless it snows, I'll be turning around and heading for the hot tub, but I guarantee the others will still climb). 

This is an invitation to anyone who wants to join us to come ride with us on Sunday, May 18th, 2008! We stay in Aspen the night before on May 17th, usually at The Gant and ride from there. Often we'll do a pasta-feed pot luck. If you live anywhere near Aspen, you can also just join us in the morning. We try to leave around 9:00-9:30 depending on the weather. After the ride, we celebrate with beers and Mexican food in town.

For more information, please contact me at jennifer@vivatravels.com.  And get out and climb, climb, climb! (Or do a lot of Strength rides in your Spinning classes)! Remember, you are much stronger and more efficient in the saddle over long climbs. Save your standing climbs for when you need power, and for the final push.

The deepest thigh burn...

...doesn't come from Spinning.

Last week I was jonesin' to get out on my bike. I was OVER the snow. But I am a new woman today. Today is April 12th. I can barely pull myself up the stairs, and it's a thigh and glute burn that has me grinning ear to ear. The smell of Ben Gay permeates my house now; and I'm going back for more pain tomorrow... :-)

An unprecedented storm and cold-front passed through Colorado. Thursday I played hookey and went skiing. Thought I'd only go for half day with some visiting friends, but the 7" of new light powder snow made it a pretty nice ski day, and they "made me" have some beers afterwards. I had to teach my Thursday night Spin class at 5:30 and when I confessed afterwards about the 2 large beers I was "forced" to consume just prior to class, they cheered me on.

The snow kept coming. All night. Friday was a true POWDER day, the kind of day that causes businesses to put up "Closed" signs when they could be making money, and causes locals to cancel appointments, change plans, do whatever it takes to get on the mountain. The cell phones came out in the lift lines with numerous conversations like, "Dude! I'm telling you, cancel it! You won't regret it! Call in sick! G-E-T U-P H-E-R-E N-O-W!!" We tried it on my husband, but he couldn't get away - and he'll probably bitch about it for years... I'm my own boss, so I didn't have anyone to ask, but I'll have to make up for it next week.

I promised my accountant I'd send her my tax information before the weekend so she could put together my extension. Hope she can still do that in the next 2 days!! Do you think a letter like this would go over well with the IRS?

Dear Mr. Tax Man,
I know I'm a bit late, but you have to know, Friday was a powder day. The kind of day people in ski towns live for. And die for. It wasn't fair to have a powder day when I was s'posed to finish my taxes... But please understand, every other powder day this year, I was working in my home office, slaving away at my computer so I could pay you. Can you give me just a little break? Just a day or two extra? Pretty please?

Fat chance...

Oh well, 10 years from now we'll be talking about April 11, 2008 with fond memories. 13" of fresh, light, cold champagne powder snow, on top of 7" from the day before, and another 8" dumped on top of that during the day. The back bowls had more than that - up to thigh deep in areas. Usually in April any snow fall is as heavy as gelato, and then the sun bakes it to a viscous glue, which then transforms into a slushy mess as the sun beats on it. Usually on April 11th, you're wearing t-shirts under a light jacket (some even forego the jacket), shades, no hat, thin gloves, sunscreen smeared over your face. Some people are in shorts. But yesterday was in the mid-20's. A January-like day. Boot-heater and hand-warmer day. Extra layers. Goggles. A gaitor covering all but the tip of your nose. And a snorkel.

OK, not quite a snorkel day, but faceshots all day. There is nothing quite like an untracked ski run. The light powder parts like the Red Sea as the tip of the skis swooshes through. If your mouth was open as you skied down Genghis or Headwall or Lover's Leap (and it probably was because you had to be whooping it up), you were probably inhaling the white fluffy stuff and trying not to choke. Your cheeks hurt almost as much as your legs from laughing and smiling for hours. The shouts of joy emanated from deep inside you, and there was no stopping it. Not a single person on the mountain could avoid it, you heard "wooooo-hoooo's", and "yeee-haws" and howls of joy from every corner of the mountain, from every powder stash, on every face, down every gully. And Vail's a big mountain.

Tell me, what other sport causes people to do this? What other sport (where you're not spectating, but doing) do you meet so many people and immediately have a bond with them, and chat as if you've known each other for years, with comments like "Can you friggin' believe this? PInch me! I must be dreaming!" OK, maybe surfers celebrating some 20 foot waves in Maui.

The burn in the thighs rises to almost unmanageable levels, almost to the point of causing your legs to fall off. Yeah; like cracking off at the hip. But that wouldn't be good, because you need them to do more turns; someone else might get to that line before you do. So you push through the pain to rush to get to the next lift to go for some more untracked runs before it gets too tracked up. Knowing the special lines, the less well-known stashes can provide untracked powder until at least noon, if you're lucky. You welcome the burn as you drive your skis in wide arcs through the deep snow and then tuck them back under you, popping upward to initiate the next turn and link one after the other. If you were on a bike and you felt this in the legs, you would stop! So something weird happens to skiers on a powder day; I can't explain it.

There's a old saying in a ski town: There are no friends on a Powder Day. And yesterday it was more true than ever. If your friends couldn't ski this stuff, the steep and the deep, then you met up at the end of the day in the bar! First one there buys the pitcher. No one waits for anyone...

I have to say, I rank yesterday as one of the top 3 ski days in my life.

Today was fun too, but my legs hurt so much I could barely turn and the snow wasn't quite like yesterday. Plus it's a weekend and lift lines are huge; yesterday it was only locals.

Tomorrow it won't be a powder day, but it's closing day, so it's like a Mardi-Gras party. We'll have a barbecue at the top (with 2,000+ other people), and dress up in silly outfits. The forecast is for sunny and 50 degrees. What a great way to close the season!

Then the bikes come off the hooks in the garage the next day!

One more thing: Thank God I don't teach Spinning until Tuesday! Don't think I could turn those pedals! :0

[Edited later: The photo at the top was not even on the powder day (I forgot my camera on Friday), but there was still lotsa new fluffy snow. For more photos of the last few days at Vail, including the end of season bash at the top of the mountain, check out my Facebook profile and click on my photo albums.]

Contraindications Part III

Continued from Contraindications Part 1 and 2...

Super fast cadences: you might think it helps leg-speed, but that 38-42 lb flywheel does most of the work for you at high cadences, so there's little to no benefit from having your legs go around at roadrunner-like speeds. Unless you're a categoried racer, or someone with a very high power-to-resistance ratio (and a beautifully trained smooth pedal stroke), if you're going faster than 110 rpm for any length of time, you won't see any improvement in your own leg speed. It's very different on a bike outdoors. Plus, there's high risk for less conditioned or skilled riders and makes HR control difficult. If you're going that fast, you'd be better off adding resistance and slowing down, and then you'll most likely see far more results. No benefit: High risk, little to no skill transfer.

ONe-legged pedaling: being a fixed-gear bike with a heavy flywheel, this does nothing for you on a stationary bike. Yes, it's ok to do this on your road bike on a trainer - it's a very difficult and effective training technique to train the neuromuscular firing patterns of your pedaling leg. But when you try it on any indoor stationary bike, it's so easy! The flywheel is doing the work. There's no transfer of skill, no adaptations that take place to improve your efficiency or legspeed. And if you're contorting your body to hold the other leg out of the way (either out to the side or resting it in the middle), you can't pedal with good form so you've lost that benefit. If the pedal hits your other leg (a pretty good probability, especially a novice student who gets distracted), it doesn't stop like your free-wheel road bike pedal will (ouch). I know an instructor who opened up her calf requiring numerous stitches because the fast moving pedal slammed into the back of her leg. No benefit: high risk, no skill transfer.

Super high resistances: if you can't climb that hill at 60 rpm (one pedal revolution per second) you have too much resistance. If there's any kind of body-contorting just to turn the pedals, it's too high. Cycling isn't about "pure strength", it's about muscular endurance. The ability to repeatedly contract against a resistance. People get injured from this, especially straining the low back. And really, it doesn't impress anyone. It's an ego move...

Holding your abs in: cyclists need to breathe, and we need to breathe from the abdomen. Holding the abs tight in the name of "core conditioning" hinders breathing, and hence, 02 transport. You can maintain your core without sucking in the abs. Tour de France cyclists learn to breathe with extended bellies - so should we if we want increase oxygenation! [But cyclists do need lots of off-the-bike core training because riding a bike doesn't help us much there, just don't do it on the bike].

Jump Starts: there's lots of names for this, but it's starting at a high resistance from a total stand still, and then sprinting as hard as you can go. This could potentially be helpful for racers and power riders on your expensive road bike, but not for your general Spin class. The problem is these indoor bikes aren't designed for this kind of use. With excessive torque as in this move, those crank arms can break. True story: an instructor I know told me of a large guy in class who was powering on his pedals, the crank broke, and it ended up embedded IN his calf.... ugh! I had a chain break on me one time while in a standing climb and I thank my lucky stars I wasn't injured...imagine doing something high powered like this and "crack"!

That's all for now. Remember, people are making up new moves in indoor cycling classes every minute! Just use your common sense and analyze the risk:benefit ratio of each move you are considering, as discussed in part 1 of contraindicated moves. Basically, if it hurts, don't do it!

One final thought:
Just ride the bike!

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Contraindications Part II

Partial list of Contraindicated movements on an indoor bicycle, regardless of model of bike or philosophy of program. Part II

Upper body movements (side-to-side, 4-corners, figure-8's, "cornering", push-ups, etc). I'll start this one with a story. One of the impetuses (impeti??) for writing the Contraindications workshop came about 7 years ago after I had some students in my class ask why I didn't do a certain movement. My club is attached to a very nice destination hotel in the ski area of Vail, Colorado (voted one of the top 5 hotel clubs in the country by Men's Health magazine) so we get a lot of hotel guests who come to take a Spin class, especially in ski season. (Mind you, we're at 8,100 feet, and they're often coming from sea level...).

This couple showed up for class from California (Dana Point). They were what I call "gym fit". Maybe they were bored with my class, but part way through she commented, "Our instructor makes us do 4-Corners."

Boggled, I asked, "What's 4-Corners??"

She then proceeded to do some sort of gyration on the bike, moving her shoulders from the upper left corner of the handlebars, to the upper-right, to lower-right, lower-left, and back to upper-left, counting to the beat of the music, "1-2-3-4." She was standing throughout this movement, and her hips traveled from way back behind the saddle to almost the the handlebars. I almost fell off my bike. I think I mumbled something like, "uh, I don't want to hurt my back, that's why I don't do that."

She then said they had "advanced" classes where you "take the seat away"... Again, I almost died. I was tempted to challenge her to a real ride on a read road bike and have her ride with no seat....but I wisely bit my tongue. I'll deal with that movement in part 3!

So, about those "Four Corners". My legs are going round and round 70-80-90 even 100 times per minute in a fixed fashion (i.e. attached to the pedals), and you're asking me to twist or turn my upper body, counter to the movement of my legs? There is such a high risk of injuries to the low back, not to mention other body parts, better have your chiropractor's number handy if you plan on doing this move. Same for instructors who pretend to turn a corner by having you quickly lean waaaay out to the side or put both hands on one side and pull. These instructors might argue that it takes skill to learn to do these movements "correctly", and I will argue that there's no correct way to do these while riding a bike, even one that isn't moving. I guess you can also say that it takes some sort of "skill" to do some of those things you see on those "Darwin awards" emails that are passed around, but not a skill many of us would want to master! Benefit of this kind of stuff? Zippo.

Let's talk about pushups while riding; is there any kind of benefit? If you've ever done them on the floor you know that to improve your strength, you need resistance - your body weight against gravity. But doing them on a handlebar just doesn't cut it, there's no resistance. The injury risk is fairly minimal (unless you get into a trance from the music and slam your teeth into the handlebars...) but more than anything, it looks silly and they distract you from what you're supposed to be doing: pedaling efficiently. Imagine doing these outside, betcha wouldn't do them for long.

"Popcorn" jumps: These are very fast jumps, and it's a silly movement. There is no point, no benefit, and a very high risk. They hurt, but people blindly follow. They hinder a good pedal stroke, they risk the knees, back, hips and shoulders. To do them properly, you need enough time to sit all the way down in the saddle every time and come all the way to the correct standing position (the same position as a standing flat); when you jump too quickly, you never quite hit each point. Another similar technique that can cause injuries is when instructors say "don't sit completely in the saddle on the way down." This causes you to decelerate using your back muscles - ouch! Popcorn jumps also can raise the intensity to out of control levels for newer or de-conditioned students, as there is little way to control what you're doing. If your goal is to raise the intensity into anaerobic zones with your jumps, then add a little more resistance, or do the kind of jumps we call "acceleration" jumps, where your leg speed increases for a second or two when you stand up, and then subsides a little when you sit down. These are tough, and can raise the intensity without resorting to jumping too quickly. I guarantee you'll want them to end soon, but not because you're risking injury, but because your legs are burning and your HR!

Proper jumps shouldn't be any faster than about 2 seconds up, and 2 seconds down. It's fine to use the beat of the music to assist in the timing of your jumps, but if it's a very fast song, then just do the jumps on half-time (every-other beat).

Holding your abs in: Cyclists need to breathe, and you should be breathing from the abdomen. Holding the abs tight in the name of "core conditioning" hinders breathing, and hence, 02 transport. It's possible to maintain your core without sucking in the abs. Tour de France cyclists learn to breathe with extended bellies - so should we if we want increase oxygenation!

On that note, however, cyclists do need lots of off-the-bike core training because riding a bike doesn't help us much there. Just don't try to do it on the bike.

Any questions?

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Some "Contraindicated Moves" in indoor cycling - Part 1

Some people have called me the "Contraindications Queen" since I wrote the Contraindications continuing ed workshop for Spinning about 6 years ago, after being horrified by the "aerobics on a bike" I saw around the country. I must admit, I'm a bit sheltered up here in the Rocky mountains, since so many of our students are cyclists, they would laugh at or walk out on instructors who tried these moves. But when I traveled for Spinning, or talked with other instructors from other areas (even down in Denver, 2 hrs from here), I was shocked at what has become popular. So many of these moves are everywhere!

To create this workshop, I looked at the biomechanics of these movements, and interviewed well-known cycling coaches and scientist on some of them (including Joe Friel, and even Ed Burke shortly before he passed away. He's the author of countless books, like The Science of Cycing).

Of course, I always come up with resistance from the instructors who actually think aerobics on an indoor stationary bike that doesn't move is fine in the name of "fitness"... They don't know what to do to challenge their students if they don't do these moves. We'll discuss that in another post later on.

Unsafe moves on an indoor bike isn't about being a "cyclist" or not. They're unsafe or inefficient regardless of whether you ride outside or not, and regardless of what brand of indoor bike it is, or regardless of the philosophy of the program. Biomechanics is biomechanics.

Rule of thumb: if you wouldn't do it outdoors, don't do it indoors. That being said, there are some "safe" things we can do indoors, that are outdoor movements modified into drills for indoor use, to add variety without decreasing safety. Jumps for example, and Standing Flats. You wouldn't go down the street rhythmically jumping in and out of your saddle. Indoors it's fun and can improve your transitions and works your anaerobic system. Personally, I rarely jump in class. But students like it and they won't hurt you (just don't do them too fast). But again, it's a drill, like peppering a volleyball against a wall to improve your volleyball spike. That's not how you play volleyball, it's a drill to improve one aspect of your playing.

I'll be giving a comprehensive list over the next few posts on Contraindicated moves on an indoor bike. Mind you, this is not a "philosophy" difference between the different kinds of IDC programs. This is not just "Mad Dogg Athletics and Spinning" rules. This is looking at the science and biomechanics of these movements on an indoor bicycle. If someone says their "program" taught them it's ok to do isolations or squats, then you have to wonder if that program knows anything about cycling or biomechanics. These bikes are solid pieces of metal that don't flex or bend or move, and that has implications on how we should move our bodies while riding it. You can't go doing things that go against the proper biomechanical principles of riding a bike, and you must also take into consideration the differences (like, not flexing).

For each movement, we'll analyze the Risk:Benefit ratio.

Is there a risk? Can it injure joints, muscles, soft tissue, etc? Is it very easy to fall-off or lose balance? Does it take the body out of alignment while other joints (i.e.legs) are moving in a static pattern (pedaling)? Do you have to be a skilled acrobat to do it? If you answered yes to any of these, don't do it!

What's the benefit? Will it help your cycling (outdoors OR indoors)? Will it improve your endurance, pedal stroke, strength, leg speed? Will it cause positive physiological adaptations?

Is it just fluff? Just to fill the time?

Here's a partial list of Contraindicated Moves, or as I like to refer to them, Just Don't Do It!:

Isolations: AKA Freezes. Benefit: NONE! It causes tension in the muscles and pain in the joints. I've never figured this one out, why instructors teach this. It does nothing for balance, as some say. It does nothing for core, as some say. If you want to train your core - get on a stability ball! Because the bike doesn't flex, you must allow the energy created by the legs to dissipate through your upper body; Isolating or freezing stops this energy - and it goes right into a joint. No benefit: Risk is mostly discomfort and inefficiency.

Squats: similar to the above, but you lower your hips, or squat. This is one of the worst ones out there! Proponents claim to "love the burn in the quads." That burn is from mechanical inefficiency of the muscle fibers, not from increasing strength. It's not a good burn. Pay attention to the pain in the knees! There is a huge pressure buildup in the knee joint, the petello-femoral joint is at great risk, and the contact between the femure and tibia are where the cartilage is at its thinnest. And you're doing these at 60, 70, 80X/minute or more? Also, the forces on the knee are coming from below as the pedal pushes upwards. Not good. These instructors must get commissions from local orthopedic doctors...

Try this to highlight how silly this movement is: next time you see a long flight of stairs, climb them without straightening your legs. You would soon tell me I'm crazy because it hurts your knees, that there's a lot of pressure in the knee joint. And I might say, "but wow, isn't that a great burn in the thighs? Wouldn't you continue that in the name of 'fitness'?" Of course you wouldn't! So why do people let IDC instructors tell them to do this? You want that leg workout? Go to the gym and do leg presses - it has no place in an indoor cycling class. Or come to a properly conducted Strength class on some steep hills and get the burn in the quads without getting a ticket to the orthopod! High risk: zero benefit.

Hovers: pushing your butt back over the saddle (and freezing). Supposedly this is to mimic a mountain bike position...but if you've ever gone downhill on a single track (the only time you'd do this), YOU'RE NOT PEDALING and you're moving your bike side to side underneath you to avoid rocks and ruts! Doing this indoors on a stationary solid metal bike that doesn't flex or move will do you no good! It puts the PCL on stretch and greatly hinders a proper pedal stroke so you can't ride with good form. High risk: no benefit, no skill transfer.

More later...

Any questions?

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