In order to help “sell” this work to your class, we want to get them into the right frame of mind.  If your class is serious, dedicated, and willing to put forth the effort you might skip this.  If you’re like the rest of us and have to coax it out of them, ask your students to think of the most accomplished athlete they know.  What are some traits that make that athlete a success?  They are focused, powerful, and talented, but what most often gives them an edge over the competition are traits that are learned, namely solid technique and efficient movement patterns.  Those athletes work on the fundamentals in order to deliver record-setting results.  You might even ask your students to pretend that they are that athlete as they work through the drills you’ve planned for them.  If they can imagine that they are a world-class athlete, then they can begin to train like one.

Now that you have a room full of Tigers, Jordans and Lances, you can explain to them how the pedal stroke works.  Don’t stress them out with a lot of technicalities — it is important that you read up on what the mechanics of the moves are and then translate that into palatable terms for your audience.  Check out the links at the bottom of the post for further information about pedaling so that you can be a knowledgeable teacher.  Basically, you want them to know:

The effective force is applied perpendicular to the crank arm at any given spot along the ellipse.
The ineffective force is applied parallel to the crank arm.
The negative force is the force applied in the opposite direction of the stroke.

But even that is pretty dry.  How are we going to help them understand it without breaking into a Physics lecture?  I use the following drill to help them begin to connect to this idea:  We are going to break the infinite circle into four basic pieces: front, bottom, back, top.  There are a total of six drills that you can perform with them to help them isolate these various pieces of their stroke.  I usually start by doing each drill for 60 seconds or so, with 1-2 minutes of rest and explanation in between.  Repeating is up to you, but I usually don’t (at least not the first time I’m introducing it) since it takes a good 15 minutes to get through the whole thing.  You can introduce it in stages over a course of classes to make it more palatable and then start to focus on putting it all together after a couple of weeks.

Drill 1:  Start with the first thing everyone does when they get on the bike: Mash.  This will correlate to the front of our circle.  Imagine the pedal circle as the face of a clock.  In order to apply the perpendicular force you need, you must push down as your foot crosses 3 o clock.  Tell your students to isolate just this motion: pushing down past 3 clock.  Practice pushing only for about a minute, then pedal naturally for a minute.

Drill 2:  Let’s now isolate the opposite of front: back.  This is similar to pulling, or lifting the foot up as it passes through 9 o clock on the back side of our circle.  Have your students lift or pull their feet up without any mashing.  A trick to have them imagine they have a tack in their shoes and any pushing will make their feet bleed. 

Drill 3:  Now have them put one and two together:  one foot pushing as the other is pulling.  This can be a lot for brains to put together the first time (like rubbing your head and patting your tummy) so have them take it slow at first if they need, then build up.  What you are effectively doing when you push AND pull at the same time is eliminating the negative or wasted effort.  The negative force is the equivalent of dropping sandbags on the pedals as you try to turn them, only instead of sandbags, it’s your non-pushing foot that adds the dead weight.  If we pull the foot up and effectively “get it out of the way” then the output of the pushing leg is increased drastically without an increase in effort.  Brilliant!

Now, let’s work on the other two segments:  top and bottom. 

Drill 4: To isolate the top portion of the circle, you’ll want to imagine kicking your foot across the top of the pedal stroke, or 12 o clock. 

Drill 5: To isolate the bottom, think of scraping your foot backwards, like trying to remove gum from the bottom of your shoe as you just work at 6 o clock. 

Drill 6: When you put the two together, you can imagine that you are moving your legs like the fixed bar that connects the wheels of a locomotive.  It moves horizontally to turn the wheels continuously, and fluidly, traversing entire countries without resting or slowing down.

You have now effectively demonstrated how to apply force perpendicularly to the crank arm at four positions around the stroke: 12, 3, 6 & 9 o clock.  The trick now is to put them all together in a fluid rhythm of give and take, balance and coordination.  This is Spinning — applying constant force at each point in the stroke to produce a fluid, continuous, and elegant movement.  It takes practice, and it will take more than one minute per motion to master this technique, but I guarantee that you will earn great rewards on your investment in this skill.

 For further reading, check out the following:

Anatomy of a Pedal Stroke - Spinning Newsletter Article from May 2005

Pedal Stroke Efficiency – An Article by Michele Ferrari

Pedal Like a Pro! – An excellent article with detailed mechanical information about pedalling.

Indoor Trainer “Skill Drills” for Improved Pedaling – A great list of many drills you can employ!

We all have bad habits on the bike.  Most of us ride the pedals like we are on the Stairmaster, focusing on the downstroke and overusing our quads.  Blame it on the BMX with no toe straps or clips you had as a kid.  Many people have muscular imbalances that cause them to ride with knees out, in or their toes pointed.  Failure to correct these form errors will eventually cause overuse injuries in your riders.  Some of your participants won’t have any obvious technique problems, but will gain better muscle control from these drills. 

So what is a good pedal stroke? A good pedal stroke contains the following elements:

A smooth spinning motion.
No dead spots on the down stroke or especially the upstroke.
Knees in close and parallel to the top tube.
Consistent cadence of 80-100 rpm on flat roads with mild resistance.

By balancing your pedal stroke, you allow more muscles to engage, creating better endurance, economy and balance of strength that may reduce lower back problems and foot problems on long rides.

Throughout this class, connect with the muscles in your legs and visualize every movement.  Try to imagine a smooth light circular motion.  Don’t worry about heart rates today, just focus on a smooth endurance ride at 75% of your max the whole time, including the breaks.

 Now, to the Spinning Profile you’ve been waiting for.  If you want to dowload the playlist, click here.  Don’t forget to come back and leave comments when you’ve tried it!!

1 – I Want to Break Free (4:19) [100 bpm ]

Warm up on a flat road to elevate the heart rate to 70%. This will not be a heart-intensive workout, so take your time and get comfortable. Observe the natural way that you pedal the bike.

2 - Precious Mix (DJ Dan 4 am Mix)(4:49) [80-100 bpm ]

Continue warming up the legs and increasing blood flow.  This is one of your few breaks from the saddle, so come on up and run.  Observe how you pedal out of the saddle. Pay more attention to the quality of your circles and start to look for dead spots in your stroke.  Even standing in Hand Position 2, we should strive to Spin the legs, not mash.

3 – Beautiful Day (4:08) [70-80 rpm ]

Pedal Drill Number One: Shuffling. Forget about pumping your legs up and down. Forget the habits you learned on your cageless, clipless outdoor bike. There is no up and down for the next 4 minutes. Each time a pedal reaches 3 o’clock, pull straight back (parallel to the ground) with the front foot and simultaneously push straight forward with the trailing foot. Imagine the way your feet would glide past each other in roller blades if you didn’t pick your feet off the ground.  This action feels funny at first but if you work at it a bit, you’ll find that it helps a lot, especially on hills. And, after a while you’ll pedal smoother than ever because you’re able to apply power through more of the stroke. This happens because the natural up-and-down pedal action is complemented by the new fore-and-aft motion. Try shuffling for a minute and then take 30 seconds to pedal with full circles before trying again.

4 – Just a Ride (3:20) [90 rpm]

Jumps!  Your first test of improved pedal stroke. Take these very slow, sitting for an eight count of the music then standing for an eight count.  Work on a consistent circle that has the same cadence in and out of the saddle. Think of that smooth lift out of the saddle everytime you come up without heavily mashing down on your lead leg. Feel where the dead spots occur in your circle and work to keep the motion consistent. Rest if your heart rate peaks over the 75-80% range, or if your muscles are too tired to keep the circle constant.

5 – Crazy (2:58) & 6 – The Remedy (4:16) [90-100 rpm]

 Both songs are for Pedal Drill Number Two: Alternate leg pedaling. This strength and skill drill will help to increase power through the top center and bottom dead center of your pedal stroke. Pedal with only one leg for 30 seconds, letting the other become like “dead weight.” Optionally, you can pull it out of the cage and set it on a ball or a chair or hold it up, but this takes up extra time, and makes it difficult to switch between right and left legs quickly.  Update 8/07:  Removing your foot from the pedals has been listed as a contraindicated move in Spinning, meaning you shouldn’t do it.  Please keep both feet in the cages for a safe ride!

After 30 seconds, switch to the other side for 30 seconds, focusing all the effort in that leg and careful not to let your “dead leg” help out. Then use both legs together for 30 seconds and add a small amount of resistance. Repeat the drill with 45 seconds per leg, adding resistance, then one minute per leg. You never realized how little you were pulling, did you? Almost immediately it becomes easier to pedal smoothly during normal pedaling, because you are essentially teaching each leg to pedal in perfect circles. With the final minute and both legs working together, add additional resistance to begin a short hill in the saddle.

7 – Under Pressure (3:57) [60 rpm ]

Continue climbing and adding resistance. If you need a break from the saddle, take it to position 3, but realize that we want to reinforce the habits we are developing in the pedaling drills. Standing uses a piston-like push and pull motion that is counter to the spin technique we are developing. Try to sit the entire song and focus on fluid circles with constant pressure. Revisit your shuffling drill and your single leg drill to find new ways to improve the quality of your pedal stroke. Embrace discipline and perserverance so that you may progress!!

8 – S.O.S. (3:58) (140 bpm)

Optional. If you need a longer break between drills and you want to get out of the saddle, run again or jump. Just don’t forget how much improvement you’ve made already and continue to reinforce the lessons learned. Remember how choppy your jumps were the first time and see if you can apply your new knowledge to smooth things out.

9 – Resonator (7:39) [80 – 110 rpm]

 Pedal Drill Number Three : Cadence Ladder. If you can reach the stereo, pause the music for a minute before starting the drill. Find your natural, baseline cadence against a mild resistance without being influenced by the beat. Once this is established play the music and keep your cadence for one minute. You may need to do a cadence check. After one minute at a steady tempo, increase your cadence “10%” (totally determined by your own perceptions) and hold it one minute. Continue to increase your cadence “10%” every minute for five minutes. Finish it off with your all out effort, mindful that the highest cadence you should ever safely have is 110 rpm, so add resistance if you are going too fast, for 20-30 seconds. Then slow it down and ride the flat road.

10 – Crazy (James Michael Mix) (3:38) [110 bpm ]

Optional final flat road if you have time to let your legs absorb the last of the lesson and see how many new good habits you can set out to adopt.

11, 12 – Dreams of Sea & Sky

Cool Down.  Congratulations!  You are one ride closer to perfection.  Celebrate the accomplishment and be grateful for opportunities to learn and grow and improve.