Welcome to Pennsylvania, home of MultiSport Fitness and RealRyder® super-cyclists! Owners Matt and Jennifer Fleischer just celebrated the one-year anniversary of their Mt. Bethel location (their second location in Bethlehem is edging up on its one-year mark). We recently spoke with Jennifer about her experiences as an owner, as an instructor and as a Ryder. The indoor cycling business is jammin’ but there is one more aspect that is incredibly important to the MultiSport Fitness owners: the community that is being built among her instructors and customers. In December of 2010, Jennifer asked her instructors to take a moment and record the successes and goals people were meeting using RealRyder bikes. The results of weight loss – 20, 30, 60 and even 80 pounds – flooded in, as well as accounts of increased energy and decreased stress. Success? We think so!

Spring and summer brought a new set of success benchmarks as the indoor training began translating to outdoor events and races. The fun and dynamic riding experience of the RealRyder bike keeps people engaged and working hard, no matter how cold or hot the weather – even rain (we don’t recommend putting your bike in the rain, we think the dedication in this videois pretty inspiring!). Pennsylvania, much like the rest of the Northeast, has winters that keep even the most avid outdoor cyclist off the road. Jennifer recounted people using snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles to arrive to class over the winter months. The hard work has paid has paid off for the RealRyders at MultiSport Fitness. Find out how Bev, a RealRyder Indoor Cycling Certified instructor and yoga instructor, and Stephen, an operating room anesthetist and runner, have broken their PRs – personal records – with RealRyder training.

BEV – Yogi & RealRyder:

My name is Bev Fatebene. From April to October you will find me several days a week climbing the most vigorous hills I can find. I absolutely love to cycle!!  Jenn Fleischer has known me from the area and as a yoga instructor.  She spotted me on a warm sunny day, peddling one of the most challenging climbs  in our area.  As I came over the top with a huge smile on my face, Jenn said at that moment she knew in her heart she wanted me [as an instructor].  Jenn asked me to join the MultiSport Fitness team at her 2nd RealRyder gym in Bethlehem, PA.  I’m an outdoor cyclist, and have never been a fan of indoor gyms.  I began RealRyder in December 2010 as an instructor and student.  I was amazed how challenging the bikes were and how sweaty I got. And it was fun!! Impressed, my thoughts were, ‘this was a great way to stay in shape and ‘beat’ the winter blues.

Than the weather warmed up and I took my first ride for the season.  When I ride, my routes include a serious climb.  Cycling to me is like a Yoga practice.  My mind and body connect into a rhythm and I escape into the wilderness, and quietness of the outdoors.  I rarely watch my times or speeds, as I ride pretty much the same routes and know the approximate time I get back home.  As I peddled that evening, I noticed my legs were really strong.  My heart was strong.  I attacked the last 300 feet to the top of my most difficult climb.  Smiling from ear to ear, almost chuckling of how good I felt, and I had more to give.  In my head, I related to my RealRyder class; my butt over the saddle, feeling the power in my legs and knowing my heart could handle pushing my threshold.  We practice pushing your threshold in class and at certified training.  Amazing!! I arrived home 45 minutes earlier than usual!

My confidence is boosted, and I am planning some crazy mutli-climb routes.  I can’t thank Jenn Fleischer enough for asking me to join the MultiSport Fitness team.  Every trainer is fantastic!  We have no egos, just a sense to support one another, have a good time, and get a great workout in.  Adam Reid and Douglas Brooks modelled the same behavior at  the RealRyder Indoor Cycling Certified Instructor training.  I am truly grateful for RealRyder and the MultiSport Fitness team! Thank you!!!

STEPHEN – Runner & RealRyder:

I’m 57 years old and work as an anesthetist in a busy operating room. My work days are frequently long, but I work hard and play hard. I got back into running road racing in 2007 after being away from running for over 10 years. Since taking RealRyder classes this past winter, I was confident I was going to have a good racing season but I didn’t know it would be this good. I PR’d 5 times this year: two on half-marathons in May, two 10 mile races in March and April and one five-miler in February. I also placed in my age group in a 5K. Walking to the podium for a medal at any age feels great but at 57 it feels awesome.When friends of mine came to cheer me on during the Odyssey half marathon in Philadelphia, the first thing they shouted was “Steve, you don’t have your knee support on”! Since  2007, I had to wear an elastic knee support and after about 7 RealRyder classes, my knee no longer hurt when running. It seems that my patella is “tracking” much better with the improved quad strength I achieved from RealRyder classes.

I was invited to work as part of a volunteer  medical team in Haiti in 2010 and wound up having a schedule conflict with the Marine Corps Marathon which I was already signed up. The Marine Corps Marathon granted me a one time deferment to run it this year. The surprising thing is that I now find that I’m in for running the New York Marathon…..they’re one week apart!!! The answer is YES, I’m running both now that I developed the strength to run pain free. Thanks RealRyder, my racing season keeps getting better and I don’t miss that elastic knee support.

I’m particularly grateful to  the outstanding instructors from Multisport Fitness. While all the instructors are outstanding, Jennifer stands out  as one instructor/coach who will help her students “dig deep” to accomplish their best performance. Jennifer will modestly acknowledge that she competed in the “Iron Man Triathalon“. She is an amazing athlete whose high energy spirit  is transferred to her students.

RealRyder is hard at work on its installments featuring studios across the United States that have taken their indoor cycling studios to the next level (see our first installment on Real Ryder Revolution in metro-Detroit Michigan). What is their secret to selling out cycling classes, creating waiting lines and leaving their customers hungry for more? Watch the second part of this installment, featuring Qi Ryders, to learn more about the secrets to their success!

“Every month has been better than the last.”
“In 5 months I’ve never had one class not sell out.”
“Customer retention has been easy. We just put them on the bike.”
“RealRyders provide 100% more benefit – to everything.”

Qi has an incredible story in terms of its business success, but the classes featuring RealRyder® ABF8 bikes have also changed the lives of their participants. Below we have the story of how RealRyder changed the life of one of Qi’s top trainers and their Boxing Director, Nick Spinosa.

Nick has been on his feet for most of his life, growing up working his family’s restaurant in Pennsylvania. As an avid athlete, Nick played many sports – baseball, football, basketball – and continued to play baseball at the collegiate level at Penn State. He also developed a love and passion for boxing, which runs in his family. Nick’s grandfather was  a professional boxer.

Nick’s love of sports and time spent on his feet caught up with him. During his collegiate years, while playing both baseball and boxing, Nick had to undergo surgery for damages to his feet, also dealing with arthritis pains from being on so many surfaces. Surgeons had to fuse the bones of his feet together in a series of surgeries. Three surgeries, in fact. Not an easy thing to swallow for an active person. And that wasn’t the end.

Following college, two additional surgeries (for a total of 5 surgeries on his feet!) the newly-minted kineseology grad headed out west to live with his brother in Denver, Colorado. Nick said he could barely walk or bend over when he arrived in Colorado in early 2010. It was time to get back in form. His brother proceeded to introduce him to Chris Lindley, one of the co-owners of Qi.

The two hit it off immediately, bonding over boxing and the Army-style workouts Chris provided at Qi. Enter the RealRyders at Qi. Nick was re-learning to walk when RealRyders arrived at Qi, and with the RealRyder® ABF8′s, he was able to accomplish his goals of walking again, becoming physically active and shedding weight gained over multiple surgeries. Nick is now 60 pounds lighter, teaching at least 13 filled or sold out classes a week and directs the Boxing programs at Qi. Nick’s personal triumph is one of the many stories we are proud to highlight and share. Qi continues to make an impact in the Denver community and on the lives of its participants and employees.

Do you have a story to share? We would love to feature your story on RealRyder’s blog!

A new year, a new decade and a new era of indoor cycling! How were your holidays? Did you eat and drink too much? Did you pick your New Year’s Resolutions and if yes are you still sticking to them?!

I had a little chuckle this morning listening to the radio in the car and they were talking about people who had already broken their resolutions! My favorite was a lady who resolved to give up cussing, which lasted until the morning of January the 1st!!

According to the University of Scranton 36% of people making resolutions have fallen off the program after only a month, but surprisingly 46% of people making resolutions keep going for six months or longer. Motivation and commitment clearly play a big part in this especially with fitness and weight loss resolutions. This is where RealRyder and our unique form of indoor cycling comes in!

Losing weight is the most popular resolution, with getting fit not far behind and indoor cycling is a great form of cardio which will help you achieve either goal.

Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions

1.Lose weight
2.Manage debt/save money
3.Get a better job
4.Spend more time with family
5.Quit smoking
6.Eat right/Get fit
7.Get a better education
8.Reduce stress
9.Going greener
10.Volunteer to help others

Why RealRyder Indoor Cycling?

Why is RealRyder different to indoor cycling on any other bike? Simply, because it will give you a much more complete stationary bike workout and even more importantly it will keep you more motivated because our bike is more fun to ride!

On the first point the RealRyder’s unique articulating frame leans from side to side and creates a much more dynamic full body workout, by recruiting your core and upper body.

Other forms of indoor cycling really only work your legs and lungs. Studies have shown that indoor cycling on a RealRyder stationary bike will burn approximately 20% more calories than on other indoor bikes!

On the second point, our bike really is more fun to ride!

This is not just our opinion or some marketing claim, if you take a moment to look through our blog there are many testimonials from people of all levels of fitness. From instructors and top cyclists to novices the message is incredibly consistent RealRyder is more fun and once people have tried one they don’t want to go back to their old, non-moving indoor cycling bikes!

So if your resolutions include weight loss and fitness try our version of indoor cycling and give yourself a better chance of sticking to your resolutions once the initial enthusiasm wanes. Don’t just slog away on a boring pedaling machine it’s a new year, a new decade and a new era of indoor cycling!

We were running the popular RealRyder Indoor Cycling Classes at Dallas MANIA recently when Tracey Yukich of Biggest Loser fame came by to try our stationary bike!

We have been at all the SCW Shows this year, and have been blown away by the enthusiasm for our version of indoor cycling on the unique RealRyder stationary bike. At all the MANIA locations the classes have been sold out and many hardened fitness industry veterans have gone away buzzing about how indoor cycling is more fun and a better workout on our bike!

We have also written before about using indoor cycling for weight loss and one of the advantages of using our bike is that the full body workout actually burns 20% more calories than a “standard” non-leaning spinning bike! Indoor cycling has been an important part of the program for the Biggest Loser contestants so we were particularly interested to hear what Tracey thought of the RealRyder. Check out the video!

For those who don’t follow the Biggest Loser here is a little more background on Tracey Yukich and the amount of weight she lost.

Looking at Tracey’s “before and after” pictures the transformation is amazing!

Tracey dropped a total of 118lbs and although these are dramatic numbers the secret to effective weight loss is really very simple, decrease your “calories in” through a healthy diet and increase your “calories out” through exercise.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

It’s not – the challenge for most people who struggle to lose weight is having a plan and sticking to it and it requires some big lifestyle changes.

A big part of the challenge is making changes that you can stick to, both with eating and exercise.

Earlier in the year we saw Elise Marmon losing over 50lbs of weight using RealRyder Indoor Cycling Classes as her main cardio workout, so there is no doubt indoor cycling generally and RealRyder specifically is a great way to burn calories.

One of the other benefits Elise talked about was that the classes were a lot of fun which made it easier to stick to the plan.

So whether you are interested in losing “Biggest Loser” amounts of weight, improving your cardio fitness or toning up, indoor cycling on a RealRyder will help you achieve your goals. Track down a RealRyder Indoor Cycling Studio near you using the facility search link on the right and make those first pedal strokes on the road to a fitter, happier you!

A week ago we wrote about using “Indoor Cycling for Weight Loss” to drop a few pounds before going to the beach or that summer vacation. There is no doubt a good session on a stationary bike is a great way of burning calories, but there is a much bigger weight problem in America today, obesity.

We normally try to cover fun stuff on the blog, but today we are going to tackle a really serious issue, which is affecting the health of the Country.

First of all what is the definition of obesity?

“Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual’s ideal body weight”.

There are also different levels:-

• 20 to 40% over ideal weight is considered mildly obese
• 40-100% over ideal weight is considered moderately obese
• Over 100% over ideal weight is considered severely, or morbidly, obese.

Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability and death.

It goes without saying that anyone who is overweight or not used to physical exercise should get a medical opinion from their Doctor BEFORE starting any exercise program.

We were really encouraged to see that First Lady, Michelle Obama has this week released a plan to “Reverse Childhood Obesity”, as there is clearly a need for greater education on the importance of healthier lifestyle choices.

Some of the statistics quoted in this plan are just plain scary!

• One in three children, ages 2-19 have been reported as being overweight
• Childhood obesity causes 112,000 deaths every year
• Childhood obesity costs approximately 3 billion dollars per year in direct medical costs.

The stats however, only tell part of the story. From a human perspective, the effects of obesity on quality of life and the self-confidence of developing youngsters should be a major concern to all of us.

Once someone is overweight lifestyle changes need to be made, bad eating and exercise habits in these formative years can easily become lifelong habits. More exercise and better diet as we talked about in “Indoor Cycling for Weight Loss” will give you some pointers on making healthy lifestyle changes. Again we cannot stress enough, check with your Doctor before you start any new exercise program.

One of the great things about indoor cycling apart from it being an excellent form of cardio is that it is low impact and bodyweight is supported by the stationary bike. Both are important factors, for someone who is overweight and may be self-conscious about some other forms of cardio.

So indoor cycling is a great way of helping you cut that unwanted weight. Just don’t become a slave to the weighing scales, make good healthy lifestyle choices and encourage your kids to do the same.