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Now that is a great response.

I sent it a responce ... but I not be able to post here. It looks like if you aren't on the RMP bandwagon your messages are "auditied"

It's not about being on any "bandwagon". It's about applying good sound training methods to increase performance. Drop saddle has no place in any cycling training program.

Kia Ora all,

First want to say thanks for all those who use this site as a means to communicate and share information. It's a great way for us all to communicate :-)

Ok, in my mind we are here for the participants and some of you have already highlighted. Our classes are not designed for elite athletes - fact: 80% of people who attend group ex including cycling are there for the social experience and to burn some calories. Most Group Ex class have a time period of 60 minutes or less due for several reasons. Studio availability, most people only have 60 minutes for lunch etc. Who the heck goes to the gym for more than an hour anyway's unless you are an athlete? And as an athlete, if I have more than 60 minutes, heck I'm hitting the road or the dirt!

We are there for THEM! In this industry we are great and guilty of focusing on the people who are already converted or the athlete in our class. This is easy cause its not as much work. Its the beginners or first timers who we need to be there for. Especially indoor cycling where they are already scared as crap to enter the room already!

The beginner is the difficult task! Can you lead a class with 40 people in it all with different needs? Can you provide the motivation for the athlete who wants to smash themselves? Can you in that same class provide options and safety cues for that first timer who may not return if they are smashed by the 3rd track into the workout? 

This is our challenge! :-) 

Our role as fitness professional is to help change lives, shape futures and with adherance :-)

45-50 minutes not long enough - well anyone who knows how to make use of time know that in 50 minutes you can do as much physically that you want - add more resistance, take more weight, take lest rest etc. If you tell me that I have 50 minutes to work out I will do what I need to do in 50 to make it productive. If I have 90 minutes, I will pace my effort to last 90 and so on.

Bottom line there is nothing wrong with any workout (RPM, Spinning, Scwhinn) - moving is improving I say :-)

What does differ as we all have acknowledged is who is leading the class, is it safe and how they are guided. 

Kia kaha everyone

Dan 

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Live and Ride Strong, Dano

Well, thats officially settled. Thanks Dan.

I didn't bother to read this whole thread just to reply to the OP, RPM is as hard as you want to make it.. I'm male, 23, do 5-6 les mills' classes a week, I average 180 throughout RPM with peaks of consistantly 208 at the end of track 7 (track 5 probably a touch higher). One day I had the unfortunate experience of a spinning class (no RPM instructors were available for that timetable spot).. it felt like track 1 for the first 15minutes, then switching between track 2 and track 6 intensities until the end.. I was sitting there the whole 45 odd mins, micromanaging my resistance (always up, never down once). Most of the time, in this spinning class.. I felt like I was going to hurt myself from going so fast with little to no resistance (i've had more resistance on in the most laid back track 6's recovering from the hardest track 5's).. I quite literally had to do the resistance micromanagement to actually make a workout of this class.

Dan thanks for the continuing feedback here.

I do realize at the end of each class it's not about us. It's about the people that walk up and say "I love your class" and while RPM can put the greatest set of moves together, music and profile if you can't find a motivating RPM teacher it's not worth the paper it was writing on. That goes for all styles. 

I think what happened here as a Spinning instructor I walked into a class with a high expectation, the "WOW me factor." And the reality is the "WOW" isn't a function of RPM, it’s a function of us, the instructors the lead these classes.

I’m blessed, when I teach I have a full room 32 bikes all filled. Front 2 rows are advanced, your next row is intermediate and your back row is beginner. I try to teach a class that leaves every group feeling great, I want them to get a great workout and keep coming back. This is an art we all work on and regardless of style, who trained us, we all have the same goal, keep our students coming back.

In closing, there is no need to argue the point of one style vs. other. The thing I have learned here is the style is only a tool, how we use the tool is up to the instructors that teach. We can all talk about the tools, but how we apply them is really what makes all the difference.

So God Bless you RPMer’s for all you do!!!