What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Indoor-Cycling Instructor
Summary: I’m providing several tips for new instructors from what I learned during the last 10 years of teaching indoor cycling.
My day-time job is in tech, and I am by no means a professional instructor. As my side passion, I am also a certified indoor cycling and Zumba instructor. I have been teaching indoor cycling classes in various gyms in California for the last 10 years.
When I became certified, I learned a few things about how to adjust the bikes and how to direct the class. But being a successful instructor is far beyond that, specially if you are a shy guy like me. It took me months and even years to learn how to connect to my clients in the class and turn it into a great experience for them, and the more I teach, the more I realize, there is still a lot to learn.
A few days ago a friend of mine who just became an instructor asked me to email her a few tips on how to run a cycling class. That email evolved to this article.
Some of the items below are my own opinions, so take them with a grain of salt.
1. Safety First
You can get away with not being prepared, being late to your class, and not having a good playlist, but the one thing that you can’t get away with is someone getting hurt in your class under your watch.
You need to do your homework: make sure all bikes are adjusted. Do not direct your clients to do dangerous moves on the bike (more on this later). Observe your clients, and make sure they look ok on the bike. Are their postures correct? Do they need bike adjustments? Are their shoes clipped to the pedals? Are they using the cage correctly?
And it goes without saying: know your CPR and the closest location of an AED!
2. Connect to Your Clients
If you want to take one thing from this article, this is it: you need to connect with people who come to your class. It’s hard to define what exactly this means, but I will try to mention a few essential things that help building this connection:
- Talk to them: this can include welcoming them to your class, calling them by their first name, and staying a few minutes after class and having some small talk with them.
- Do not take your clients for granted. You need to make every session a great experience, or they will leave! Talk to them at a personal level and let them know that you care about them by being prepared, playing great music, and setting up an effective workout.
- Ask for feedback: they would be happy to tell you what they liked, and what they didn’t like. Was the music good? Was it too loud? Was the workout too intense? Were you able to hear me? The would be happy to let you know!
- Care about your first timers: When someone comes to my class for the first time, I go to their bike, introduce myself, and make sure their bike is adjusted. Also, I review the basics about indoor cycling, its goals, and how to keep a correct posture as I teach. And the end of the class we clap for first timers for finishing their first class.
- Read your class’s mood: If you have created an intense playlist, but everyone in your class is exhausted, it’s time for a change on-the-fly or a quick break. Occasionally you need to adjust the intensity as you go.
- Motivate them: from time to time, I get off my bike and go to my client’s bikes and try to talk and motivate them as they bike. You are their trainer, after all, and that’s what trainers do.
- Say a few nice words here and there, and mean it: that was a great ride class! Excellent job! I’m proud of you! Let’s crush this one!
- Be loud and clear. I can’t stress this enough! You need to talk very clearly and be eloquent, otherwise most people won’t understand you. Don’t be that instructor who mumbles throughout the whole class without anyone having and idea what he/she is talking about. Check your mic, and only talk when it’s necessary. Otherwise, you are ruining the music!
- Make eye contact with your audience.
- Build a community: while indoor cycling is not that social, you can still make it become like a community. From time to time, we organize special events in our studio: for example, every month you can invite the clients to stay a few minutes after the class for a short potluck meet and greet session where they can introduce themselves to other clients and talk to them. Introduce your clients to each other. Chances are they come back to your class not only because of you but also because of each other.
- Adjust your playlist based on your audience: you have an old crowd? throw a few songs from 60s, 70s or 80s. Have someone from a different country? Add a song to your playlist from their language. When in doubt, play upbeat electronic music. More on your playlist later.
- Take pictures with them: every few sessions, I take a selfie with my clients at the end of the class and post it on my Instagram.
3. Controversial Moves on the Bike
There is tons of controversies in the indoor cycling community about what moves are ok and safe and what moves are considered dangerous. In general, the community is divided into two groups:
- The traditional Instructors
This group of instructors advocate only a few positions on the bike: seated, and standing up. Do not even dare to mention push-ups, body rolls, leaning to sides, and basically anything else to them. They don’t believe in choreographed biking (for good reasons).
The idea is what you do on an indoor cycling bike should be very similar to what you do on a road bike, and no it does not include dancing! This is probably the safest method of instructing your class, and people are less likely to get injured, or claim they got injured as a result of your class.
2. Non-traditional Instructors
This group do all sort of things on the bike. It is basically Zumba meets biking. Common moves in such classes are using weights, doing push-ups on the bike, leaning your body to sides, body rolls, and jumping.
Depending on your background, you can decide which one you want to be. If you want to be a non-traditional instructor, just be aware of all the controversies around the issue(here are some examples), and make sure you study and read about them.A non-traditional instructors is still a fitness instructor, not an entertainer.
Also, you should be completely aware of the risks and the controversy since the community is completely and passionately polarized on this subject. Because of this ongoing controversy, some clients may blame their back pain or other injuries on you, even if the moves that you do are completely safe.
Moreover, I would try to know my audience before going to the class. If you sub for a class that is not used to these moves, they might think you are crazy, and if you sub for a class that is used to non-traditional style, they might think you are boring.
Lastly, know your gym policy and your certificate guidelines on these moves. Some gyms have a clear policy on what they want their instructors do on the bike.
Pro tip: If you are auditioning for a studio, beware that while some studios like SoulCycle highly promote non-traditional moves, others might immediately reject you if they see them. So, always take a class or two in that studio before you audition, and thank me later.
The bottom line:
I don’t condemn or endorse any of these styles. My personal opinion on these moves is that as long as they are safe, you can do them. But do them carefully, know your gym policy, and make sure you are still helping your clients by providing an efficient workout.
The traditional instructors have a point: weight training, dancing, and conditioning has its own place, which is most probably not on a bike.
On the other hand, many non-traditional instructors that I know are very professional and hard-working instructors, who care about safety as much as traditional instructors do. Planning a non-traditional class is actually more work than a traditional class.
I would personally keep an open mind and I would occasionally try taking classes from each of the two styles. There is always something new to learn.
In the end, whatever you do, remember that while you want your class to be a great experience, you still want to be the fitness instructor who helps clients to achieve their goals safely. I know a lot of non-traditional instructors who are great fitness instructors and not entertainers. What you don’t want to do is to confuse the two.
4. Stretches
Welcome to another source of controversy! It used to be the case that stretches before workout was considered a no brainer. Recently however, there are published researches which show this is actually a bad idea. Here are some of those articles.
Based on the new research, it’s better to follow the idea of general warm-up which consist of soft join rotation and dynamic stretches. It is not a good idea to attempt to stretch before your muscles are warm (something which the general warm-up accomplishes).
I usually start my class at a very slow speed (around 65 RPM) just to get the joint rotation for a few minutes both in seated and standing positions. Then I do some soft dynamic stretches of the upper body.
Also, at the end of my class I do some stretches off the bike for both upper and lower body.
One word of advice (again, my personal opinion): avoid doing leg stretches when one leg is on the bike and the other one on the floor at all cost. They are not safe as your clients have to stand on one leg on a floor that is very likely to be sweaty and slippery. You can achieve the same effect by stretching without the need for the bike.
5. PlayList
Your playlist and your music is the most important part of your class. What is the best song for cycling? The best song is the one that you enjoy listening to while working out yourself. If you don’t like your song, chances are your clients wouldn’t like it either. In general, the music should energize you and make you want to do more workout. For hills and climbs, you may want to use slower songs.
Here are some tips on how you can improve your music:
- When in doubt, play upbeat electronic songs. They always work!
- Use motivational songs. One of the best experiences of cycling class is to become energized and feel great about yourself.
- Use remixes and covers instead of the original song. This way even very old and cliche songs will sounds new.
- Avoid songs with profanity unless you know your clients personally. Most hip-hop and rap songs have non PG-13 words in them. You never know who might be offended by them.
- Change your playlist often! People don’t want to do the same workout with the same playlist all the time. I usually keep a few songs from my last playlists, but always have new songs for each session.
- Use variation: a great class is dynamic. For example, it starts slow, then gradually becomes faster, then there is a climax/peak workout, which can be followed by a slower song with slower cadence and higher resistance. And then finish strong with a fast song. The point is don’t bore and hurt your clients’ ears with a loud and fast song the entire class. Give them a break and some variety.
- Theme classes: many instructors do theme classes where you play the same type of song for the entire class: for example, horror songs for Halloween, or Christmas songs for around Christmas time. In my opinion, this a great thing to do, but don’t include a song solely because it matches the theme of the class. If you don’t find enough good songs about the occasion, you can always just play the related ones for half of your class and use your normal playlist for the other half.
There are many people on Spotify with great playlists that you can follow, here are some of them:
One more thing about your music: In some classes the music is in the background, and the instructor continuously talks, which is perfectly fine. For others, music is the main part and is in the foreground while the instructor talks only when it’s necessary. I personally like the former approach where the clients get a chance to enjoy the music rather than someone shouting at them for 60 minutes non-stop.
6. Stay Up-to-Date
Learning never ends. You need to know about the new trends, new workout styles, new studios, new teaching styles, and recent changes in the community. You can find a lot of resources online and on Youtube. One of the best ways to stay up-to-date is to become a member of these Facebook groups where other instructors share their experiences, songs, and playlists:
- Indoor Cycling Instructors
- Indoor Cycling Instructors (Nontraditional)
- Indoor Cycling and Spin Class Teaching Ideas Group
Final Words and Some More Random Tips
Here are some more random tips that I have found useful. I will add more to this list as I learn more.
- Using props: some instructors use props to make their classes more immersive or more fun. The ones that I have seen are: candles, disco lights, and essential oils. In general, highly encourage them. Just make sure you stick to safety and your gym policies.
- Using videos: some studios use a projector with immersive HD videos that are tailored towards the workout intensity. In general, I have found them very fun and helpful. But sometimes looking at a big screen makes me dizzy. So make sure you tell your clients not to look at the screen if that happens.
- Always carry backup music players. Chances are your original one breaks or is out of battery.
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