What a really complicated world we live in, bombarded by beautiful images all day on our smartphones and our televisions. Every material item in the world promoted by an attractive man or a beautiful lady with a perfect body and a perfect face making us feel like this is the norm and if we don’t fit into that picture perfect vision of the human body, then we are in some way inadequate.
Whether it be a new pair of jeans or the latest gym membership, we are enticed into making that purchase by the promise of looking or feeling better by the clever marketing moguls who tap into our own insecurities every day to make us pull the trigger and part with our hard earned money.
The problem is we eventually figure out, or most of us do, that the reason the jeans look great in the advertisement is not because the jeans are that fantastic but more the model that is wearing them looks amazing in them. The gym looks great as in the advert it is noticeably packed with fit, toned fine young things. Truth is that these ‘models’ spend up to 4 hours working out everyday because they are paid handsomely to do so for their job. They spend their working day, working on themselves, exercising, eating correctly and having an extensive beauty regime to maintain their perfect body and face, because after all, that is their tool of work. Now this is a lifestyle that the vast majority of us do not have the luxury to live. To buy the expensive pair of jeans we have to go to bloody work for at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, sitting in an office, commuting to meetings or working in a shop. Which means, to justify the purchase for those jeans, we have to try and eat correctly the best that we can and exercise correctly and make the most of our time and any energy, or what little of it we have left after our working day and our family commitments.
If you ask the majority of people who join gyms or take up an exercise regime at home to achieve the results they want, the majority of them will tell you that they want to change the way they look in some way. They are dissatisfied with some aspect of their body or their fitness level. The majority will want to lose body fat and body mass whereas others will want to build muscle and tone, and for some it’s all about getting a level of fitness, or maybe even a combination of all areas. They will all have a solid personal idea of what they want to achieve, but very little idea of how to do this and it is this lack of direction that persuades people to invest time and money in the expertise and equipment offered by the fitness industry. This desire to look different also opens the door to the marketing gurus based specifically within the fitness industry who will sell you every trick of the trade for a dollar which will guarantee the results that you want of which the vast majority don’t even scratch the surface. They will play on both our intense desire to get to our goals and to get there fast. So, one specific area that a lot of these so-called experts will concentrate on to gain your attention is the fact that they offer their results easily in super quick time, mainly because that is one thing that none of us have in abundance. We all want the results but we don’t have 4 hours of a day to spend achieving what we want, so the promise of all our dreams delivered for very little effort and very little time will always get the public’s attention. Do we really believe we can have pro CrossFitter’s body without literally living in a gym? I mean, those guys are a breed apart!
I can tell you now that the combination of very little effort and very little time is 100% not going to work, and every dollar spent on one of these fad diets or exercise regimes will have been a wasted one.
For all of us, no matter what our lifestyle or fitness goals, there are two variables when looking at achieving anything with any exercise routine. The first is the amount of TIME you can spend doing the work and the second is the INTENSITY of work you can apply to that time while working out. One thing is for certain, the very laws of physiology and biology dictate that the smarter you work, the more results you will get, and faster your goals will be achieved. So, the key is to maximise your time by optimising the intensity of your workout and this has to be done individually, because as we know we are all different. It’s this revelation of setting individual levels of exercise targets and goals that tempts a lot of people to sod the expense and employ a personal trainer. But what if you can’t afford that?
We all generally know how much time we can give to our fitness regime based on our other commitments in life, but more complex is the other half of the equation. Let’s talk about that word INTENSITY. Now it’s not as scary as most would think because intensity has two extremes and both can damage your progress. Too little intensity and you won’t make any changes physically and too much will result in fatigue, stress and even injury. So how much is enough?
This is where cycling comes into its own, because it is the most measurable form of exercise anyone can do. I’m hopeful that in time the Nike and Adidas of this world will improve running shoes with sensors and Ai to give intensity data feedback or even gym machinery that will count your power output for every rep, so that a training concept can guide any person undertaking that exercise in exactly how fast and heavy to push and for how long to gain maximum results. But for now, indoor cycling is the one sure fire way to know this intensity/time combination and optimise everything, But why? Well, mainly because we can easily determine your own levels of energy output and then profile the workout to suit specifically YOU based on RPM, intensity and time. Accurately understanding your output means that we can optimise the length of high energy output intervals and recovery intervals to maximise return on your investment of your TIME.
This is what makes CicloZone so successful as a training tool. We assign you your initial intensity setting (FTP or FTHR) at the beginning of your journey using the unique Ciclo Ai. Once this is done, and because every single interval in every session is given an output rating or COL% value, when you ride against this session we can measure your intensity rating based on the same values for that interval then we can compare the two. Vastly simplified the Ai works like this- if you are LEVEL with the interval then you are on the correct power rating. If you BEAT the interval then maybe your rating needs to increase. If you LOSE to the interval then maybe your rating needs to decrease.
CicloZone measures and compares every interval you ride against the session and if you win or lose sufficient intervals our Ai will calculate, using your own personal physical profile, and will suggest a suitable change to your own power rating, which you can accept and move forward or dismiss if you are happy where you are. So, you know that personal trainer you think you need that sets your weight, intensity and time levels to get your results? Well, CicloZone just became your own Pro Cycle PT in your pocket!
Cycling may not be your No.1 choice of exercise, but if your goal is to optimise your results based on limited time spent then the bike is the only real choice, and once on the bike you need the perfect platform to guide you… I give you CicloZone.
