How To Build Great Indoor Cycling Classes: Techniques for Building a Library of Sustainable and Reusable Classes

By Gene Nacey and Jennifer Sage

Whether you are newly certified or if you have been teaching for years, the question to ask yourself is this: Have you learned all you can about building a single great indoor cycling class or building a great library of classes?
If you are an Indoor Cycling or Spin® instructor, in "How To Build Great Indoor Cycling Classes" you will learn multiple foundational principles for working with music to advanced techniques for building a variety of well structured, sustainable classes.
From boutique studios to big box gym chains, this is the quintessential "How To" book for building indoor cycling classes regardless of bike type or brand name.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667839097

Book preview

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How To Build Great Indoor Cycling Classes

Techniques for building a library

of sustainable and reusable classes

© 2022 Gene Nacey

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN: 978-1-66783-9-080

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66783-9-097

All photos and likenesses were taken by permission within the context of the event in which they were taken, with permission for extended use, but do not constitute endorsement of this book, its author or its methods

To receive a copy of the spreadsheet template for building classes

referenced in this book, contact the author at [e-mail]

Indoor cycling classes can be created and automated with the techniques discussed in this book at www.iclassbuilder.com

This book is available on electronic copy from major eBook retailers such as Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and Scribd.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

Build A Class As You Move Through This Book

Basic Planning Before You Begin

SECTION 1: Class Organization

Chapter 1 - Class Type

Chapter 1.1 - A Starting List Of Class Types

Chapter 1.2 - Training And Education

Chapter 1.3 - Themed Rides

Chapter 1.4 - Simulation Rides

Chapter 1.5 - Experience Rides

Chapter 1.6 - Virtual Cycling Rides

Chapter 1.7 - Indoor Competition Rides

Chapter 1 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

Chapter 2 - Class Title and Description

Chapter 2.1 - A Title Shows Real Purpose And Intent

Chapter 2.2 - Title Creativity For Marketing

Chapter 2.3 - Title For Organization

Chapter 2.4 - Class Description Is Your Guide

Chapter 2 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

Chapter 3 - Class Structure and Ride Profile

Chapter 3.1 - The Graphic Ride Profile

Chapter 3.2 - Intensity Drives Profile Shape

Chapter 3.3 - The Purpose Of The Ride Profile

Chapter 3 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

SECTION 2: It’s All About The Music,

Even When It’s All About The Training

Chapter 4 - Listen With two Ears and one Eye

Chapter 4.1 - Music Intensity and Emotion

Chapter 4.2 - Take Listening To The Next Level

Chapter 4.3 - Building Playlists Specifically For Class Use

Chapter 4 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

Chapter 5 - Organizing Your Music For Speed and Accuracy

Chapter 5.1 - Creating Playlists By Your Best Guess Of

How songs Will Be Used

Chapter 5.2 - Creating Playlists By An Intended Theme For The Class

Chapter 5 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

SECTION 3: We’ve Got Music!

Now What Do We Do With It?

Chapter 6 - Deciding Exactly What To Do On The Bike

Chapter 6.1 - Drills and Cues Philosophy

Chapter 6.2 - the Difference Between a Cue And a Drill

Chapter 6.3 - BPM and RPM: Linking What To Do To Your Music

Chapter 6.4 - Feeling The Music Can Override The BPM

Chapter 6.5 - Low-Hanging Fruit, OR Easy Rules Of Thumb

Chapter 6.6 - Ride To Determine the Best Moves

Chapter 6.7 - Have a Plan And Make RPM a Part of It

Chapter 6 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

Chapter 7 - Track Placement: Where In Class a Song Works Best

Chapter 7.1 - Building a Library Of Music Already

Programmed For Class

Chapter 7 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

SECTION 4: Music, Moves, and Motivation In Hand:

Time To Build A Class

Chapter 8.1 - Objectives, Motivation, and Creativity Start The Process

Chapter 8.2 - Breaking It Down To The Parameters You Care About

Chapter 8.3 - A Good Outline Leads To A Good CLass

Chapter 8.4 - Final Details: Timing Cues To Each Song

Chapter 8 ACTION ITEMS SO FAR

Samples or Examples

BONUS SECTION: Masterful Cueing:

The Turning Point to Becoming the Complete Instructor

Chapter 9 - Masterful Cueing

Chapter 9.1 - Cues For Steady-State Endurance,

Tempo, And Sweet-Spot Rides

Chapter 9.2 - Cues For Climbing

Chapter 9.3 - Cues For That Final Hard Push To The Summit Of a Climb

Chapter 9.4 - Cues For Longer Hard Efforts

Just Below Or At Threshold

Chapter 9.5 - Cues For Short Anaerobic Efforts Of

About 45 Seconds To 3 Minutes

Chapter 9.6 - About The Words Suffering And

Pain In The Indoor Cycling Studio

Chapter 9.7 - Cues For Explosive Power Sprints

Chapter 9.8 - Cues Specific To Sprints

Chapter 9.9 - Bonus Cue

Chapter 9.10 - Cues For Recovery

Chapter 9.11 - Intrinsic Motivation Cues For Inspiration,

Pushing The Limits, Overcoming Doubt

Chapter 9.12 - Mind-Body, Breath, Introspection,

Mental Training Cues

Appendix 1: Sample Classes From three Different

Training/Certification Systems

Appendix 2: Coach Gino’s Cues and Drills

About the Author

FOREWORD

By Sally Edwards,

Founder and CEO of Heart Zones®

Gene Nacey was born to be an educator. From developing one-of-a-kind live and online indoor cycling programs such as Winter Training, a twelve-week indoor cycling progression, to the first online indoor cycling certification for instructors, to building mobile apps for cycling training, Gene is one of the gurus of smart training based on scientific principles.

Now after ten years of creating software for indoor cycling instructors, Gene has consolidated his expertise into this important guide to building great indoor cycling classes.

Having helped over a thousand indoor cycling instructors get certified and ready to teach, Gene realized there was still so much to learn in creating great indoor cycling classes. Classes that should be more than just entertainment on a bike, but classes that will lead to real results as well. Great classes train the body as well as delight the soul. Great classes motivate the mind and engage the heart. Great classes provide intense emotional impact on riders. Great classes require you to be good to great at developing and leading great classes. This book will help you build great classes.

There is one word to describe Gene’s impact on training and teaching and that word is efficiency. This new and innovative book emphasizes the many different ways instructors can be efficient in building classes, adding the music that matches, and spicing up their classes with zone training, all to make them the best instructors that they can be.

Let me give you four clear reasons why this book is a must for all indoor cycling instructors.

1. It is uniquely focused on music and training as equal partners in making great classes.

2. It provides many years of accumulated expertise from living and breathing all things indoor cycling.

3. It is comprehensive without being overwhelming, with clear, practical tips and techniques.

4. It includes Gene’s entire library of drills that are safe and effective for indoor bikes.

As someone who has both taught and ridden with Gene Nacey (indoors and out), I highly recommend How to Build Great Indoor Cycling Classes to all new and veteran instructors.

— Sally Edwards, Founder and CEO, Heart Zones®

Author, Professional Athlete, Fitness Software Developer, Patent Holder—Threshold Training

Sacramento, CA www.heartzones.com

PREFACE

In 1997 I took my first indoor cycling class. When I started that journey, I was treated to my first big bump in fitness compared to previous years of taking the winter off and doing my normal spring riding, then racing mountain bikes and training solely outdoors in the summer.

As is my obsessive-compulsive nature, I could not leave it alone and went down a rabbit hole that resulted in opening multiple indoor cycling studios and writing a manifesto for what I saw as the needed evolution of indoor cycling. I was urging bike manufacturers to put some metrics into the many indoor bikes that had nothing but resistance knobs on them, and to use video as a motivational tool for an indoor studio. I knew the indoor experience could be more than just a good aerobic workout. It could translate into a much richer indoor experience, and even better athletic performance outdoors if done correctly and with some real data and metrics.

Fast-forward twenty years, and we have metrics galore. Not only that, but videos and even long-distance peer-to-peer competitions now blanket the indoor riding landscape. My revolutionary live streaming of indoor classes may have not taken off back then when broadband was scarce, but when Peloton built it all into their own bikes