One of the biggest complaints about indoor cycling classes that we’ve heard over the years is “I didn’t know how hard I should be working”. It frustrating when you look around the room and find everyone else pushing themselves to the limit when you’ve barely just warmed up. And, it’s equally as frustrating the other way around when you feel like you’re given 110% yet everyone else has barely broken a sweat.

This is why we chose the ICG 5 bikes with a unique coach by colour system. This system gives our instructors the ability to coach our classes through five zones, each of which indicates how hard you should be pushing yourself. The white zone, for example, should feel like an easy warm-up or active recovery pace. However, when you’re asked to work in the red zone, you know you should be feeling pretty fatigued by the end of it (and that’s putting it politely).

What makes this system so special? Every couple of weeks we will get everyone in the class to do a functional threshold power (FTP) test. This is a 5-minute all-out power test. At the end of this test, your own unique zones will be determined based on your level. This means that every single person in the room may have slightly different resistance and cadence to work towards, but you’ll all be working at the same effort when asked to be in a specific colour zone.