Unfortunately, they have missed more than the point. If you have read our Cycling Fusion Manifesto, and subscribe to this blog, you already know how much fun riding indoors can be. This alone is a good enough reason to give indoor cycling a second look if you live in a climate that locks you out of riding outside for months on end. However, it’s the performance improvements that are the real draw of indoor cycling. There a number of cycling workouts that are nearly impossible to accomplish outside. This applies to both Heart Zone® centric workouts as well as Power workouts. Many of these workouts are designed to accomplish some of the coveted objectives of higher VO2, greater power, and an elevated threshold.

Here are a few excerpts from some diehard outdoor cyclists who are just discovering for themselves that Indoor Cycling may be the key to their next performance jump:

UK Rider
“…this started me wondering whether there is an argument for doing roller sessions even when you could ride outdoors. The problem with riding outdoors, certainly around here, is that you are often prevented from applying power for various reasons. There’s traffic lights, roundabouts, junctions, cars blocking you, downhills with tight bends etc. Then there’s also uphill parts where it is almost impossible not to go anaerobic. I could post some pictures of graphs of power distribution and quadrant analysis, but I’m sure you get the idea – my power output is much more variable outdoors, so to hit the same average power as I would on the rollers, I actually end up spending a lot of time at much lower power output and also quite a bit of time at higher power output to pull the average back up to where I want it to be.”

USA Rider
“I took 30 seconds off of my 10 mile TT PR last year and was putting out crazy watts compared to the previous year.  In road races I felt like I had an enormous depth of strength and pretty much went on a reign of terror during the spring and won a lot of races. Interestingly enough though as the time changed and I spent more time outdoors I had a smaller amount of total quality time on the bike per week than I had during the winter.  Of course I was racing and doing more threshold, VO2 max work than during the winter, but in retrospect I felt like my fitness went down during the summer.  In retrospect, if I could I would have sent the April version of me to Nationals in July.  I wasn’t bad in July, but I was better in April.”

UK Rider
“One of my points, though, is that outdoor training can be even worse than this, in that interrupting the time spent at the target power with time spent at a much lower power, might have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the training. Accumulating 60 mins of tempo over 3 hours as 5 mins tempo, then 10 mins AR (Active Recovery), then 5 mins tempo, 10 mins AR etc, may not have the same training benefit as a continuous 60 mins of tempo, on top of the inefficient use of time.”

However, all of this does come with a catch of sorts. This caveat pertains specifically to any cyclist who wants to improve their performance outside. If you are content to stay inside and ride, this is only an issue if you are pushing for the next level of fitness, or perhaps cross training for another sport. But for those that enjoy riding in both venues, this is vital to understand. Without a power indicator on your indoor bike, my current feeling is that you are almost riding blind. This may seem a bit harsh or extreme, but I’ve now cycled with a number of Indoor-Only instructors who have asked me to take them outside and give it a try. While they do have to get used the equipment, shifting and the sport in general, they typically lack the ability to climb real hills. The lack of an indicator for tension or power creates an almost artificial ceiling, where it requires a great deal of personal conviction to keep reaching for the next level and making that simulated road that much steeper.

Let’s hope that soon this will be a non-issue, as old bikes get replaced with new ones like the Keiser M3 and other indoor bikes with Power. Members, instructors and indoor cycling advocates of all kinds all need to let their voices be heard if this trend is to take hold and sweep across the nation.

The first thing to do is establish your baselines, and commit yourself to keeping good records. If you don’t keep records of where you’ve been, how will you be able to chart a clear path to where you are going. Also, if you don’t have personal proof that your training methods work, you’re likely to waste a lot of time and energy assuming that what you are doing is making you stronger, faster, fitter, when they could be doing little more than maintaining the status quo.

There is another reason for doing baseline tests. It can provide a weekly or bi weekly goal for what can be an otherwise boring season of base building. While our Winter Training group logs a lot of hours in the saddle during the winter, we use the weekends for baselining and doing a variety of testing to keep us motivated, interested, and assured that our training is working. The weekdays are used for staying steady with our training plan.

Here is a list of all of the baselines we have tested ourselves on so far:

20 min Zone 2, and 30 min Zone 3 Decoupling & Power Slide tests
Explanation: This is Efficiency Testing. What is your maximum power you can sustain without leaving the specified heart zone. As you maintain a heart rate within the zone, does your power slide. In other words, do you have to lower your power to keep your heart rate from going higher and into the next heart zone. This is what we call a “Power slide”. Improve your ability to maintain power, and you improve stamina and your overall average power. The bottom line here is we want to produce as much power as possible, without deterioration, in every heart zone – making each heart zone efficient and sustainable.

2 X 20 Sustainable Power Test
Explanation: This is testing your “functional threshold power”. This should be the power you can sustain (within 5%) for actually an hour or so, but we test it in 20 minute increments since it is more convenient to manage. This is generally the most talked about power metric there is.

Climbing & Explosive Power Tests
Explanation: Testing these types of power is usually done on different days, but since we were just wanting to get a baseline, we testing them in the same 80 minute session. These represent the highest power we can generate for these two types of Power – Climbing (3 to 6 minute efforts), and Explosive (1 to 2 minute efforts).

60 min Zone 3 Decoupling & Power Slide tests
Explanation: This is Efficiency Testing at the highest level. We started at smaller levels (shorter time periods) as we were just establishing our base building routines. However, in Heart Zones 2 & 3, a full hour is customary as a real indicator of long term capability. This tests and trains the mind as well as the body.

Resting Heart Rate
Explanation: As we enter our 6th week of training, it was important to begin to look for signs of fatigue or overtraining. It is vital that we know when and how to increase our normal recovery or restoration time periods. A resting heart rate is an essential element to check, but one must have a “normal” baseline to know what to compare it to. When your body needs more rest than normal, it is quite common for your resting heart rate to be elevated 5 or more beats from its average.

Note: Most people confuse Resting HR with Ambient HR. Your RHR can only be measured while you are still in bed, before you rise in the morning. Your Ambient HR is what your heart rate is under normal, non exercise or physical labor conditions.

Threshold Heart Rate
It should also go without saying that the very first baseline we established was our Heart Rate Threshold (the cross over point between aerobic and anaerobic energy production) – in order to establish all of our heart zones, and set our training plan.

With these baselines set, we are ready to log a lot of hours in our first big phase of training, that of Heart Rate Training with an eye towards Power. This is not a focus on Power, but it is designed to raise our Limiters to better prepare ourselves for the targeted Power work we will work on later.

Finally, having the Keiser M3 power bikes to train on allow us a very convenient way to track every aspect of our development. Without Power on the bike, we could still raise our limiters in our heart zones, but could easily falter in improving our Power. With a class mix of experienced racers to those who have never ridden since they were in grade school, we will see just how effective this tool is at both ends of the spectrum.

The age-adjusted maximum heart rate formula (also known as the “age regression formula“) was developed a half century ago, at a time when the science of exercise physiology was in its infancy and the technological means to create a more accurate exercise prescription or testing protocol was scarce. The result was that the “220 Minus Age” formula was neither created nor validated based on supported research or clinical testing1. Today, the health and fitness industry continued support of an archaic, unproven formula is (a) potentially hazardous to the public, (b) a severe blow to our effectiveness and credibility, and (c) a tragic undermining of the proven advances and discoveries in exercise physiology over the last half century.

Here ten reasons why “220 Minus Age” gets a failing grade:

1. The formula’s inventor acknowledges its unscientific development.
The equation was created in the early 1970’s by scientists Fox, Naughton, and Haskell who intended it to be a rough formulation and not meant to be representative of the entire population. All subject in the studies referenced were under 55 years of age and male. Although the equation has become accepted and the standard in the literature and is used widely in clinical and fitness settings, its validity is uncertain.

2. There is no scientific research to support it.
There is no scientific validation of this formula. There is simply no research to support it.

3. It is physiologically nonsensical.
There is no physiological reason why everyone of the same age should have the same maximum number of heartbeats in a minute’s time. In fact, we KNOW this isn’t true. For example, as fit individuals age, their maximum heart rate drops very little.4 Research has shown that the maximum heart rate of individuals of the same age can vary by 11 bpm based on many variables especially sport activity.5 Yet this formula claims to scientifically prescribe intensity-based training levels for individuals, even as it ignores their scientifically established individuality.

4. It is useless.
There is a common assumption that any of the equations that predict your individual maximum heart rate will be both reasonably accurate and reasonably useful. Such is not the case with “220 Minus Age.” Intended to guide users to exercise in the right cardiovascular training zones (CVT), in fact, the formula doesn’t accomplish this. “The 220-age formula designed to predict maximum heart rate is useless” according to Carl Foster, Ph.D. and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, “because it simply is not accurate.”

5. It is elitist.
Don’t believe Dr. Foster? Well, how about trying to convince pro athletes that they should go back to using “220 Minus Age,” if they ever did. Why do we think that pro athletes somehow deserve more accurate training regimens than fitness exercisers? There is value to increased precision, especially for those seeking weight loss or true aerobic benefits from their physical activity.

6. It may be dangerous.
The formula is built into and displayed on the consoles of most pieces of cardio-equipment. But, if followed, it can be dangerous overestimating maximum heart rate in young adults and underestimating it in older people. Using 220-age forces finess enthusiasts, with the air of scientific authority, to exercise at too high or too low a cardiovascular intensity. Similarly, the formula also leads some individuals to exercise at intensities too low to achieve needed health benefits. As finess professionals, we need to ask ourselves if we could be at legal (not to mention ethical) risk for using an equation to prescribe exercise intensity which we have ample reason to suspect is inaccurate.

7. It is an embarrassment.
Savvy consumers can prove for themselves that their Max HR isn’t what the formula says it is, so how much credibility do you think they give training professionals who say otherwise? Yet working this formula is a requirement to pass most personal trainer certification tests. And, worse still, the formula is posted in most health clubs.

8. It allows us to be lazy.
In the early 1990s, I created the original five heart rate training zones, each built on 10% of your maximum heart rate. Those zones were first published in my work, The Heart Rate Monitor Book, and have subsequently been adopted as the standard CVT zones programmed into millions of cardio machines. I acknowledge that at that time, almost twenty years ago, I, too, was unwilling to change and to recommend alternative methods for prescribing CVT zones. Accepted by the ACSM, this mythical formula was just too easy, and it was even then a dogma. I have subsequently confessed my error in recommending the formula and apologized for supporting such a simplistic means of determining such an important value.

9. There are scientifically validated alternatives that are safe and effective.
To the best of my knowledge, at this time there is no equation that has been proven accurate enough in predicting maximum heart rate. None whatsoever. This does not mean that we don’t have any proven means of achieving the same end, because we do.

Sub-maximum testing protocols, or “sub-max tests,” are a straightforward method of estimating maximum heart rate, based on a physiological response to a safe level of exercise stress. One such test, “The Can-You-Speak-Comfortably Foster Test” is scientifically validated by Carl Foster, Ph.D. There are others.
And, yes, I have a business that promotes these alternative tests and protocols, yet I’m sure there are many other means of setting CVT levels that I haven’t even heard of and from which we would all benefit.

10. We have a responsibility to do our best.
Because the estimation of maximum heart rate comes from a professionally supported mathematical formula, it carries an air of scientific authority. If we health and fitness professionals want to continue to be seen as authorities, we need to do our best for our clients, whether it’s easy for us or not. Supporting the use of this outdated formula is simply not the best we can do.

Sally Edwards, MA, MBA
CEO, Heart Zones USA
Applied Exercise Scientist
Author of 22 books on health, training, performance, and fitness
Professional triathlete and runner
sally.edwards@heartzones.com

Heart Zones USA, The Training, Education, Coaching, and Club Programming Company
2636 Fulton Avenue, Suite #100
Sacramento, CA 95821 USA

November 20, 2009

Let’s talk about a perfect example of small thinking as it relates to Cycling Fusion.  How about buying bikes that have power built into them, and not buying the computers that display that power, to go with them.  A major fitness chain has already done that.  Small thinking says that this will intimidate people and confuse instructors.

Here’s another popular train of thought.  “When we are ready to buy new bikes for our Spinning® or Indoor Cycling room, we are going to get the same ones we got before because that’s what everyone is used to, and anyway, nobody uses heart rate, cadence or power around here”. Geez, I wonder if the fact that you don’t have any bikes that have those tools, has anything to do with that?

Here’s one of my favorites.  “We really don’t have many cyclists here, so we don’t need all that computer stuff.”  Well, here’s a news flash, there are many cyclists that don’t use that stuff even while riding outside – did you ever think that you might be the ones to teach them?  As far as the cyclists that do use training tools outside, is it no wonder they also don’t come to your classes?  We complain about not attracting a certain segment of the population, and then we don’t do anything about understanding how to reach them.

Cycling Fusion & Heart Zones Are Fighting Small Thinking Together

This weekend I had the pleasure of launching Power Training for Indoor Cycling at the annual Heart Zones conference in St. Louis.  I had the largest group of the tracks offered even despite the fact that many of the students do not yet have power bikes in their cycling rooms.  These are not the small thinkers.  These are the leaders that are not content to maintain the status quo, but want to learn all they can about what the future may hold, and have a hand in shaping it.  They are big thinkers.  Despite the odds against them, they see the opportunities around them.  These are the folks that want to be change agents, not the victims of change.

Sally Edwards herself is one of the original big thinkers!  From making history with her Heart Zones training methodology, to partnering with Cycling Fusion on our brand new approach to training with power, she’s always tried to think creatively and break with the status quo.  This new system of training is directed specifically at the average indoor cyclist, in the average fitness facility, who may not even ride outside, and yet with very sound cycling principles to help even local competitive cyclists reach new levels.

Keiser Corporation is another big thinker.  It’s refreshing to see a corporation working in a recession impacted industry like fitness say – “We believe in the future, and we’ll back the leaders who are taking the risks to be there.”  They provided 20 bikes to the conference so that the power training could be experienced first hand by most who have never been on a power bike.  The Keiser M3 has been a tremendous tool in developing this curriculum, and while it is designed to work with any bike that can measure and display power, we’ve been really delighted to work with them on this project.  It’s no wonder that every bike was already pre-sold before we left the conference.

While this blog will begin to focus on the Giretto, and other Cycling Fusion projects in the near future, I will be writing a series of weekly blogs about Cycling Fusion’s Power Training for our friends over at the Indoor Cycling Pro membership site.  If you follow along there, you should be Power Proficient in time for winter training.

I’ve used that saying (“If you can measure it, you can improve it”) as long as I’ve been in business for myself.  It’s not just a saying, it’s virtually an axiom of life.  Just google the phrase, and you’ll see what I mean.  The results are incredibly varied, from the expected business references, to literary writing, and everything in between.  Heck, there are even YouTube videos in this category. Here are some of the more interesting links from just the first page.

Business (From site called “Goliath” Business knowledge on demand)

Life (from a blog called “Life Optimizer”) I love that name.

Neobluepanther (Writing, among other things)

What got me thinking about this truth of truths today was my Physical Therapy visit.  It was my last visit for my wrist, broken a couple of months ago from my first road crash.

What’s the first thing they do in PT?  They measure.  What’s the last thing they do?  They measure.  On my last visit, all my measurements improved except for one.  Truth be told, it was the only thing that I didn’t do my “homework” for.  The poor results then made me ultra aware of its weakness, and so from Thursday till Monday, I worked the wrist in the weak direction.  In just 4 days, upon my return and remeasurement, I increased 14% of mobility.  No matter how many times I see this process work, it still gets me excited.  I think it’s the control freak in me.  If I can improve whatever I measure, I can improve my life.  Cool! Let’s see, what can I measure… (hey, I know what you’re thinking.  Stop that, this is a family show).

The obvious connection here is TRAINING.  This again points to the critical importance of using training tools; heart monitors, cadence counters, power meters.  These are more than just tools, once you get used to using them, and understand how to exploit them, they become the closest thing you have to a personal, full time, always at your beck and  call, coach.  They give you the means to measure your effort, the tools to set your targets, and best of all, it keeps you honest along the way.  Without the constant feedback, what do you have to tell you when you’re slackin’ off or working too hard, or worse than both, training without focus and discipline.

I received an email this summer from one of the members at my club who had just completed one of the best “measurement” experiences – a complete metabolic assessment for Heart Zones, VO2 max, and lactate threshold.  In her own words “ … took 3.5 minutes off my best time….and that is due to nothing more than awareness and data! watched my heart rate the whole time” Danielle

Without these tools, we end up thinking something stupid like “Wow, I sweat buckets today, I must have been working really hard”, or “I want to do better this year.  I’m going to ride more”.  The interesting thing about these common misconceptions is that it shows how inherently people want to measure; the amount of sweat, the miles of riding – the notion is there, but without the tools, it will inevitably leave them frustrated.

So why is it, at least in the field of sports, that the average person seems to use only one thing to measure success; winning and losing.  Even if you don’t race, the only measurement seems to be “I did __________ “(fill in the blanks with your latest accomplishment) or I didn’t.  That sounds a lot like pass/fail.  Don’t get me wrong, I celebrate the mere completion of hard endeavors as much or more than the next guy.  But I am still perplexed by the lack of measurement and hence training along the way.  The reasons why are likely to be wide ranging, but could it be that sports and “exercise” in general don’t often merit this consideration?

Take my original Google search as an example.  I was shocked to not see a single reference to any sport or physical activity on the first three pages of the search results when I put this phrase in the search box.  Every other subject imaginable came up:

Pg 1 results – primarily business and a few other stray subjects as noted in my links above

Pg 2 results – Marketing, Internet Traffic and Conversion, Manufacturing, I.T. Security, BioMed, Carbon Emissions

Page 3 – more of the same Search Engine Optimization, Healthcare, and on it goes with no sports references

So, let’s use this post to change this pitiful state of searchability.  After all, one of the key tenants of the Cycling Fusion manifesto is the need for training tools in cycling indoors, where we have control of the environment, and thus have the ability to be very specific in our training.  If you write a blog, or have a website dedicated to sport – link this blog (this specific post) to your blog or site, and let’s represent sport in this vital life lesson of the need to measure something in order to improve it.  On my next post, I’ll report whether we did enough to fight our way into the first 3 pages of Google or not.  After all, isn’t that the measurement standard of any good blog performance

Instead I felt this surge of adrenaline and inspiration like it was shot right into my heart. Speakers who have “been there” in both athletics and business were passing their drugs around like they weren’t even controlled substances. Check out the goodies I got to sample:

CIH2 - Courage In Honesty:
This drug took an interesting path from the mind to the heart. By being honest with yourself, it turns out you stop trying to be that person everyone else wants you to be, and you start becoming that person you were meant to be. To stop playing that game however, takes a lot of courage. Sometimes it means leaving some old stinkin’ thinking’ behind. Other times it means leaving friends that keep dragging you down, and in some cases, it even means leaving a long standing job and striking out on your own.

DM.iB – Details Matter in Branding:
This drug isn’t very portable, but it is reproducible anywhere I go. It turns out that our experience when we encounter our training facilities is quite sensory. Our senses are taking in everything before we even begin our workout. How the place smells, the sounds we experience before, during and after our rides, the visuals we see and feel on the walls, and even the conversations – even casual ones with any staff member – all produce “who we are” – our brand.

UCAx – Unfair Competitive Advantage:
This is the drug that really made us give into temptation, and begin doping. We want that uniqueness that no one else has – that unfair advantage that sets us apart. The challenge is finding what it is, clearly identifying it, and then attacking the climbs ahead with it. This drug required direct injection – it needed to flow through every vein in our bodies.

MbtM – Meaning Beyond The Money:
Ironically, this drug is not actually a controlled substance. It turns out that every one of us at the conference had already been on this drug before turning up at “camp”. I think though, that it is only a matter of time before this will be outlawed, as it almost immediately gives every person an unfair advantage. While we made it clear that we should establish a fair monetary value for our time and expertise, if that was what made us wake up every day and turn the cranks, we were probably going to get dropped in one of the early stages. To sustain the long multi-stage race of building a business in our industry, you need the desire to truly help people – achieve their goals, become healthier, achieve what they never thought possible – in short, change lives in one way or another.

BdH – Bonding With The Heart Zones™ Family:
This was the actual “bonding agent” that kept all these drugs working together towards the finish line. I never would have imagined having the opportunity to improve my own performance through others in the room, and they through me. The aforementioned drug UCAx works differently in each person’s such that we are able to play off each other, and work like a finely tuned team in an opening time trial.

SEf3 - Sally Edwards Factor:
This probably comes as no surprise, but this always seems to be the catalyst that gets all these drugs working in the first place. Sally may hold older world records in multiple sports, but she is still pulling off new victories in inspiration and dedication. Without this catalyst, we would be stuck in the middle of the peleton, working hard, doing our best to avoid crashes, but not really leading the charge. With Sally as our captain, we see constant progress. She is constantly reinventing herself, constantly attacking every climb, constantly making herself and Heart Zones™ relevant to today’s athletes. In a decimated and fragmented industry, she is undaunted by crazy break away attempts, and has a quiet confidence that we will pull them all back before the end of the race. In short, the rest of the team is inspired to pull longer, train harder and embracing the sacrifices needed to win.

Even though I’ve brought a good supply of drugs back from the conference, I’m sure I’ll need to go to the annual conference in October to restock. In the meantime, it’s off to train for the Giretto, and see how these drugs can enhance my performance!