When you start indoor cycling, you don’t need to spend the time and adjust your movement to become familiar with it. Like all sports and activities, there is a learning curve in terms of terms.
Luckily, CPT’s Melanie Melillo is here to provide cheat sheets for her next cycling class. She shares some of the most common terms of indoor cycling, so you can instantly feel like an insider.
1. Before and after
Melilo says it’s a way to show how to adjust the seat, which will bring seats close or far from the handlebars.
- Front It means forward.
- The rear It means back.
If you are a beginner, this distance can be difficult to grasp, so you will be ready as you will take the time to adjust the front and rear before you ride.
2. Cadence
This is how fast your feet pedal at any time, and is measured by RPMS, Merillo says. The natural rhythms for everyone are a little different, especially given the different levels of experience. Most recreational cyclists have a rhythm of about 60-80 rpm, while elite cyclists may be about 90-100 rpm.
3. Q Factor
The Q factor is the distance between the pedals. For example, Bodi Bike uses an optimized Q factor of 165 mm to reduce knee stress.
4. Resistance and gear
The more resistance you set, the higher the strength you need for the pedal. This is similar to the gear on a road bike. There, lower gears make pedaling much easier, while higher gears make more effort through the pedals. Many bikes can use knobs to adjust the resistance.
5. crank
The crank is the arm that holds the pedal. This is an abbreviated version of road bike terminology: Crankset.
6. Flywheel
The flywheel is a weighted disc that connects to the pedals and simulates the feel of an outdoor bike. It also creates a smoother ride and helps to gain momentum for more efficiency and speed. The body bike has a 41 pound flywheel.
7. saddle
It is also called a sheet. A good rule of thumb for adjusting seat height is that the saddle should be on your waist when you are standing next to it.
8. Watt
This is a unit of measure of the speed at which power or energy is used over time. The more zealous you apply to the pedal, the greater the wattage. Melillo said that increasing speed and resistance can easily increase wattages, and if you need a large wattage change, increase both.
9. clip
Cycling shoes that snap to the pedals have accessories at the bottom called clips. Melillo uses these offers to provide a more efficient pedal stroke, not just pushing, but pulling back the pedal.
On a traditional bike without a clip, the majority of your effort is in push motion, and when the pedals return, you can lose efficiency. Some indoor bikes require clips, but not all. For example, on a body bike you can choose a clip, but you can also wear regular shoes if you like.
10. Toe Cage
If you don’t have shoes to put that clip in, or if you just want to wear regular shoes, there is a pedal option with a toe cage. In other words, slide the shoe to hold it in place. This can offer many of the same benefits as clipping, and also holds the shoe in place.
11. climbing
If you’re cycling outside, climbing the hill adds a natural amount of resistance to keep pace. On indoor bikes, that feeling is replicated by adding extra resistance to the gear. Depending on the training or instructor, it may be out of the saddle in some or most cases of climbing.
“Training your body and mind to climb while you’re still in the saddle is an incredible challenge,” says Merillo. “Usually, you’ll add resistance while climbing, slow down your legs, mimic that feeling of climbing outdoors.”
12. Sprint
Just like going for a ride, running sprint intervals as fast as possible, sprinting on an indoor bike requires a short-term, full-scale effort that lasts up to 30 seconds, and Merillo will get your heart rate up to 92% of your maximum heart rate. You can also hear trainers use the term “push.” This refers to an increase in speed, but it can hold for more than 30 seconds, not always the biggest effort, says Merillo.
13. I’ll do that
This is a clue to rising from the saddle. This tends to be used at high intensity intervals. Melillo adds that you can refer to the speed of your feet just like running rather than jogging.
“This is great for doing it at 75-85 rpm,” she says. “Sometimes we say, ‘jogging out of the saddle.’
