A lower resting heart rate (RHR) is often associated with higher fitness levels, a testament to an efficiently working heart that pumps more blood per beat. However, the fitness realm reminds us that RHR is a relative marker, not an absolute gauge of one's physical condition. For instance, a person with a 60bpm RHR could be in better shape than someone at 40bpm, highlighting the nuances of cardiovascular efficiency.

Understanding the pivotal role of sleep in cyclist recovery is crucial for any advanced indoor cycling instructor. This post delves deep into the intertwining realms of sleep science and cyclist performance, offering practical insights and recommendations.

Cycling and running are two of the most popular cardiovascular exercises, with both providing excellent health benefits. While they may seem similar, there are some differences between the two activities, including how much we sweat during each. It's common to notice that you sweat less during cycling than running, even though cycling burns more calories per hour. So, why does cycling make you sweat less than running?

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Let's start with the one that isn't!

If your rider's behind is a bit sore, it's not time to skip the workout
It's not unusual for rookie riders to feel a bit 'tender' after their first (or second) indoor cycling session. Although it doesn't happen to everyone, it is normal, and you can reassure riders of this. What's the best thing to do? It's best not to wait until the ache has gone before getting back on the bike. Give it 48 hours and then get back on - remember when you started out? It didn't take long for you to get used to it, and not to feel any discomfort at all. This is reassuring for new riders to hear - and also that the best thing is to come back in a couple of days and do another workout. Advise a padded seat cover or padded shorts if desired - but not both as this can compound the problem.

The whole point of a workout is that we get results, get fitter, burn fat, and have a good time. Smashing your riders to bits just isn't necessary (and is likely to be counterproductive, leading to increased risk of injury and overtraining - with diminishing returns as you'd be overworking already tired muscles). Recovery is an underrated and often ignored part of the workout - but it's essential. Your body needs time to repair and replenish muscles - if you don't give your body time to do this, you won't see the results you've worked for.

Going back too soon after a challenging and intense workout is out then. How do you know when 'today' is too soon?

1. Struggling to mobilise
If you struggle to bounce out of bed as you usually do, or if climbing stairs, or sitting on the loo is considerably more of a challenge than normal, you need to rest your muscles.

You don't need to be completely immobile, some gentle dynamic stretching or light exercise of unaffected muscles is absolutely fine. If you're feeling it in your quads, then you can still do some work with your upper body if you need to, or go for a steady walk on the flat just to keep yourself moving.

2. No better after exercise
If you tried the gentle exercise tack, and you're still in discomfort - you'll need to take it steadier for a bit longer. If you're still within the 48 hours after your tough workout, it's likely you just need to rest for a bit longer. After 48 hours the discomfort improve. If it hasn't improved after 48 hours, you should seek medical attention - because that's not right!

3. "Weird" pain
If the pain is in one particular part of the muscle, you may have an injury. Rest, recuperate, and see how you are the next day. Generalised discomfort throughout the whole muscle or group of muscles is normal, a particular point of pain isn't.
If you need pain relief to cope with it,  you'll need time to recover. Bear in mind though that ibuprofen and Deep Heat only masks the pain, it doesn't take away the cause of the pain. As with the point above, if it doesn't get better, seek medical advice.

4. If you have swollen muscles and your urine is a lot darker than usual
Yep, in the rare event that this happens, you'll need to see a doctor and provide a urine sample. Swollen, painful muscles and strangely dark urine are both symptoms of rhabdomyolysis - this occurs when the body starts breaking down muscle tissue and releases creatine kinase and myoglobin into the blood stream. These large protein molecules can cause kidney damage (hence the funny wee). This condition can happen as a result of 'crush' injuries as well as overly intense workouts with less than adequate instruction/supervision. If you think this is you, seek medical attention immediately. (It's rare, but as an indoor cycling instructor, you need to know that this is a possibility - and has happened. Keep yourself up to date with CPD and ensure you're always keeping your sessions safe and effective.)

Indoor cycling instructor? Click below for free CPD resources. Your venue can also receive information on how we can help improve customer registration, retention, engagement and profitability.

You know it, you've felt it, and you've also inflicted it on your riders. That feeling of  exhaustion when you just. can't. push. anymore.

So what is it? It's simplistic to assume that your muscles are fatigued, you've run out of fuel, or you've damaged muscle fibre with the build up of protons and lactic acid. Several clinical trials have been done on athletes, and the results were interesting; rather than reinforcing Archibald Hill's theory that when athletic limit is reached the oxygen use plateaus as the cardiovascular system is unable to supply the required oxygen to tissues, the reverse was the case - and athletes were low on muscle fuel (ATP, glycogen, fat) but not deficient. What does this mean? It means that unlike Hill's theory, athletes were not forced to stop when they ran out of fuel - they ran out earlier. What does that mean? It means something else, another factor, was forcing them to stop.

Although everyone has a physical limit to what they're able to achieve, we tend not to reach it. Why? It is likely that the brain recognises hard effort and 'hedges' by forcing the body to stop before damage occurs. This makes sense - the brain does have powerful 'overrides' for physical functions. For example, if you stretch your hamstring now, as you're reading this. Your stretch receptors will prevent your from stretching too far and dmaaging yourself. But if you now stretch your quad, and then go back to stretching your hamstring - you'll be able to stretch further as the stretch receptor will not kick in so quickly. So the stretch receptor will prevent you from damaging your muscles by 'hedging' - preventing you from even reaching the point where damage could occur.

In the same way, it's thought that the brain prevents the body from exerting to its physical limit for the same reason. So, what can you do? There are various ways of training mind as well as body. Professional athletes have assistance from psychologists to help them up their game.

What can you do if you don't have a tame psychologist?
Well there are a few things you can try with your riders. Here's one:

The ten second rule
This is not about when it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor... No, when you're coaching really intense intervals, encourage your riders to push as hard as they can, and when they get to  their limit ask for just 10 more seconds, and then they can recover. (Or just 5 seconds if it's a super-intense shorter interval). The idea is that your riders are in control and know they can have a recovery, but the few extra seconds seems reasonable, although hard. If you make this a frequent challenge, they'll be able to push harder for longer.

Indoor cycling instructor? Click below for free CPD resources. Your venue can also receive information on how we can help improve customer registration, retention, engagement and profitability.

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