Have you ever caught yourself saying or thinking that you hate exercise? Or that it hurts too much and makes you sore? Not to mention that exercise makes you feel uncomfortable while you sweat. Here are a few steps on how to fall in love with exercise.
While teaching indoor cycling classes over the past 10 years I have come to the conclusion that the beats and character of the music that an instructor plays in class is the single most important part of a cycling session. Without the beat I am lost and so are the members in class. The beats of the music will allow you to coach a rhythm that will ultimately design the ride throughout the hour-long class. A fast beat will take you into a sprint while a slower beat might have you into a seated and/or standing hill climb. I’m often asked how I find the music for all of my cycling classes. Ever since I traveled to Nice, France to compete in the 2008 Ironman I found myself falling in love with dance music and house music. This type of music combined with lyrics is the new way people are listening to music. In the United States it is becoming the hottest phenomenon ever since hip hop hit the stage more than 20 years ago. I love music and cycling so 
much that I never find it to be a chore when searching for new ways to guide my members in class with new sounds and beats. In any given day I will go to Radio Metro (Australian House Music Online Station) and put on my headphones and just listen to the beats and pick up what I like to play. Music set play-lists that some world class DJ’s around the world have mixed together can also be a great way to keep your class going and make the hour long class seem like it’s flying by. However, make sure that you are taking some rest throughout the play-lists because it’s easy to get caught up and burn out when your only 20 minutes into the ride. I like 3-5 minute songs because it offers the best workout to rest ratio in between songs. Either way you will get the most energy out of your members while playing very high energetic electronic big room house music! If you don’t believe me then check out the latest news in Forbes Magazine this past month about the rise of house music as well as one of my favorite DJ’s and the #1 DJ in America right now: Kaskade!
Start Your Own Evo Indoor Cycling Studio
Have you thought about opening your own Indoor Cycling Studio? The Relay Fitness Group and Jack Nunn can help. Even if you already own a cycling, yoga, and or fitness studio we have the resources to better streamline your business while reducing costs and building class sizes at the same time! Relay Fitness has proven solutions and a quality brand with the Evo Indoor Cycling Bike that will simply improve your profit without all the maintenance of traditional indoor bikes. If you’ve instructed a cycling class for any amount of time, you’ve probably run into a situation where one of your indoor cycles was out of commission due to a faulty component. If your class is full, that missing bike means one less person enjoying your killer indoor cycling session!
Many fitness club owners think that simply getting new members is the most important aspect when it comes to marketing. However did you know that you can nearly double your income per member simply focusing on retaining the members you already have and encouraging them to invest in effective nutritional products or services that you sell?
Retaining your existing members instead of trying to obtain new members is very important when it comes to being a successful cycling program. I personally use a ‘Fitness & Nutrition’ approach when it comes to accomplishing a clients personal health goals. Protein powders and whole food based concentrated food supplements added alongside a fitness routine can get your members to see their overall fitness and health goals come true sooner! Exceptional customer service involves more than just employing a friendly staff. You must consistently meet and exceed your clients’ needs. Survey your members periodically to make sure you are succeeding, and then develop a customer satisfaction package based on their feedback. Contact me here on more advice on hoe to address individual fitness needs and goals in order to provide an initial fitness assessment and extensive orientation to each of your members. The orientation shouldn’t be just a walk around the gym and locker room, but rather a comprehensive equipment and technique demonstration. This will prevent injuries and encourage members to use unfamiliar equipment.
The Atkins Diet claimed to help individuals drop weight quickly by inordinate reduction of carbohydrates. The South Beach diet claimed to help shed 10 pounds in just one week by diet and intense exercise. While the Zone Diet looked to control an individuals insulin levels by limiting carbohydrates and balancing fats and proteins. Each diet fad made headlines, but medical experts agree: these quick-fix strategies rarely help for long-term weight control and health. While weight loss may be ideal for some individuals, other folks may want to improve their diet as well as lose weight over time. If reducing the risk of disease and increasing your overall health, an anti-inflammatory diet may seem like the best fit. Fruits and Vegetables and Anti-inflammatory diets contain the same proponents of most diets, except with a new t
wist. Compared to other diets, an anti-inflammatory focuses on adding foods that help reduce inflammation that can cause health risks. One of the main staples of this diet is fruits and veggies. As with most diets, fruits and veggies contain low sugar and trans fat levels and contain the vital proteins and fibers necessary to replenish and revitalize the body. Aim for high fiber fruits and vegetables, apples, papaya, broccoli, tomatoes, and kale. Fruits and veggies will keep you full, but also put a stop to high blood pressure, curb onset diabetes, and lower your risk of heart disease. Add some spice to your life: ginger, chili and even curry adds some spice and flavor to your foods; more importantly, spices also help reduce inflammation. Take some ginger, chili and even curry and add them to your dietary staples, i.e., chicken, meats and even pork products. If you feel daring, try adding these spices to non-meat products, including pastas, salads and even fruits. If you loathe the taste of hot spices, you can also try more tepid flavors to tone down the spicy factor, including mild sauces, peppers 
and even mild curry. Look for recipes to help incorporate mild and hot spices into your meals or visit an accredited college database online to learn new tricks. Fish, salmon and even sardines contain omega-3 nutrients that help curb inflammation. Nutrients aside, seafood also comes loaded with protein and is easy on the carbohydrates. With so much variety to select from, seafood makes for the perfect anti-inflammatory food to consume. Add in some veggies and some spices to the pot and you have yourself a triple threat of anti-inflammatory foods. Herbalists continue to rave about teas natural ability to grant essential nutrients and supplements to help the body recover and reduce inflammation. Green, white, and Oolong tea may be the best choices for fighting inflammation. When mixed together with anti-oxidants and nutrients this makes tea the perfect compliment to any meal. Whether you drink tea hot or cold, look to add it to your meals at least 4-5 times per week.
Growing up with a father who was a two-time U.S. Olympian in Rowing (68′ Mexico City Olympic Bronze Medalist and 76′ Montreal Olympic Men’s Rowing Coach) was a very interesting experience. I thought it was normal routine workout and it made sense that my father would go out for a 3-hour workout and train 7 days a week. I didn’t really appreciate or even come close to understanding how truly hard and mentally tough it is to win an Olympic medal… let alone just to make the Olympic Team until I rowed and was recruited to row for UC Berkeley. All of a sudden I found myself the weakest and slowest rower on the team as we went on to win 3 National Championships and 4 PAC- 10 Championships in 4 years along with International rowers that were recruited from all over the world. It was my introduction to the next step of my rowing career as I rowed alongside recruited rowers from Sweden, Norway, Germany, England, Serbia, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and Croatia . I remember days where I would barely be awake during practice in the early mornings as I did not have enough time to recover in between practices. Our coaches made us do fitness tests every week to see how fast we could row 10,000 meters on the Concept 2 Rowing Machine. One year we accumulated 15 tests every week of 10,000 meters and about 10 fitness tests of 6,000 meters! My overall best Concept 2 times were 33 min 20 seconds for 10,000 meters (1:40 split avg) and a national team qualifying time of 19 min 2o seconds for the 6,000 meter test (1:36 split avg).
Two years ago when I created Roworx in Long Beach it was my dream to offer a complete low impact high-calorie burn workout for everyone to enjoy no matter what experience an individual had in athletics. Recently I have had many new calls and emails regarding how ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ certain Roworx Classes were and what kinds of classes I thought would be best for people just starting out their new workout routine. Throughout my 20 years of experience as an athlete and rower I have found that nearly half of the general public I come in contact with and talk about my sport think that rowing is relatively ‘easy’ and discuss the perception that rowing is a total upper body workout. However, in reality, the power behind the rowing stroke is driven through your legs (about %80) and then the rest throughout the entire body. Rowing is actually one of the hardest, if not the hardest cardiovascular demanding sport that you can do on the planet. For instance, the standard Olympic distance for a rowing race is 2,000 meters (just over a mile). The standard U.S. Men’s Heavyweight Olympic Team time for rowing a 2,000 meter piece on the Concept 2 rowing machine is around 5 min :55 seconds (1:28 500 split avg or around 500 watts)! Out of all the Roworx Classes we have to offer such as Rowing, Bootcamp, Zumba, Evo Indoor Cycling, TRX Suspension Training, Pilates Arc Ab Exercises and the Ski Erg Training along with any other activity that you choose to do is as hard as you want to make it. es,Since you are the one that is participating in the activity it is also up to yourself to push as hard as you want. I always tell everyone in class at Roworx that if you can hold your body-weight in watts on the Concept 2 monitor then that is a great goal. Once you have hit your body-weight in watts you can then try and double your body-weight and so on.
Over the past 10 years while teaching over 5,000 hours of indoor cycling classes throughout various fitness facilities across the U.S. I have found that in order to get the best workout on a bike you must have the right technique whether you are cycling indoors and or outdoors. Cross-training on the indoor bike has had added many positive effects to my training for two international Ironman’s in Nice, France and Florianopolis, Brazil over the past couple of years. I owe it to cycling for getting my body into the best shape of my life and improving muscle endurance throughout my legs and core. My father, John Nunn also used cycling as a perfect way to crosstrain for the Olympics in 1968 while winning a bronze medal in rowing. John also discusses the importance that indoor cycling bikes that offer the perfect cross training exercises with all the training benefits of road cycling and without the risks of crash injuries. The indoor cycling ‘boom’ hit in the late 1980’s and early 90’s with the emergeance of the ‘spin class.’ Since then almost every single fitness machine manufacturer has developed am indoor bicycle. Indoor and outdoor cycling have become so popular because nearly everyone knows how to ride a bike and the leg drive on a bicycle is a relatively simple process. You may either pedal with greater force, more pedal velocity along with resistance in gears or brake, or both to achieve greater speed and power. In order to accomplish this you must first transfer your body’s energy to the pedals. How much of this energy you transfer is determined by your efficiency and technique during the pedal stroke. There are many ways to increase power and efficiency. It is possible to be a fit and powerful athlete, but not necessarily a fast one if you are inefficient.
The EVO Indoor Cycling Bike is very unique from the rest of the indoor bikes on the market in that it engages the whole body while cycling in and out of the seat while riding just as a real outdoor bike experience would be on the open road. Some cyclists would say that the less sway the better, however, the act of throwing every ounce of leverage, weight, and power into the pedals and movement side to side is the visible result of trying that hard to move forward when riding outdoors. If you could stay absolutely still, and input the same amount of force to the pedal, then more of that energy would go to moving forward, but it’s physiologically it is very difficult. It’s a matter of balance and leverage. 
Further, there is a mechanical advantage to be had in terms of body mechanics by swaying the bike and it lets the cyclist apply a bit more force than if the bike remained straight. The swaying motion from side to side will allow the cyclist to use more of his arm strength than would otherwise be the case. Being able to use your full body weight in a sprint has its advantages, and that’s one reason they shift the bike back and forth under them to ‘throw’ their body weight down on alternate legs side to side creates momentum and speed. They quite simply must sway the bike back and forth because of the mechanical reality of the situation. It’s not even really a conscious act and if a rider didn’t do this, the bike would fall out from under them. Sometimes you will actually see someone move a traditional indoor cycling bike off the ground from side to side and hop around the floor in class. These riders are applying extreme power to each pedal. Since the pedals are not centered laterally, applying a large force to the right pedal for instance will apply a rotational force that pushes the top of the bike to the right and the bottom of the bike to the left. Without this counterbalancing motion, they would quite literally kick the wheel to the side out from under them. By ‘swaying’ the bike in the opposite direction, they increase the amount of force on the legs and core that can be applied to the pedals without crashing. It is an intuitive motion that happens completely automatically to any rider from novice to advanced. For a quick mental picture, imagine somebody swaying in the same direction as the pedal being pushed. For instance, somebody leaning the bike to the right while they apply a large force to the right pedal. The rotational force would rotate the bicycle clockwise, lifting the wheel off the ground. Not something you want to happen, especially at sprinting speeds and especially in a classroom setting. For a great example how this technique comes into play in real road cycling watch any Tour De France finish line approach. It’s incredibly intense and you can see how hard everyone sprints and works the whole body in order to get through the finish first. Legs, lungs, muscle endurance, and core play a massive role in the use of the Evo Bike!
Indoor cycling classes are an ideal place to work on the proper cycling technique and provide a traffic-free environment that can go a long way toward replacing the on-the-road experience. It’s a great place for cycling novices to improve at least ten aspects of cycling that will quickly make them a better rider. Indoor cycling is also a great place for the veteran cyclists to refresh their technique as long as they remember not to ride an indoor bike the same way they do their outdoor bikes. Whether you are training for an Ironman competition or just trying to stay in great shape be sure to incorporate indoor cycling into your weekly workout routine in order to improve muscle endurance and cardiovascular health. Tons of calories can be burned in just one cycling class and the best part is you can do it anytime anywhere.