#duocycle

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Boulder County workout: Duo--Cycle TRX

Amy Nolledo leads a cycle/TRX combo class at BreakAway Cycle & Strength Studio. (Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

BreakAway Cycle & Strength, 439 Main St., Longmont, 720-636-8955, breakawaylongmont.com

Instructor: Amy Nolledo, of Longmont, who has been teaching group fitness classes for more than 15 years.

She has a long list of certifications, including Stages Indoor Cycling and TRX.

She also has a background in ultra-marathons and more than a dozen marathons and half-marathons.

Beyond teaching fitness, she is also a legal assistant.

What is the workout? A fusion class that is 30 minutes high-intensity interval training on an indoor bike, followed by 30 minutes of full-body TRX strength-training.

TRX is a suspension trainer with handles that you can adjust to use body weight and leverage gravity to challenge your muscles. My TRX portion focused on upper body and core, but the exercises vary and tend to be full body.

The class is a way to get both cardio work and strength training in one hour, and with only using one punch (for punch-card holders).

What’s different? “You can get your cardio and strength training in one quick hour, with no impact on your joints.

TRX incorporates strength, functional movement and mobility all in one. Everything you do engages the core.

The bikes are connected to the Stages IQ system, which projects your personalized training zones (presented by different colors) on a screen in the front of the room.

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BreakAway says it was the first studio in the state to get the system and is still the only studio in Colorado to integrate it fully into classes.

Class begins with a short test that estimates your “functional training power,” and the program determines your zones using that information. This allows you to clearly work the exact zones (or intensity/exertion, in relation to wattage created) that the instructor wants you to work throughout class.

“With cycling classes, sometimes it’s hard to know exactly how hard the instructor wants you to work. They might say, ‘Turn it a quarter turn or half turn,’ but not everyone’s leg strength is the same, not every bike is the same and not everyone has the same starting point,” says Allison Zemanek, with the studio. “It’s not a reliable way to get people where you need them to be to train what you’re trying to train.”

The system allows you to make your workout more effective because you can tell clearly where you are working on your own personal scale — and that range can vary day to day.

Guiding a class by wattage isn’t optimal because your wattage number doesn’t take into account different abilities — or body weight, which also affects it, Zemanek says.

Training zones are more effective for training than heart-rate monitors and cadence meters, Zemanek says.

“Heart rate can be affected by dehydration, coffee, not enough sleep,” she says. “The heart rate is just the response to what you’re doing, and that’s not always the same and can be a false response.”

She says sweating and breathing hard isn’t necessarily an indication that you’re putting in the work, and you might not get the same results in the same amount of time if you don’t know how hard you are working.

After class, your results are emailed to you; students also have an account online that collects their data to compare over time.

Cost: A one-time drop-in is $15. You can bring per-class rates down to $10 per class with punch cards. New clients can do a month unlimited for $59.

Level:”It’s the best place to start in our studio,” Zemanek says. “I promote it as a good entry-level class, because you’re not spending too much time on the bike or TRX.”

After you get comfortable in a 30-minute class, you can move up to a 45-minute cycling class, and then an hour, she says.

Even if you are already an avid cyclist, the challenge scales to your functional training power rate, so as you get better, the class will challenge you more.

The TRX can be modified by stepping out closer or farther away.

Class has space for only eight participants, and there often is a waiting list, so plan ahead.

Although Zemanek bills this as a good class for beginners, I found it still pretty challenging. Then again, I’m not an avid cyclist. I found it pretty tricky to finesse the bike to fall within the prescribed ranges, and I learned I have probably been underworking myself until now. I rate it an eight on a 10-point scale.

When: 9:15 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday.

What to prepare: Clip-on or regular shoes, a water bottle, exercise clothes. Sweat rags provided. Grab one.

Muscles worked: The cycling is meant to strengthen your cardio system (heart and lung capacity), and the TRX is meant to strengthen your muscular system.

What I loved: The class was so educational. I learned a lot about my body and my abilities — in particular, how I have been undershooting them. I got a great workout in one hour, and the small group size maintained a high level of attention and quality.

What I didn’t like: It was honestly nerve-wracking to have my work projected in front of the whole class. On one hand, it definitely made me push harder than I would have otherwise, so it is a great motivator for getting results.

But I felt worried and embarrassed when I fell behind. Looking back, I can see that the others probably didn’t care and were too focused on their own numbers to notice mine. I don’t specifically recall anyone else’s.

It wasn’t that I felt competitive or judged (no one insinuated that at all), but it felt very vulnerable for me, as the new student in class.

How I felt after the class:Tempted to go back, because I love education, information and things that get results. No one could dispute that this provides all three, in full force and in just one hour.