A few weeks ago I taught an explosive power workout composed of various types of sprints. We started with a 15-minute gradual warm-up followed by 4 sets of sprints of different lengths. Recovery was provided between sprints and between sets. During a 60-minute class we spent only 15 minutes at sprint intensity leaving 30 minutes of recovery (not including the low intensity of the warm-up). When the classes was over, many of the riders commented that it was, by far, one of the hardest classes they have ever experienced. How can a class where riders spend more than 50% of their time recovering be “that” hard?
The following was written for the third edition of Stage5 Cycling’s indoor cycling instructor handbook
A good indoor cycling instructor takes time to explain and reinforce the key elements of proper training. In doing this, riders can even get excited about recovery. Recovery is often considered a bad word in the indoor cycling studio because riders feel they are getting robbed of valuable training time. There is nothing farthest from the truth. Recovery is the only path to top performance and maximum intensity. Unless a rider recovers “hard” they will not be able to ride “hard”.
In fact, including the appropriate time to recover between efforts in your indoor cycling class makes the workout harder. It is unfortunately common for riders to experience multiple back-to-back efforts with NO recovery. Instructors sometimes believe they need to do this in order to make riders feel they are getting their butts kicked. In reality, riders start out strong and eventually fade as they hopelessly flail away at the pedals in an attempt to keep up an unrealistic and unobtainable effort. This behavior teaches riders to hold back because they have no idea how long they will be required to sustain the intense effort and want to avoid blowing up.
Instructors should not only include recovery but should let riders know when to expect it and how long they will have to recover. This knowledge will empower your class. Riders will risk giving 100% knowing they will get an opportunity to properly recover after a reasonable amount of time. This approach allows them to maintain a higher level of intensity over a greater portion of the class, making the workout truly “hard”. A workout void of needed recovery is not hard, but wrong, and only serves to break down the body and lead to possible injury or overtraining.
Make your classes hard by teaching your riders to recover hard.
