I’m a Certified Indoor Cycling Instructor!
You read that right, friends: I did it! I got certified! The day before the official kickoff of Blogfest was the day of certifications. Some of my friends got certified to teach Strong by Zumba (which is really fun, and you should totally try it. Disclaimer: It is not dancing!), others obtained their certifications in other subjects, but I was all in on the Schwinn!
Fortunately for me, I was still on Eastern Standard Time, because the class began at 8 a.m., and we all know I ain’t a morning person.
When I walked into the room, I was greeted by our Master Trainer, Jeffrey Scott, who was absolutely amazing! I wish I could only take classes with him and Amy Dixon (our other master trainer for the day) because they taught the. best. classes. I’ve. ever. taken! They had amazing energy through the roughly 9-hour certification, and were so positive and helpful.
The room was filled with Schwinn Carbon indoor cycling bikes, which have to be the cream of the crop. We have Keiser bikes at my gym, which are really great as well, but these Schwinn bikes were just beautiful and amazing! I had taken a class at CycleBar in NoMa in DC (still can’t believe NoMa is what we’re calling it now…) where I used these bikes for the first time, but this experience was just different. We learned all about the parts of the bikes, and about the variations you might see at different studios. Ours were like the Rolls Royce version, with the console and two water bottle holders, and all of the bells and whistles. It was a great riding experience!
The classroom was FREEZING, which is usually okay in a studio, but definitely not ideal for a day mostly spent sitting still in chairs next to the bikes. It felt great when we took our first 1-hour cycling class with Jeffrey, but it was miserable for the couple of hours before and after that first class. I was shivering! I wish I’d brought a heavier jacket, but I guess it kept me more alert throughout the class?
We learned everything you need to know to teach an indoor cycling class, from how to engage with your students to how to mix up your playlists and staging. I learned so much, and it has really transformed how I take classes now. It was truly eye opening!
What I love about the Schwinn approach to indoor cycling is that you don’t do anything that you wouldn’t do on a bike outdoors. No “push ups,” tap backs, or any of that other stuff that they do in some of the boutique studios. Not only did we not do them, but we learned why Schwinn does not recommend these activities. There is a ton of research on the topic (which I won’t get into now, but I highly recommend you checking out on your own time), and it was especially helpful when the instructors demonstrated some of these popular moves while having us focus on which muscle groups are/aren’t activated while doing them. It was really eye opening!
The energy of the people around me was fantastic, and the people with whom I was paired or grouped with throughout the class were very supportive and helpful. I was the only newbie in our group, and they helped me out a ton and gave me pointers for teaching. Two of them were from Phoenix, Arizona, and one person was from Dubai! She traveled all the way to Vegas for the conference, and especially to get this certification. Incredible!
I burned a lot of calories during this certification, as we took two full classes during the certification. I assumed we would be taking one, but I wasn’t ready for two. I also was a fool who totally forgot to bring her seat cushion from the hotel to the convention center, so my buns were tender, to put it lightly. My legs were like whyyyy, but fortunately I had been practicing by taking classes at my gym, so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been a year ago! I had my new cycling cleats with me, so they got ample usage during the class, as we learned how to fit someone to the bike, and as we took our classes and worked on a couple more technical items. My shoes worked out great, and while it took me a little time to get used to clipping in and out without feeling like I was going to tip over, I felt like a pro by the end of the conference.
After I received my certification, I had some delicious Thai food with my conference roommate Ty, and fellow DC-area blogger Vida. These ladies are absolutely wonderful, and I had a lot of laughs with them throughout the conference. I can’t wait to tell you all about my Blogfest experiences, as well as all of the fun things we all got up to in Vegas, along with our other newfound lifelong friends Emily and Lyn. I’ll be detailing more about my Blogfest/IDEA World experiences over a series of posts coming soon!
TL; DR: I got my Schwinn Cycling Instructor Certification, and I cannot wait to start teaching classes! I need to earn my Group Exercise Fitness Certification before I can really start teaching, but I have the ball rolling now, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me!
Have you ever taken an indoor cycling class? Have you ever ridden a Schwinn indoor bike? Do you have any certifications? If so, what do you teach?