Connect18 Program: Group Stationary Cycling Classes

For most people, time is in short supply. Many are often too busy with their work schedules to find the time to exercise, read a book or go to a museum.

But now people can do it all in just less than an hour.

Group stationary cycling classes have become a common sight in most modern fitness facilities these days.

The Connect18 program adopts this model, using specialized educational video courses designed to be watched while riding a stationary cycle.

Classes use indoor cycles to mimic the experience of cycling outdoors in a group while adding a small computer and projector to the cycling studio for an interactive travel and learning experience.

As physical exercise instruction takes place, participants begin to chisel away at their physique with real motion video moving them along roadways to provide to new information.

Connect18 sessions run for either 45 or 50 minutes with interactive travel segments interspersed with virtual stops and educational material.

Riders tour different regions of the world and take in a variety of knowledge on the area's culture, politics and history.

Viewers see real motion video-not computer graphics-moving along roadways and paths in different geographic contexts.

During a virtual tour stop, the exerciser will have the opportunity to visit a place, view walking footage, see interviews and learn more from the provided educational content.

On one particular beginner's Spanish language tour, cyclists can find themselves riding through rural Mexican villas while learning language, culture and history.

Exertion levels during travel segments are unrestricted while a certified instructor determines the amount of energy spent in a group setting. During the tour stops, the exertion level is targeted at the moderate aerobic or fat-burning level.

Tour guides act as educational facilitators and encourage class participation, such as group repetition of vocabulary words in a language class.

Connect18 features proprietary technology that can change the speed of the motion video playback contingent upon the exercise rate of the instructor.

Thus, as the exerciser or instructor works harder, the person pedaling will also move faster through the terrain-this allows participants to progress to higher stages of development the more time they spend with the program.

This feature makes Connect18 particularly unique and realistic experience that is not possible with standard DVD technology.

It's this kind of cutting-edge technique that may just be the next big fitness craze.

That might come as soon as this spring when Connect18 launches a group of cycling rides at the Bay Club San Francisco along with a campaign to spread the program across the nation with the conclusion of 2007.