INDOOR CYCLING NEWSLETTER #76.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND THANKS: The main reason I like teaching indoor cycling so much is the relationships that can be formed in the environment of the shared work.  I am thankful for the great students in my classes and my friendships with them.  Merry Christmas to all of you.

NEW YEARS EVE CLASS:   Monday is my usual night to teach back-to-back classes at 4:30pm - 5:15pm; and again at 5:45pm - 6:30pm.  On New Year’s eve the YMCA Healthy Living Center closes at 6pm so instead of cancelling the second class, I am going to teach one continuous class from 4:30 until just a few minutes before closing time.  Come join us anytime after 4:30pm.  You may come and go as you please, or you can make it a 90-minute class to end the year. I hope to see you there.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS: CAN YOU TAME YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND?: We all know that New Year’s resolutions don’t work.   Jennifer Sage, founder of the Indoor Cycling Association, has a theory about this.  In her class called, “How Big is Your Why?” she addresses the subconscious obstacles we face.

Jennifer believes that New Year’s resolutions fail because they are not backed up by good mental preparation.  In other words, most people fail at resolutions because at some level they expect to fail.  Instead, Jennifer argues, resolutions have to be backed up by subconscious belief.

In physiological terms, our bodies are made to seek balance or homeostasis as a  genetic self-protective device.  Jennifer argues that there is a similar psychological phenomenon where we are conditioned to not change existing habits.  Change, even good change, takes us out of our comfort zone.  Our subconscious mind fights it.

Will-power is the domain of the conscious mind, which controls only 2-4 percent of day-to-day actions and perceptions. In order to be successful, you must change the underlying beliefs that control your everyday actions.  These are the domain of your subconscious mind, about 96% of the brain.

Much of this subconscious processing is controlled by the part of the brain called the Amygdala.   It detects, and resists, any efforts to change your current situation by releasing neurotransmitters  that cause anxiety.  When most people feel the anxiety, they decide not to pursue the change.  This process has an evolutionary purpose, namely to keep us cautious for self-preservation.

So in a battle between your subconscious and conscious mind, your subconscious usually wins.  If you really want permanent changes, you must address the subconscious fears and beliefs that hold you back.  But, they are subconscious.  How can you change them if you don’t know exactly what they are?

Studies (including one by NASA) suggest that it takes about 15-30 minutes a day of mental retraining, over a period of at least of 30 days to break subconscious patterns.

What do you do? First, you need to be very clear about your goal.  What is it and why do you want it?  The why is very important.  From there you need to spend some time each day thinking about the goal.

Sometimes in class, when the going is hard, I ask you to make a vivid picture in your mind of what achieving your goal looks like.  Create a vivid picture.  Who is there with you?  What are you wearing?  What are they saying?  How do you feel?  When I do this in class I am trying to help you rewire your subconscious brain for success.

Regular repetitions of these kind of positive images will overcome the subconscious fears if it is done often enough and sincerely enough.  This is sometimes called mental rehearsal.  Athletes use it all the time.  Golfers do it when they imagine the ball going in the hole before a putt.  Do it every day, twice a day.  Do it sincerely with passion and emotion.

The images you recreate will, over time, actually rewire the subconscious part of your brain.  Brain researchers have found the brain responds in a very similar manner to both actual and imagined events.   At some level your brain does not know if an event is real or imagined.  Neural synapses are developed that reflect that which is frequently impressed upon the brain.  This is how new subconscious beliefs are created.  

And this is how we stop undermining ourselves in achieving our goals.

[This article is a re-write of material created by Jennifer Sage, the founder of the Indoor Cycling Association.  ICA is the premier organization providing resources to indoor cycling instructors.  I regularly contribute articles to ICA but the content for this article is all her’s.  Indoor cycling instructors should check out ICA at www.indoorcyclingassociation.com. It is the best resource I know for relevant science-based information on indoor cycling.]

TRY INDOOR CYCLING IN THE NEW YEAR, OR GET SOMEONE ELSE TO:  The advantages of going to an indoor cycling class are numerous.  I urge you to commit to it this winter and make it a real commitment.  Invite your friends.  It can be the mainstay of your aerobic conditioning.  One of the great advantages is that it is easier to adhere to a program of indoor cycling than most any I know.  I love it, and here are some of the reasons why:
∙ The people.  There is a wonderful camaraderie in the shared work.  It’s tangible and a great reason to want to come.
∙ There is a shared energy in the room that you just can’t get on a treadmill or elliptical machine.  We all contribute to it and we all benefit from it.  A good instructor can receive this energy, amplify it and return it to you.
∙ Music also helps contribute to this sense of energy.  Often new music, or music you haven’t heard lately, can give you more than the same old selection in your own I-pod.  
∙ Efficiency.  You can get a great workout in less than an hour and be done.  I especially like that the workout can be used as a clear demarcation between your workday and home-life.  
∙ Coaching / Technique.  A good instructor will not only encourage you to go harder but help you to go better by giving you help with technique and form.  This helps you create more watts in class (more power, more calories).  And it will make you better out on the road next Spring.

Come try it, or come back and join us!  We want you there.  Bring a friend!

THERE IS A PLACE FOR HOME TRAINERS: I used to ride over a thousand miles a year, indoors!  At home!  Despite my love of indoor cycling classes, solo indoor trainers also have a place.  And this is especially true if you have specific cycling performance goals for next year.

Winter is generally considered a time for building base endurance.  This is when you build the basic pieces of your cardiovascular foundation that will support the more intense work you will add later on.

Base building requires some longer, lower effort sessions.  I try to take this into account in planning my classes for you.  But, in any event, most classes are only 45-60 minutes.  And many classes are going to include at least some higher intensity work.

So what do you do if you’ve decided that it’s important to build up some base endurance over the winter?

I suggest you consider a few long sessions on your indoor trainer.  How many and how long depends on your goals.  But what if you, once a week, got on your indoor trainer at home, put on a movie and rode for 1-2 hours?  I used to watch tapes of the Tour de France that I had taped the previous summer.  Keep your heart rate in the area where you are aware of doing work but there is not much intensity, Zones 1 and 2 of the four zone system I have introduced for indoor cycling at the Y.

This too requires discipline.  Many riders can more easily force themselves to do the dramatic high level work but have trouble committing to the time required to just be in the saddle and ride. If you have serious aspirations to high level riding, you need to do both.

Let me know if I can help you with planning your winter fitness program.  I’d be happy to discuss it with you after class.

A FEW MORE THINGS NOT TO DO IN INDOOR CYCLING:  Last month I began a discussion of some of the things not to do in indoor cycling.  We covered not using bands or weights on the bike, excessive upper body movement, popcorn jumps, and high cadence without resistance.

This month I will add a few more to the mix.  This group of contraindications mostly deals with practices that put the rider in an inefficient or possibly injurious position.  Often these contraindications also involve too little movement which inhibits the “flow” that is part of indoor cycling.

1. Riding “aero” seated with hands forward or forearms on handlebars.  To understand this contraindication, it is important to understand the difference between a road bike and “triathalon or time trial bike.  Think about the upright tube into which the saddle fits.  On a road bike, that tube is slanted backwards, often at an angle of about 73 degrees.  That same tube, on a triathalon or time trial bike is much more upright - almost vertical.  An indoor cycle bike is designed like a road bike, not a triathalon bike.

If you want to lean forward into an aero position on a triathalon bike, your hips are already forward because of the angle of the seat tube.  If you lean forward on a road bike, your hips are back because of the angle of that tube.

So what happens to the rest of your body when you go into an aero position on a road bike?
∙ Your spine is forced into an unnatural and uncomfortable amount of flexion.
∙ Because your spine is so flexed, you must unnaturally extend your neck to look ahead.
∙ The overly flexed position forces your knees laterally so that your knee joint may not track properly.
∙ Your back is not stabilized so your low back rounds out of alignment.  This causes the pelvis to rotate implicating the lumbar vertebrae.
∙ Your glutes and hamstrings at put at the endpoint of their range of motion.
∙ The excessive trunk flexion blocks your oxygen flow.
∙ All this increases tension in your hips, lower back and neck.

These problems are especially bad for small riders or those with tight hams, glutes or low back.  That’s most of us.

Tri-riders would be better off training for power indoors and working on form and position outdoors.  Or they can put their tri-bike on an indoor trainer.  Some choose to ride in the “tri-position” on road bikes anyway but at least they should know the implications of what they are doing.

2. Isolations or “freezes”.  This is a contra-indication where you hold all or part of your upper body still.  It is a contra-indication because some flow is needed for efficient riding.  On an outdoor bike that flow is partially created by the bike’s natural movement underneath you.  But indoors the bike does not move.  When you freeze a part of your body indoors energy is not allowed to flow through your body to the pedals.  Instead it is collected at your joints.  The freeze is a bio-mechanically ineffective posture that risks injury to your knees, back and neck.  

3. Squats.  Squats are similar to freezes where you lower your body into a squat-like position and pedal from there.  There is extreme risk to the knee due to the angle between your knee and the pedal.  Then consider the number of revolutions being completed.  There are dangerous compressive forces coming at your knee both from above and below.

4. Hovers.  This is a popular one where you push your hips back over the saddle without touching down.  Think what happens.  Your knees go out.  Your glutes and hamstrings are held at inefficient positions.  Your back is hyper-extended.  And your hips are hyper-flexed.  You can’t pedal properly.  You can’t breathe properly.  There is no power production.  There is danger, especially to the knees.  I recently had a student tell me that he was doing hovers in other classes and that his knees always hurt afterwards.  Don’t do them. They hurt and it is not a “good” hurt.

5. Excessive resistance. Resistance so high that it your forces cadence into 50's or lower risks injury to the knees.

CYCLING ZONES FIELD TEST: Early this month a few students from my classes performed a lactate threshold field test.   This is a test that allows you to learn a very good estimate of your heart rate when you enter each of the different exercise intensity zones.

Heart rate is more accurate than judging your zones only by perceived exertion.  But how do you determine the right heart rate numbers?  The lactate threshold field test is a great deal more accurate than a formula based on your age.   (220 - age for men and 226 - age for women).  The field test is simpler and less expensive than laboratory tests of your blood or expiratory gases as you work at very high intensity.  It is an estimate rather than a true measurement but its been shown to be good enough for all but the most serious.

The Y is going to allow me to repeat the test every few months.  Riders who have taken the test will be able to measure changes in their fitness.  And riders who have not taken the test yet will have the opportunity to do so.  Stay tuned for this worthwhile exercise.

QUOTE:   “Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first.”  George Adams.


Bill Roach, NASM-CPT, CES, WLS.
Star 3 Lifetime Certified Spinning Instructor
Certified Personal Trainer, National Academy of Sports Medicine
Corrective Exercise Specialist, National Academy of Sports Medicine
bill.roach@mchsi.com