Goodbye Farrah

Celebrities pass away all the time. It's sad, we remember their movies, their scandals, their awards, but since I don't know these people except through the characters they play on screen, I usually don't cry. But I find myself very, very saddened by the passing of Farrah Fawcett a few hours ago (though inevitable), and was even surprised at the tears I shed.

I wanted so much for her to win this battle with cancer; not only for herself, that she recover from the pain and misery of this insidious disease, but I was hoping that through a full - though doubtful - recovery, she'd become the Lance Armstrong of celebrities, a symbol of hope and strength for others out there suffering.

Farrah put up such a valiant fight. I didn't watch her documentary about her struggles last month but I heard a lot about it. We don't have TV but I plan to try to watch it online the first opportunity I get. I have never been star-struck. I hate celebrity magazines, I barely know the names of many actors and actresses people talk about all the time. I just don't get what the fascination is with celebrities and their every move, divorce, birth, new fashion, latest faux pas, whatever.

But when I was in my teens, I loved Farrah Fawcett. I had the "doo" in high school and carefully flipped back my hair with my curling iron every day. (I think Farrah was responsible for more curling iron sales than any other model!) I loved Charlie's Angels that first year (didn't care as much for Cheryl Ladd). My brothers had that famous Farrah poster with her big hair and big toothy smile up on their walls for most of my high-school years. Even back then I was wondering what she was doing with that Lee Majors guy.

So when I heard the news this morning that she lost her fight, I couldn't stop the flow of tears. Me? I don't cry when celebrities die!

I follow the Fat Cyclist blog, a very funny blogger (when he's writing about cycling, that is) whose wife Susan is in the midst of a painful battle with cancer. When he talks about their travails with the cancer, he holds nothing back when he describes her pain, her doctor's visits, her ups and downs, the impact on their lives. As a result of his posts and willingness to bare his life and soul, I (and tens of thousands of other readers) know more about the horrors of cancer than I ever thought possible (without having a close loved one go through it). My grandmother recovered from breast cancer surgery in the late 50's before I was born (back when they took out ALL the lymph nodes when doing mastectomies), and suffered pain all her life. I've known others, but not people very close to me.

So until it hits someone close, or *gasp* us, we often fall into the "it'll never happen to me" syndrome. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone worrying about cancer, or focusing on it, because I believe in the Law of Attraction. What you focus on you attract. But that doesn't mean we can or should remain ignorant or indifferent, or that we can eat willy-nilly anything we want or put products on our skin that might be carcinogenic. But we can all participate in the efforts to find a cure for cancer, by using the Law of Attraction, your prayers (however you personally define them and utilize them), as well as our wallets.

Give, give, give to organizations that are working towards finding a cure. Support legislation to fund cancer research and care for patients and families. My efforts in the Giretto were for the Lance Armstrong foundation (3 of us raised over $10K using grass roots efforts!), and I'll be doing more rides and events in the future if you're looking for a place to donate! ;-)

Better yet, sign up to ride or run in one of the Livestrong Challenge events, or create a Spinning event around finding a cure for cancer.

When we all continue to work together, I know finding a cure will happen in our generation!

EDIT 5:00 pm

I guess I need to add a goodbye to Michel Jackson. It wasn't cancer, but an alleged cardiac arrest. Now, at the risk of dating myself even more here, those of you who have been involved fitness since the 80's like me (and if so, you either had the same Farrah haircut or had a sister/friend who did) will also fondly remember how Michael Jackson's music influenced not only the world's dance floors, but the aerobics industry as well. Ah! I wish I had photos of me in the teal unitard with the fuscia thong, and the legwarmers and headband, high kicking and grapevining to Michael Jackson's Thriller or Beat It!

Although you won't find much MJ in my Spinning playlists these days, it's safe to say that there's not a generation out there that won't start taping their fingers when a classic MJ song comes on. If I were teaching tomorrow (I've got a sub since I'm flying to Philly for a Spinning training weekend) I'd certainly do an MJ dedication. Maybe I will in next Wednesday's class. Stay tuned...

EDIT again...

Just read the following on my nephew's Facebook page:

Michael Jackson's not dead. He's just preparing for his last concert. He's gonna perform Thriller as an ACTUAL ZOMBIE!

The purpose of my last post - to reach beyond the choir!

As you have discovered from my last post, I am on a mission!

Sometimes we as Master Instructors feel like we're preaching to the choir when we are teaching our Continuing Education sessions or presenting at conferences on the proper, safest and most effective way to create and teach Spinning profiles. Often the instructors that need the education the most are not the ones who are willing to pay for or take the time to attend CED or conferences, or even read books on physiology or coaching.

I am quite sure that the Master Trainers in the other indoor cycling programs (Schwinn, RPM, etc.) feel exactly the same way. I've even heard from some of them who support this effort 100%. I include any "brand" of indoor cycling when referring to safe and effective classes. There is no philosophy difference when it comes to employing proper training principles, having a good knowledge of biomechanics, and understanding the mechanics of pedaling a bicycle, especially a fixed-gear bicycle with a heavy flywheel that impacts the way we ride indoors.

My last post is an effort to reach beyond the choir, get past the converted, and access the universe of indoor cycling instructors of every ilk.

I read on the forums, in emails I receive, or hear it in direct conversations with instructors how they are some of the only ones at their facilities not doing unsafe aerobics-type classes and CI moves, yet they don't want to challenge their peers. Or perhaps their program director also does hovers, pushups and high-speed cadences with low resistance and doesn't support them in their plea to clean things up.

I also know that often the safest, most effective and best taught classes are not the highest attended. How many of you teach at facilities where the fullest classes are the ones where the instructor employs the most CI moves? (This is where the students also need to be educated).

I can totally understand why you don't want to make waves! You just want to teach your class and leave, hoping to make an impact on your small group of followers.

This is where I come in. Use me. Let me be the 'bad guy'. Send them (instructors, directors, students) the link*, and let me teach them (or at least, try to) the reasons why it's so important to not resort to aerobics-on-a-bike to be 'popular'.

Others have started to write similar blog posts and linking to this post, so this grassroots movement is gaining momentum (I'll share with you the bloggers who have done so later in the week). My blog hits were up by 68% the past few days according to Google Analytics, so it's starting to work, but I don't want to reach hundreds; I want to reach thousands of instructors out there who can learn from this blog, from these posts, from these profiles, from guest bloggers/instructors who have had an impact on their students, and from the resources provided (most of them free) such as the other blogs, podcasts and forums I've linked to.

There is sooooo much information for the taking, so much learning to be had, so much great stuff to share, if we can get it into the right hands!

And I can only do that with your help. Continue to spread the word and to leave your comments. As usual, I am very grateful for all my blog readers!

* I suggest sending the permalink to the last post ("Just Don't Do It") by clicking on the post title and copying and pasting the entire URL that has the blog post title included.

Just Don't Do It in your indoor cycling classes!

Don't think this stuff happens out there? It not only happens, it's actually prevalent in some places! Sorry, I have to take off my normal diplomatic hat and get downright indignant here. The contraindicated stuff just won't go away, and as such, I just can't/won't shut up! The shananigans in these Youtube videos are not only contraindicated, they're just plain stupid.

I mean, isn't a properly conducted Spinning, or any indoor cycle class, hard enough without goofy moves that take away from actually riding the bike? And this class in the first video is only doing some of the most egregious moves; perhaps it saves the others for the next song, the hovers, squats, & isolations. The second video, I'll leave you to comment (er, gag) on the "Spingasm" hovers, gyrations, hip thrusts and backbends of Angela's Joyride.

I'm slightly relieved to see that these aren't real "Spinner" bikes and is not my beloved "Spinning" program. But that doesn't make it OK or give it credibility. There is not a single indoor cycling program certification worth its salt that condones these outrageous types of class formats. It is bad to a ridiculous degree. These are instructors who are not certified and/or they are making up stuff because they don't know how to ride a bike and they think their students need to be entertained by erroneous fluff. They don't trust that their students are smart enough to know the difference (or maybe, dare I say it, their students aren't smart enough to know when something hurts it's not good for you). These instructors feel that every one of their students has a bad case of ADD and cannot sit for more than 15, 30 or even 60 seconds and just pedal a bike correctly, without having to flap their arms. They probably watch The Biggest Loser and get their class ideas from Jillian. They don't understand physiology, biomechanics, or the mechanics of pedaling a bike (even if it doesn't go anywhere, it's still a bike)!

Common sense would preclude this from taking place, but we've all heard that common sense isn't very common anymore...

Tell me, who will pay for the dental work for that woman in the back when she slams her face into the handlebars in the first video? Or the chiropractor visits many of these students will need over time, from either of these classes? Actually, maybe the students don't have the sense to put two and two together that it was their cycle class that threw their back out (except that backbend in Angela's joyride would be a sure culprit for most people in touch with their bodies).

It is my hope that eventually this blog post makes its way around the country until it actually reaches instructors who teach like this so they see the error of their ways. Hey, maybe it will even make it to these particular clubs. The first one is in Italy and the second in Los Angeles not far at all from the Spin Fitness HQ (I guess only in Los Angeles would you find an orgasmic Spin experience!)

Well, maybe that's a pipe dream that they'd suddenly convert from the dark side...

But I can try! :-)

I need your help to take this viral. Do me a favor; send this to every instructor you know, every club manager, even to your students, and have them send it to every instructor or club manager or fellow Spinning enthusiast that they know, with the message "Please! Don't let this happen at your club!"

Maybe we can have just a little effect and clean up indoor cycling around the country, maybe even the world!

Remember to Keep it Real in your indoor cycling classes!

(Oh, and if you haven't see my post from last year on numerous other horrible-yet-kinda-funny aerobics-on-a-bike Youtube videos, check these out!)

My mission: to use the power of Web 2.0 to help clean up Spinning/Indoor Cycling around the world. I'm using Twitter, Facebook and online forums to help spread this as well.

ARE YOU A BLOGGER (especially in fitness/indoor cycling, but really, any blog that will reach potential enthusiasts)? Please link to this post on your blog and then let me know about it!

FREE MUSIC!! Woohoo!

As IC instructors, nothing gets us more excited than getting free music legally (well...few things do)! ;-)

I recently found out about this link (thanks to Twitter) where you can sign up for a daily newsletter with one or two free songs a day. http://rcrdlbl.com/

Register as a member and get the daily newsletters with free mp3s. The genres run the gamut from pop to hip hop to indie to electronic and trance.

Yesterday's song Everything Up by Zero 7 is awesome! Great for a steady climb. Today's song by Colette, Think You Want It, is a little "popee" for my tastes, but I think my students will like it. (Don't think "popee" is a word, but you get what I mean!)

Last week was a new Moby song.

Some I've deleted, some have been great. But it's all free! Enjoy!

HIT Intervals - interesting observation

I did some HIT intervals this morning in class called "Over/Under Intervals", fashioned after a workout I got from a Trainright newsletter (Chris Carmichael's training company). They were definitely hard to very hard. And yes, I took myself to that intensity as well, because my students know and trust me, I know each of them very well, I had no new students, and I didn't need to be off the bike coaching (if any of the latter weren't the case I would recommend that the instructor not push him/herself as high in order to coach accordingly).

My interesting observation is that although I did work very hard to the point of breathlessness, I didn't sweat nearly as much as either of the two aerobic rides I did in yesterday's classes. I mopped my face a lot with a towel as usual (it's hot in there) but my litmus test is my jersey. After class I usually have to take my jersey off right away because it's so soaked (I HATE soaking wet fabric against my skin and I immediately get cold because of it) and replace it with my long-sleeved jersey. This morning, yeah it was wet, but not requiring immediate removal like both classes yesterday.

In yesterday's profile, I spent 5 minutes a few beats below LT, and the rest of the time in various increments lower than that. Today, I spent a total of 18 minutes a few beats below LT and 9 minutes 4-5 beats above it. That's up there...

I guess sweat isn't always an indication of intensity, and aerobic efforts can produce as much or more sweat than higher efforts.

Oh BTW, I'll be sharing this Over/Under interval profile and playlist with you in a week or two. But coming up shortly is a very interesting study I want to write about on using heart rate monitors. I'll be asking for your help in that study.

Also, even if you read yesterday's post on the HR Pyramid, go back and reread it because I edited it with additional comments after the second class I taught in the evening.

Thanks as usual for reading!

Subbed a class this morning

I had to sub a 6am class this morning for an instructor who had to take her dog to an oncologist in Denver today. :-(

Since I am doing some HIT intervals tomorrow at 6, and many of these people come 3-4 days a week, I decided to keep it aerobic and did my stalwart go-to profile of a HR Pyramid.

Ah man what a fantastic workout! Nothing too hard, but amazingly effective. I had them take their threshold (most have done the LT field test with me), or 85%MHR if they didn't know it, and round it down to the nearest multiple of 5. So in my case, my LT is 157, so I rounded it to 155. That was my ceiling. Then I subtracted 30, to get 125, and that was my floor. And then we raised it 5 beats every 5 minutes, for 6 increases.

Half the class had HRMs. For the others, I used descriptions of what they should be feeling, asking them to be very subtle in their increases, and to maintain control of their breath. As we got 15, then 10, then 5 beats from the ceiling, I told them to make sure they had room to increase, knowing they didn't want to go to the point of a burning sensation in the legs. The ceiling, just below LT, is a solid sensation of effort without the burning. We are producing lactate at a high rate now, but we are still able to flush it from the system. Any  higher, just a few beats higher, and that lactate would accumulate, the increased acidity would be felt as that familiar burning sensation. Don't go there! It's work, it's breathing, but it's not breathless. At the top two levels, you are very aware of heart rate in your chest. 

This profile, more than almost any other that I teach, really shows how much control one has (or doesn't have) over ones intensity. It requires a lot of focus, and it requires a lot of time seated in the saddle, so your students must trust you. It also shows that "aerobic" doesn't have to be easy. As we crept up the pyramid, the work effort increased. Everyone was sweating. Everyone was breathing, but in a manageable way. But by staying below LT, we were staying predominantly aerobic, using fat as our fuel source.

Novice riders, or ones who are new to using HRMs, may not have as easy a time keeping the HR stable, or increasing it incrementally at first. This takes practice, and is a wonderful benchmark for controlled pacing.

Try it. It really opens some eyes, and light bulbs go off as they become aware of subtle intensity increases. This is a good one to lend a HRM or two out to students to learn how effective they can be.

EDIT this evening:

YUM YUM! I taught this same profile for the second time today in my regular 5:30 p.m. class. I only had two guys in class and both had their heart rate monitors. They both enjoyed the ride, and I loved it even more the second time around. It's such a delicious intensity range, that's the best way for me to describe it! I was sweating profusely, and felt pleasantly worked without ever feeling a burning sensation or feeling like I had to slow down. My legs never felt heavy during the ride, which is what you're trying to get your students to buy into - it's not necessary to go anaerobic (above LT) to have a great workout.

At the ceiling intensity, just below LT, I told them this would be the intensity that someone would do a century ride (100 miles) and strive for a very good time (5-6 hours). 10 beats below LT would be a century pace for someone working diligently, but not trying to break any records, maybe a 6-7 hr pace. And 20 beats below, maybe an 8-hour casual pace with friends, so you could talk the whole time with your riding partners with the goal of just finishing. At the base intensity, you'd be picked up by the sag wagon because it got dark before you finished!

I had a harder time getting my heart rate up to my base level at the beginning, having to put some effort out just to get to 125 bpm. But once I was sufficiently warmed up (20 minutes into class), I nailed each level much better than this morning, especially the higher three levels, holding them within one beat either side.

Both of them commented how much they learned about their own intensity and their ability to control it. Bingo!

Benchmark

Wow, this blog hit 50,000 hits overnight! Kewl. Maybe someday that will be 50K unique visitors! Spread the word, and sign up for the weekly updates so you don't miss anything (and get all my WSSC profiles and handouts for doing so).

FYI, tomorrow I am posting a fun new strength profile. I did it this week and it kicked my butt. Or who knows, maybe it kicked my butt because I've not been as healthy as I usually am (don't want to say the 's' word!), but I'd like your feedback on the profile once it's posted. Ride it at home and let me know what you think.

In HEALTH! :-)

Jennifer