Quick Profile the Ultimate HIIT—Teaching with Perceived Exertion

Quick Profile The Ultimate HIIT—Teaching with Perceived Exertion

Quick Profile created by: Jennifer Sage Length: 60 minutes Profile objective: High-Intensity Intervals, Education about Perceived Exertion

This high-intensity interval profile is a very effective training session as well as the perfect opportunity to educate riders about perceived exertion and about the value of sufficient recovery. You will do five sets of efforts for different durations, each at slightly different intensities. There is ample recovery planned in between each effort. If you were to decrease the amount of recovery, riders might not be able to reach and maintain the desired intensity during the work intervals.

The sets are as follows: ● Two 3-minute very hard efforts. This is called your TEST EFFORT. ● One 5-minute effort. On bikes with power meters, it would be about 20% lower than the initial 3-minute intervals and what would be close to a “threshold level” if you were measuring power or wearing a heart rate monitor. You coach this as a more sustainable but still challenging effort. ● Two 50-second very challenging efforts. ● Seven reps of 30 seconds very hard/60 seconds easy. The first four intervals are at 76 rpm; the second three are at 86 rpm. ● Two 10-second explosive power sprints, way above the test effort.

Heart rate is not a good guide for high-intensity efforts of 3 minutes or less. Heart rate is very useful, however, for tracking recovery. If riders have heart rate monitors and zones to follow (zones from threshold testing, not the inaccurate maximum heart rate charts), the 5-minute effort would be right around lactate threshold. Everything else is too short.

There is a lot of explanation needed in the warm-up and recoveries. See the full profile for in-depth cues, explanations, and modifications. Note that the italicized cueing is directed at the riders.

I strongly recommend riding this profile on your own or with your peers so you know what each effort feels like and you know the music inside and out.

To shorten this profile: You can replace the second 9-minute song with a 3- to 4-minute song of the same energy and bpm, and instead of two 3-minute efforts, just do one. You can also take out either the first song of the 30-second efforts or the second one. I recommend keeping the higher-cadence one to give riders a comparison with the slower-cadence efforts.

You can shorten the cool-down song since the sprinting song “Galvanize” is longer than necessary. If you have MixMeister skills, you may choose to shorten “Galvanize” to end just after the second sprint—that will shave off almost 2 minutes.

I don’t recommend taking out the 5-minute effort as it is an important benchmark against which to compare their higher-intensity efforts. Also, do not shorten the recoveries—you will need them!

RPE Chart At ICA, we use the RPE chart below. You should be aware that not every RPE chart is the same. If your studio has one that is a little different, by all means, use the chart that your riders are familiar with. You can easily modify the profile to use the numbers and descriptions that your riders are used to.

Personally, I rarely use the RPE numbers except occasionally to use them as a benchmark for a specific outcome. For example, stating that the 5-minute effort in this profile is a 7 out of 10 or that the sprint is a 10 out of 10. For most of my coaching, however, I use the verbal descriptions of perceived exertion (as opposed to the RATE of perceived exertion.) I believe it is far more understandable for most riders to use descriptions rather than numbers, especially if those numbers can vary from one facility or instructor to another.

1. Warm-up RPE 2–3 83 rpm Into the Sun, Lord Huron 6:27 83 bpm Gradually raise intensity from very easy to easy; include a few 30-second leg surges. Explain the objective and how the first set will be done.

In today’s ride, you are going to learn what you are made of. We are going to explore the difference between a 3-minute, a 5-minute, a 1-minute, a 30-second, and a 10-second effort. You will notice the shorter the duration, the harder you can push yourself—but I’m also going to teach you about pacing. My intention is for you to reconcile how hard each effort is with the duration. Obviously, you can’t sprint at the beginning of a 5-minute hard effort—you have to dole out your work over 5 minutes and learn to pace yourself. But...it’s still going to be hard.

Are you ready to explore the difference? Following our warm-up, you will do two very hard efforts for just over 3 minutes with a recovery in between. On the second one, you will try to reach the same sensation of effort as the first one, but get there sooner.

2. Two 3-Minute Very Hard Intervals RPE 8 71 rpm Palladio (Symphony Mix), Silent Nick 9:44 142 bpm This is a long song, allowing you to do two efforts just over 3 minutes with a 3-minute break and some room for error. Start the first interval at 0:27. Push them to almost breathless for 3 minutes—they can stand or sit as needed. Then recover for 3 minutes. The second one starts at about the 6:30 mark.

I want you to arrive at the end of the 3 minutes and feel like you could NOT have gone any longer. If you could, you didn’t go hard enough. But if you feel that way at 1 or 2 minutes, then you went too hard. Pay attention to where your resistance knob/gear is on these two efforts, because for the next set, you will want to be a little below this since you’ll hold it for a bit longer.

3. Recovery RPE 1–2 80–85 rpm Sustain, Scrape Communion 3:02 85 bpm Ride easy at an effort that feels like you are cruising slowly along a bike path with your young child on a bike next to you. Recoveries should feel overly easy, otherwise you cannot put out the effort required during the intervals. During the recovery, explain the next segment.

Next, we are going to ride for 5 minutes at an effort that, after those 3-minute ones, feels slightly easier. On its own, it should still feel hard. Theoretically, it should be something you could push yourself to do for 10, even 20 minutes if you had to, but you’d have to overcome the desire to back off.

4. 5-Minute Effort RPE 7 70 rpm Swamp Thing, Juno Reactor 5:12 140 bpm Grab the beat and dial in a resistance just a little below what they used for the previous two intervals. During this track, your goal is to have them notice how it feels in relation to the harder 3-minute effort. Stand as needed, but remain seated for the majority of the song.

Yes, this is a little bit easier than what you just did, but it is by no means “easy.” This is what we refer to as a “hard but sustainable” effort, with the emphasis on SUSTAINABLE. On the RPE scale, it’s a 7 out of 10. You should not be breathless, though you are breathing deeply and noticeably, and if you had to talk, you could only say about four or five words. Your legs are talking to you, but they aren’t screaming at you. This is only 5 minutes...but imagine holding this for 10 minutes, even 20 minutes. Doable? Yes, but hard.

6. Recovery RPE 1–2 80–86 rpm Orchestral Hip Hop, Jorge Quintero 2:54 86 bpm Ride easy, remind riders to drink.

How did that feel in relation to the 3-minute effort? Aside from our very important recoveries such as this one, that was the “easiest” you’ll be riding. That’s an effort level you should become very familiar with because it has extremely worthwhile training benefits. It’s high-end aerobic and burns a lot of calories, and by doing more and more of those longer intervals at that intensity, you can teach your body to prefer fat as a fuel source.

That being said...it’s now time to go harder than those first two efforts we started off with. Next, we are going to do about a minute as hard as you can go. Twice.

7. Two 50-Second Very Hard Intervals RPE 9 65 rpm Stampede, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike vs DVBBS & Borgeous 4:17 129 bpm The music will dictate the start and end of the interval, about 50 seconds each. The first interval is at 1:15 right after he says, “Stampede.” The second one begins at 2:54, again after the lyric “Stampede.” For each interval, start out of the saddle and allow riders to stand or sit as desired.

You can go harder for 1 minute than you could for 3 minutes, right? It’s time to prove it to yourself! When you are finished, you should be completely breathless. You’ll have less than a minute in between the two intervals, so soak that recovery in and ride as easy as you can.

8. Recovery RPE 1–2 80–94 rpm Woodchip, Chronos 2:25 94 bpm Ride easy. They may need to ride slower than the beat if their heart rate won’t drop. While they recover, they’ll need an explanation for the next set. It will consist of 30-second very hard pushes followed by a full minute of recovery. There will be a total of seven efforts over two songs back to back; the first song at 76 rpm (four intervals), the second one at 86 rpm (three intervals). Their goal will be to try to hit approximately the same sensation of effort each time while noting that the higher cadence ones might slightly increase their heart rates.

You remember how hard the 1-minute intervals were, right? Next we will do seven sets of 30 seconds over two songs, with a minute recovery in between each one. I want you to try to match that sensation you had for the 50-second effort. Typically, you should be able to put out a little more work for 30 seconds than you did for 50 seconds—but keep in mind that you’ll be doing seven of these so you will have to pace yourself. Respect your recovery and drop your RPE way down to easy-peasy—otherwise you won’t be able to hit your 30-second target.

9. 30 On/60 Off #1 RPE 8–9 76 rpm Strength, The Alarm 5:34 152 bpm You’ll start the first one at 0:18 with the music. They can stand or sit as desired. This is a good time to be off the bike to coach. For this entire set, closely watch the clock or use a stopwatch. The 30 on/60 off interval timing needs to be strictly adhered to if you want to fit them all in. The last 30-second effort should end close to the end of this song. If you run out of time, just skip one interval.

10. 30 On/60 Off #2 RPE 8–9 86 rpm Slam, Pendulum 5:45 86 bpm Start this song with a full minute of recovery. Have them adjust to the slightly faster cadence, fine-tuning their resistance. The first one starts at 1:07 with the musical change; then carefully monitor the stopwatch for the 30 on/60 off sequence.

You should be breathless very quickly, but knowing that it’s only 30 seconds, you push yourself through the discomfort. Also knowing you’ll have a full minute to prepare for the next one gives you a mental break.

Combining the work you are doing in these two songs, it’s a total of 3.5 minutes of intensity that is quite a bit higher than your 3-minute effort. But, there is no way you could hold what you’re doing here for over 3 minutes straight, right? When you look at it that way, you can see how short intervals allow you to push harder, and how important the recovery is, can’t you?

These two songs back to back offer the perfect opportunity to showcase how different cadence and resistance combinations may affect their heart rate and perceived exertion. If they have heart rate monitors, most will see their heart rate is higher for the second higher-cadence set. (Note that without power meters, however, they cannot be sure they are putting out the same work. This is why they may feel slightly higher RPE for the second song than the first.)

8. Recovery RPE 1–2 80–94 rpm Warning Crunk, Jorge Quintero 2:25 94 bpm Breathe, relax, gain control. Explain the upcoming sprinting set in detail.

Next is our final exploration of different interval durations and intensities. You’re about to push harder than you’ve pushed today with two 10-second sprints. Here is how we will do them. You’ll start adding a little more resistance about 10 seconds before the sprint. Then 3 seconds before, you’ll start loading the gear even more and when I say GO, EXPLODE out of the saddle,HOLD for 10 seconds and drive like your life depends on it!

Believe me, those 10 seconds—if done with the right amount of resistance—will seem like a minute. If you were observing your power output it would be as much as 150% to 200% of your baseline threshold effort. You should feel like you could not go any longer than those 10 seconds. If you could, you didn’t go hard enough. But if you can’t last more than 5 or 6 seconds, you added too much resistance. Your goal on the second one is to take what you learned from the first one and do it even better. Then, take that knowledge into every single time you sprint in an indoor cycling class.

9. Two Sprints RPE 9–10 80–104 rpm Galvanize, The Chemical Brothers 6:34 104 bpm When the song starts, do not try to match your cadence to the 104 rpm—it will drive the heart rate too high and reduce chances of success when the sprint starts. These are best coached off the bike.

The first sprint is at 1:09 with the violin. Give them plenty of warning to prepare. At 10 seconds before, amp them up and have them add a little more resistance. At 3 seconds before is when they start to LOAD, then EXPLODE, then HOLD for 10 seconds, then UNLOAD.

After about 2 minutes of recovery, sprint number two happens at 3:35. Give them a similar ramp-up and send-off. There is an optional third sprint at 5:25. It’s not for the faint of heart!

10. Cool-Down RPE 1–2 75–80 rpm Pitcard, The Man Behind C 5:06 152 bpm Guide them through a cool-down and bring their heart rate and breathing down. Now it’s time to reinforce everything they learned about themselves.

I hope you recognize that what you just did was an extremely effective, structured workout. The recovery was carefully planned, and there was not one second too much of it.

Now you know what you are capable of! I hope you all have learned something about yourselves and were able to see the difference between a 3-minute, a 5-minute, a 1-minute, a 30-second, and a 10-second effort. They all feel just a little different in your legs, heart, and lungs. When you learn how to pace yourself for these types of durations and learn how to truly tune in to the sensations you are feeling—what we call perceived exertion—you’ll be better at knowing how much you can put out in all your future classes. With structured, effective workouts like this, you are more likely to hit your fitness and performance goals.

MUSIC RESOURCES:

Length Title Artist Album BPM Source

6:27 Into the Sun Lord Huron Into the Sun EP 83 iTunes, Spotify

9:44 Palladio (Symphony Silent Nick Palladio 142 iTunes, Spotify Mix)

3:02 Sustain Scrape Communion Hip Hop Instrumental de 85 Spotify Paris

5:12 Swamp Thing Juno Reactor Bible of Dreams 140 iTunes, Spotify

2:54 Orchestral Hip Hop Jorge Quintero Hip Hop and RnB 86 iTunes, Spotify Instrumentals

4:17 Stampede Dimitri Vegas & Stampede 129 iTunes, Spotify Like Mike, DVBBS & Borgeous

2:25 Woodchip Chronos Hip Hop Instrumental de 94 Spotify Paris

5:34 Strength The Alarm Standards 152 iTunes, Spotify

5:45 Slam Pendulum Hold Your Colour 86 iTunes, Spotify

2:30 Warning Crunk Jorge Quintero Hip Hop and RnB 157 iTunes, Spotify Instrumentals

6:34 Galvanize The Chemical Push the Button 104 iTunes, Spotify Brothers

5:06 Pitcard The Man Behind C Ibiza Chillout Top 50 152 iTunes, Spotify (Balearic Lounge Pearls)