Spin class maiden broken

[benb]

Originally Posted by lovethesport

I mountain bike and road ride as well, and find spin cycling terrific as a tremendous supplement during the winter/rainy days. Having watts on the computer during class is a plus.... maintaining 300 is pretty strong!!

That's especially excellent if the ventilation is as poor as I've seen in spin rooms.

[Bentley]

Originally Posted by Veloo

I had a neighbour running a spin class. She's fit. Does marathons but does NOT ride.
As in - has a fear of being hit by cars so she won't touch a bike.

I've come across a number of spin class instructors that are not cyclists.

It would be a big mistake to confuse a Spin Instructor with a cyclist. Not trying to throw shade on Spinning, but its an "indoor" sport, not an "outdoor" sport. As I said, good for cross training, but not gonna help your cycling other than to maintain overall fitness.

As far as the lights and the music, Spinning appeals to a certain demographic. If you are sitting in the changing area before the class its mostly 20/30 somethings and they are in two general conditions, in shape or trying to get in shape. A few of us older "lurkers" make them uncomfortable. The music, it is really used to set the "cadence", I have been in classes where if you could not spin to the beat you could not be on the "front row". I can honestly say there have been a few classes that were beyond my ability to keep up with the instructor, in general, good work out, lot of sweating so I got my money's worth.

Ray

[benb]

Originally Posted by Bentley

As far as the lights and the music, Spinning appeals to a certain demographic. If you are sitting in the changing area before the class its mostly 20/30 somethings and they are in two general conditions, in shape or trying to get in shape. A few of us older "lurkers" make them uncomfortable. The music, it is really used to set the "cadence", I have been in classes where if you could not spin to the beat you could not be on the "front row". I can honestly say there have been a few classes that were beyond my ability to keep up with the instructor, in general, good work out, lot of sweating so I got my money's worth.

Ray

Except there is a whole of just letting the flywheel drag knees around at high cadence if they are riding in time to most of the music they play.. it's about the same as going down a big hill clipped into a fixed gear bike. It's a bounce fest.

[Bentley]

Originally Posted by benb

Except there is a whole of just letting the flywheel drag knees around at high cadence if they are riding in time to most of the music they play.. it's about the same as going down a big hill clipped into a fixed gear bike. It's a bounce fest.

Agree, lots of posers

[cderalow]

the one spin class I did last year, I stupidly listened to the instructors recommendation on how to setup the bike against my better judgement, and during all the hopping and bouncing and standing up, managed to tear my hamstring.

Won't be doing another, took 3 months to heal properly and i'm still not back to the fitness level I was at prior.

[Bentley]

I never listen to the instructors instruction on setting up my bike. Typically what I see are seats either too low or too high and they set up the handlebars too high. As a cyclist, I set up the bike based on how I set up my road bike, clearly I dont have a tape measure but I try my best to get into the same position. What that generally means is I am the "outlier" on the class relative to how my bike is set up.

Hope you heal well, and given your experience I understand you wont be doing a spin class

Best

Ray

[bikinchris]

One of the instructors at a local gym was an ex Euro racer and he was a cool guy. He didn't blare music and we rode the class to stories about training in Spain. We would climb some hills with biting flies in our stories and work our way through the peleton before sprinting for the finish, then cooling down.

The other spinning instructors? Meh. They couldn't keep from bouncing at high rpms. They were also boring.

We don't currently belong to any gym.

[FlashUNC]

Spin class? Really? I know we've been getting a lot of rain, but man...

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Spin class? Really? I know we've been getting a lot of rain, but man...

It was a D.C.-only one-off. Don't think I will repeat it anytime soon. But I give props to the people who also were there at 6 a.m., holding 300+ watts for extended periods of time.

[Mr. Pink]

Can't stand them. There is no appeal to getting crammed into a room with twenty others, all sweating profusely, and having somebody's butt right in my face, as really awful techno pop music is playing REALLY LOUD and the instructor is shouting REALLY LOUDLY into an amplified device so he/she can be heard over the REALLY LOUD crummy music. What the hell.

[El Chaba]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

Can't stand them. There is no appeal to getting crammed into a room with twenty others, all sweating profusely, and having somebody's butt right in my face, as really awful techno pop music is playing REALLY LOUD and the instructor is shouting REALLY LOUDLY into an amplified device so he/she can be heard over the REALLY LOUD crummy music. What the hell.

THIS.....and then you get instructions like "Take one foot out of the pedal and pedal with one leg"....or "Now, pedal backward"....

[Bentley]

Not trying to defend the class, but spinning with one leg is considered good training to smooth out your stroke. Not sure about pedaling backward, but it does engage some different muscles

I am not defending Spinning, but it's a legitimate form of excercising and for me folks get a benefit from it, just not good cycle training for the most part. It's ok if you don't like it, but we ought to respect it as a form of excercise.

😀😀

[Tony T]

I've posted this before, so many of you have already seen it.
(keep in mind that "Pig" is naive and usually believes everything, but not this )

[cinco]

Just another option when not motivated to ride/workout otherwise. One thing I've found is the wider q-factor of the spin bike really kills my knees if I do too many classes, like two, too close together.

I don't really have a problem with setting up a bike in the back of the class and just zoning out - doing my own thing, instead of following the instructor. But, can see how in some classes, social pressure might make that difficult to do for some.

Andy in Houston

[providence]

We bought a Peloton spin bike (you've seen the TV commercials I'm sure) for home a couple months back now. Came up on CL hardly used at a good price and we had money in the bike fund and figured why not.

The gal and I quite like it for a quick workout before or after work. Has a large screen and you can follow along with live or on demand spin classes from home. We've found it useful over these MN winter months to get a good sweat in and will continue to use it moving forward throughout the rest of the year.

Certainly won't take the place of cycling for us but lets us stretch our legs a bit and get our heart rate up on days we aren't riding.