INDOOR CYCLING NEWSLETTER #78.

 

COME TO THE YMCA HEALTHY LIVING CENTER INDOOR CYCLE-THON: This is the one time all year that I make a personal appeal to you.  Please try to participate in the Des Moines YMCA Healthy Living Center Cycle-thon.  (Or, if you can’t participate, contribute anyway!)

Please hear me out.

Most of you know my passion for this place.  The YMCA Healthy Living Center is the only Y in the nation to have a full partnership with a medical facility.  In addition to all the services you normally expect from a YMCA, the Healthy Living Center also provides special medically-based exercise programming for persons fighting or recovering from a variety of diseases.  There are free member programs for cancer, cardiac disease, neuro wellness, pain management and obesity - just to name a few.

The implication of this is enormous not only in terms of providing a true continuum from illness to treatment, to therapy, to wellness and finally to fitness.   It also creates a unique culture full of all kinds of people each with their own important story, and all being fully accepted for whatever they bring.  We all benefit with this ingenious blend of people all working toward better health or fitness.

The Y policy is that no one is turned away for lack of ability to pay.  This has always been true for the “neighborhood Y’s”.  It is also true for those coming to the YMCA Healthy Living Center on a medical referral.  Persons who have exhausted their finances, perhaps because of their medical costs, are able to come to the Y to find an accepting place for their mind , body and spirit.  Your contribution, of any amount, to the Partners Fund will help aid that important assistance.  

Annie and I give to this cause every year and I make a commitment to help raise more funds because I have seen the program and have come to know some of the people it assists.  

The cycle-thon will be fun.  Join us Sunday afternoon, February 17th from Noon to 6pm.  You may ride from one up to six hours with six different instructors, each providing a unique theme:
∙ 12pm Bill Roach An all car-music ride.
∙ 1pm Lynette Wagner
∙ 2pm April Keating A Day of RAGBRAI
∙ 3pm Kris Meldrum A Rock-N Ride!
∙ 4pm Jason Wulf
∙ 5pm Penny Luthens

Cost of the ride is $30/hour/bike or $150 for the entire six hours.  A tee shirt is included.  Relay teams are welcome as well as individuals.  No other cycle classes are planned that day.  Reserve your bike at the welcome center.

YMCA members and non-members are welcome.  (Other fundraising events are being held at other YMCA’s around the metro.  YMCA members at other branches can inquire at your own welcome desk for more information.)

Come help support our members who have a need for medical programming assistance.  If you’re able, you may wish to consider making a larger commitment to your Y and your community.

YMCA HEALTHY LIVING CENTER NEURO HEALTH CYCLING CLASS: One of the medical programs at the YMCA Healthy Living Center is designed to help people with Parkinson’s disease or other neuro-health conditions.

I am happy to be teaching a cycle class in this program. Every Thursday night at 5:45pm we meet for an intense and enthusiastic workout designed to help stimulate the nervous system.

There is an emerging consensus that exercise is beneficial in slowing the progression of symptoms for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions.  Growing evidence suggests that cycling may be particularly beneficial.  Some research even suggests that cycling at a forced level of effort for three times a week over a period of time of eight weeks may result of a reduction of symptoms of up to 35%.

Neuroscientist Jay Alberts of the Cleveland Clinic conducted some of these studies after he rode RAGBRAI on a tandem bike with a Parkinson’s patient:  "The finding was serendipitous," Dr. Alberts recalled. "I was pedaling faster than her, which forced her to pedal faster. She had improvements in her upper extremity function, so we started to look at the possible mechanism behind this improved function."

It is theorized that benefit may be because the relatively faster pace of pedaling requires more neuromuscular signaling between the muscles and brain.  Importantly, this research is emerging in nature.  The program is not a cure for Parkinson’s but there is compelling evidence of benefits from this exercise.

If you know of someone who might benefit from such a program, please encourage them to investigate it.  Participants should be referred by their physician to the YMCA HLC for a neuro wellness evaluation for participation in the PD exercise program.  The assessment will determine the appropriateness of the patient for participation and introduce them to the program.

OPINION / THANKS FOR YOUR COMMENTS ON MY LANCE ARMSTRONG ARTICLE:   I usually keep this newsletter to factual commentary so I was a bit curious how my opinion piece on Lance Armstrong would be received.  Thank you for the many positive responses.  It’s a tragic story no matter how you look at it.  It would be more of a tragedy if we learned nothing from it.

OPINION / HAVE YOU BROKEN YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION YET? New Year Resolutions don’t work because we are psychologically pre-programmed to break them.  Deep down, we just don’t believe in them.  We don’t expect to succeed so it’s easy to pull some goal out of the hat.   Then it’s easy to let ourselves off the hook at the first failure.

The alternative is to make a real commitment to living our lives in a manner that is in harmony with our bodies.  I am making a personal commitment to do a better job of this in my own life.  This is harder than making, and then breaking, a New Year’s resolution.

We must know that we are going to slip up.  We must learn to get up and start again - over and over not just once a year.   My suggestion: (1) do something physically difficult almost every day, and (2) make everything you eat an informed, conscious decision.   And do it all year long, not just in January.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” - Abraham Lincoln

KETTLEBELL CLASSES:  I will be teaching a kettlebell class on Friday’s at 8:30am at the YMCA - Healthy Living Center.   The five-week sessions starts this Friday, February 15th.

Kettlebell is a great whole-body strength exercise that can also give you a good cardio kick.  And it is fun to throw the darn things around.  You don’t need experience.  The class is designed as a learning experience.

Cost for the class is $40 for a 5-week session.  Register at the Healthy Living Center welcome desk.

SCIENCE / MORE WALKING, LESS DRIVING = BIG DEAL.  A new study by University of Illinois researchers suggests that both daily automobile travel and calories consumed are related to body weight, and reducing either one, even by a small amount, correlates with a reduction in body mass index (BMI).  The take-a-way is to walk more.  Deliberately park farther from your destination to add a few steps.  It adds up.

"We're saying that making small changes in travel or diet choices may lead to comparable obesity reduction, which implies that travel-based interventions may be as effective as dietary interventions," said  a co-author of the study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine.

The researchers found that if all adults in the United States drove 1 mile less per day, the study predicted an associated decrease in the national average BMI.  Not to mention fuel savings.

Using a pedometer, like the slick new “Fit Bit”, to measure your steps can really motivate you to increase your daily number of steps.  As good as it is, walking is still not a substitute for regular cardiovacular exercise or strength/flexibility training.

RIDING ADVICE / PEDALING TECHNIQUE:  In class we frequently talk about the feel of a proper smooth pedaling stroke.  I have different ways to try encourage you to adopt this smooth, fluid pedaling style.  It is beautiful and distinctive when done right.  The French even have a name for it: supplesse.

Recently, a young rider asked me how to improve his pedaling form as Spring begins to come.  The best answer is to practice it.   Work on it during cycling class, and go out in early season and work specifically on a flowing cadence in an easy gear.  It pays dividends but it requires patience. (Another way to do this is to ride a special fixed-gear bike that never allows you to coast.  The
 momentum of the motion causes your legs to turn over naturally.)

At the same time, I just had some students buy their first cleated cycling shoes.  They were asking great questions about how pedaling in them is different than with gym shoes.  So here are some further thoughts about the most basic of bicycling actions: pedaling.

In class, we often talk about pedaling the whole circle or 360 degrees.  Or, as I sometimes like to say, “make it feel more like making circles and less like climbing stairs.”  This is great as a way to convey the “feel” we are seeking to learn.  But it is not literally true, nor could it be.  It’s just not possible to apply equal pressure on the left up-stroke and right down-stroke simultaneously.
A specific misconception that I sometimes hear is to lift on the backstroke of the pedal.  This is over-cooking the advice.  Especially on hills or sprints, it just doesn’t apply.

National coach Joe Friel notes that if you try to lift your back foot one of two things will happen. “Either your hip flexors will tire very quickly and you'll soon stop doing it or you will slow your cadence tremendously simply because you can't maintain a high cadence and pull up at the same time very easily.”

So go for that feel, but don’t overdo it.  Feel and picture yourself pedaling smoothly and rhythymicly.  One comparison is to think of the gracefulness of a powerful cat running.   Everything is happening in subconscious synchronicity.  If you let it.  This means you must get out of your own way, and ironically that means conscious practice.  Spend some time on it in every class and on every ride.

QUOTE:   “In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” ~ Albert Schweitzer.


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