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Want to Intensify Your Cycle Class/ Personal Ride?
By Christina | January 20, 2009
I have been teaching Spin/ Cycle since 1999 and I have always loved it. It isn’t just leading the class I enjoy, it’s all of it. It’s being able to let go of the mind chatter as we say in yoga and push my physical body while really quieting the mental and emotional body that I enjoy. There are times I go into the cycle studio and just crank the stereo by myself so that I can really get into it; no coaching others, no watching form, just me and the music and a dark room with a bike… it’s perfect.
After years and years of teaching and being considered one of the “hardest” instructors at my club, I changed the way I teach and it got even better. Amazingly, it did not happen at a workshop or conference, it was not the product of hours of reading the latest book on how to cycle. No, it came from taking a colleagues class. His method of teaching and coaching blew me away. He doesn’t scream, he doesn’t get off the bike, he doesn’t sing or dance, he just rides.
In between songs I, along with other instructors, got into the habit of releasing the resistance from the bike to hydrate and recover. This seemed okay until I did it without the release of gears. It was actually mind blowing the difference in made. It took a class of choppy songs and broken up intensity and made it a one hour training experience where you could maintain the heart rate, leg cadence and most importantly, the mental focus without letting go of the “feeling”. It’s hard to really explain but if you currently ride and release between songs because you just went so hard you needed to take a breather, try this approach instead.
You will actually get stronger so that one day you are riding with that 5 minute intensity for the full hour!
Topics: Spinning |
