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Why Indoor Cycling Instructors Don’t Need a Level 2, PT or E2M Certificate — If They’ve Trained with the Indoor Cycling Institute

2/9/2025

If you’re a manager hiring indoor cycling instructors, you’ve probably asked:
“Should instructors also hold a Level 2 Gym Instructor, Personal Trainer (PT), or Exercise to Music (E2M) qualification?”
At the Indoor Cycling Institute (ICI), that’s not necessary — at least not for those who’ve completed our two-day or online entry-level indoor cycling instructor courses.
In fact, asking instructors to gain additional, unrelated fitness qualifications can often create barriers without improving class quality or safety. Here’s why:

1. This Isn’t a Generic ‘White Label’ Course Unlike many fitness qualifications bought from awarding bodies and rebadged by training providers, our two-day and online entry-level courses are researched, custom-built and most importantly, kept up to date by subject specialists.

We focus entirely on what indoor cycling instructors need to know — nothing less. This means your team isn’t getting generic group exercise training; they’re gaining evidence-based, cycling-specific education — and it shows in their teaching.

2. Specialists Need to Be Supported, Not Discouraged Our industry needs to welcome specialist instructors who are committed to excellence in their field — not make them jump through hoops spending time and money on qualifications they’ll never use. When instructors choose to focus on indoor cycling, they bring deeper expertise, more confidence, and far better outcomes for riders. Instead of requiring them to train in gym-based resistance work or freestyle choreography, we let them go all-in on their chosen discipline — and it works.

3. Our Instructors Are Trained in Safe, Effective Delivery ICI instructors are taught to deliver safe, structured, and science-led sessions — not just ride to a playlist and hope for the best.
They learn how to:

Design sessions with clear training aims
Use cadence, heart rate and RPE to manage intensity and optimise results
Plan appropriate and effective warm-ups, recoveries and cooldowns
Match music with effort and outcome, not risky moves

Every session they deliver has a purpose — and they know exactly how to scale it for different rider abilities.

4. We Teach What NOT to Do One major gap in many generic qualifications is that they don’t explain what’s unsafe or ineffective in indoor cycling. Not only do we cover this intensively in the course, but our tutors are subject experts and are able to answer students' questions on this.
ICI instructors are trained to avoid common instructor errors such as:

High-cadence, low-resistance pedalling above 110 RPM
Handlebar push-ups, hovers, or other choreography-based “moves”
Overloading beginners with inappropriate intensity

We prioritise safety — and that means protecting both your members and your business.

5. Better Training = Better Rider Outcomes Everything boils down to what's best for riders. When instructors trian with us, they're not just getting a piece of paper - they're getting the underpinning knowledge and skills to design and deliver proper sessions. Thanks to the focus on performance principles, instructors trained by ICI help riders achieve real results, more quickly. Whether it’s improving cardiovascular fitness, building endurance, or hitting calorie targets — classes built around science, not gimmicks, deliver measurable benefits.

6. No Gaps in Industry Standards Worried about ticking the industry-standard boxes? Don’t be. Both our two-day and online courses cover all the relevant knowledge and practical skills included in CIMSPA’s Level 2 and 3 specifications, contextualised for indoor cycling.
So while these instructors haven’t completed a separate Gym Instructor, PT or E2M qualification, they’re not missing anything relevant to indoor cycling.

7. Ongoing CPD Keeps Standards High All ICI-certified instructors have access to ongoing CPD, webinars and learning resources, helping them stay up to date with current science and best practice. If you're a manager, it's far more effective to check whether an instructor is maintaining their professional development than to require a certificate that doesn't relate to their discipline. If you want extra rigour, ask for ICI Endorsed Instructors as these have made an ongoing commitment to best practice and constant improvement.

8. Insurance Only Covers What You’re Trained to Do It’s important to note that insurance only covers instructors for what they’ve actually been trained to deliver. If someone hasn’t been taught a certain type of exercise — or has been explicitly told not to teach it (like handlebar push-ups) — then they won’t be insured for doing so. ICI instructors are insured to deliver evidence-based, safe and effective indoor cycling classes — and nothing outside that scope. That’s exactly how it should be.

9. Small Groups, Rigorous Assessment Our in-person two-day course is run in small groups, ensuring accessibility, personal support, and a more rigorous assessment process than most general fitness qualifications.
Our online course includes a named personal tutor, structured feedback and clear marking against comprehensive criteria. When someone passes, you can be confident they’ve earned it.

10. Cost-Effective, Practical, and Purpose-Built Not every aspiring indoor cycling instructor wants to work on the gym floor or run bootcamps. Requiring them to pay for and complete a general fitness qualification is often a waste of time and money. The ICI training route is a practical, affordable way for instructors to gain the skills and confidence they need — without unnecessary extras.

One Note on the One-Day Course…Just to be clear: our one-day indoor cycling instructor course does require a Level 2 Gym Instructor, PT, or E2M certificate as a prerequisite — because it’s designed as a top-up qualification for those already in the fitness industry.
However, our two-day and online courses include everything from the ground up, and therefore do not require any prior fitness qualification.

Final Thoughts: Hire for the Job at Hand
Requiring instructors to hold a Level 2, PT, or E2M qualification might seem thorough — but for indoor cycling, it’s often irrelevant and unhelpful.
Instead, choose instructors who are: