Own Your Zone

The Own Your Zone Ride is an indoor cycling class, featuring training zones for perceived work intensity, percentage of maximum heart rate or percentage of the rider’s MFDJ MaxWatt. Zone cues are based on time intervals, music phrases or team competition presets. As each class progresses, participants are asked to “Own Your Zone” by staying in the cued zone (perceived intensity, heart rate percentage of MFDJ Max). Here are the zone colors, alternative colors, names, HR % range, MFDJ Max Watt % and example voice cues:

Default ColorAlternative ColorIntensityHeart Rate %MFDJ MaxWatt %Example Cue
Green  BlueEasy< 65%< 40%Pull back
YellowGreenModerate66% – 75%45% – 60%Work but not too tough
OrangeYellowHard76% – 85%61% – 80%Almost all out
RedRedBest Effort> 85%> 80%All out 

Instructors prepare class by selecting the playlist and assigning working zone preset to each track from these options:

  • Zone Increase – gradual increase of working zones through track
  • Zone Spikes – spike to each working zone from Easy
  • Zone Curve – gradual increase then decrease of working zones through track
  • Tempo Increase – gradual increase of cued RPM with corresponding increase in music BPM
  • 20/10 Intervals -assigns Tabata timed intervals
  • Shrinking Intervals – assigns 5 ON/OFF intervals, each shorter than the one before
  • ORO – Orange Red Orange (Under Over Under) asks riders to test their threshold by riding just under, the over, then just under a threshold
  • Custom Intervals – you choose ON and OFF times (great for on-the-fly excitement)
  • Team Racing – riders are assigned to three teams which race to see which can cover more distance in interval
  • Range Rage – uses HR or MFDJ Max Watt readings to ask riders to hit all zones up and down for 10 seconds at a time. Each rider’s square on the Scoreboard Displaywill guide them. Great way to challenge everyone at their current fitness level. Total number of ranges are displayed on square.

Instructors use MyFitnessDJ (free app for iPhone/iPad) for class playlist and profile preparation. As the music plays, the corresponding zone is displayed on the screen of the mobile device. Progressing class information, including cued working zone, timers and track info can be displayed to the group on an HDMI or AirPlay connected monitor. To increase participant buy-in and make the class even more fun, the same info can be shared to each participant’s’ iPhone, allowing them to use a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Heart Rate monitor or Apple Watch for an additional way to monitor their working zone. When participants use their iPhone to get the cues and monitor their heart rate, the team’s ride data is shared to motivate and encourage all. The shared data looks like this:

MFDJ screen shot Scoreboard.jpg