Explore our brand new workshop designed to build strength and stamina in the SPINPower® program. Then take a quiz on the importance of power worth 1 CEC!

To improve wellness, fitness and performance, it is essential to incorporate three physiological capabilities; strength, speed and stamina. The rider’s strength determines how hard they can repeatedly push to move the pedals against the brake resistance. Speed defines how fast riders can skillfully turn over their pedal stroke on the fixed-gear Spinner® bike. Together, strength and speed produce power in cycling.

However, there is a difference between producing power and sustaining power. Stamina is the glue that bonds the rider’s power. The rider’s stamina provides endurance to sustain forceful, fast pedal strokes. Each component requires a distinct combination of energy, fueling and muscular systems. For this reason, training the elements of strength, speed, and stamina independently will provide specificity and individuality, delivering training adaptations to one or more systems. When put into action together, fitness is enhanced and performance is improved!The brand new SPINPower® STRONGER workshop highlights the strength principle in the SPINPower program. This workshop gives you the knowledge and practical application that validates the work it takes to pedal with more power. The result is stronger muscular, energy and cardiorespiratory systems, boosting your ability to apply a sustained force and improving your overall performance for the next race or event.

Let’s look at the ways to improve our staying power and maximize our performance on the bike.

Strength, Resistance, Force and Power

Outdoors, the rider applies stronger pedal strokes and riding positions to counter opposing forces like gravity, wind resistance and rolling resistance. Strength is the ability to exert a high force, created by the contraction of cycling muscles. Strength, resistance and force are different concepts, but they all work together to generate power.

Given that power output is a result of force multiplied by velocity, it improves a rider’s ability to push harder and faster, increasing both muscular and energy system’s strength capacity. As a result, leg strength alone does not result in power. It is working through the highest resistance that the muscles can handle at a speed that the cardiorespiratory system can keep pace with. That is the key to strength training in cycling.

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While Spinning® classes do not have opposing forces like gravity, wind resistance or inclines, the braking or magnetic resistance system at the flywheel of a Spinner bike replicates those forces. The more resistance is added, the greater the physical and mental strength is required to exert a turning force of the pedals repeatedly. Training that specifically incorporates resistance loading and a combination of resistance loading and cadence building during steady state and interval sets is the key to improving strength.

The power meter technology on the Spinner® Chrono™ Power enables instructors and riders to validate that the resistance applied to the flywheel is forcing the body through the appropriate workload needed to build strength. The wattage displayed on the computer motivates the rider to manage or avoid a power decline. The added resistance and decreasing RPM that results in the appropriate wattage ensures that the rider exerts the appropriate amount of force. The slower cadence overloads the systems and muscles to work harder. The ability to balance resistance and cadence gives the rider opportunities to achieve the maximum strength benefits.

The Principle of Strength

The strength principle in the SPINPower® program encapsulates cardiovascular and muscular strength by increasing the muscle’s ability to turn the pedals to overcome the resistance. By gradually working the muscles against a greater and greater loads than it is used to tackling, strength improves. With proper recovery, riders develop stamina and carve away body fat and build lean cycling muscle to overcome these loads.

The new SPINPower STRONGER course features strategies for creating profiles that incorporate strength training based on the principles of overload, recovery, progression, individuality and specificity. There are also three ready-to-go profiles that are categorized into the SPINPower® Training Zones. With this workshop, instructors can design steady state and interval sets that progressively manipulate training variables like frequency, intensity, type, and time.

The ultimate goal is to reach target RPM against higher and higher resistance loads. Then, balance the resistance and cadence to hang on to the power output displayed and that the rider’s muscles can handle. Resistance loading simulates the same forces that an outdoor rider would encounter on a hill or into a strong headwind.

Empower Your Rides with STRONGER Profiles

Strength, speed and stamina are three of the essential physiological capabilities to improve wellness, fitness and performance on the bike. The SPINPower program establishes set training principles for each of these three elements, while also incorporating specificity and individuality in reaching students’ training goals.

With the STRONGER workshop’s focus on the strength principle, you will gain the skills to create profiles that improve the force needed to move the flywheel against greater resistances. You can now fit these profiles into a periodized training schedule and guarantee better performance for yourself and your students. By eliciting positive training responses in the muscular, energy and cardiorespiratory systems, you will help boost your riders’ abilities to apply a sustained force and increased staying power on the bike, helping them reach maximum performance and lead a healthier life.

Want to learn more about the importance of power in our training? Take the quiz and earn 1 CEC toward your recertification!Take the CEC Quiz

This article was contributed by Angie Sturtevant, creator of the SPINPower® program.