Have You Tried Spinning Classes?

For about twenty years now Spinning Classes have been a great option at the local gym for a great cardio workout. While the popularity seemed to peak several years ago they remain a viable option for anyone looking for a different take on the mundane workouts on a typical Recumbant bike.

Spinning Classes use a much different type of bike than the typical exercise bikes you see out in the main cardio rooms of most gyms. Personally I enjoy the bikes used in spinning classes since they provide you with a much more efficient way to change your hip position from sitting to standing than the typical bikes do.

For those of you in the gym world who have not tried a spinning class I have to be honest and say the enjoyment is very heavily weighted on the personality of the instructor. The last time I worked in a major Gym Chain, part of my job was to interview any new class instructors. This means I had to take far more aerobics and body pump, and yes even spinning classes than I cared to.

The one thing that really separated the good ones from the bad ones was always personality. In a spinning class it is just you, the bike, and the instructor. Many classes will also use music but some of the really good ones do not, they think it distracts from the emotions they try to play on with their descriptions. The instructor leads you on a virtual bike ride as he or she will describe the scene for you. For instance, “you see the small hill approaching, it curves to the left and you are unable to see how far the incline continues”. This would mean you have a few choices, speed up and get ready to attack the hill or stay patient until you can see how far it goes.

Again a good instructor can make this a very fun and entertaining experience. An instructor with little emotion and not much imagination will make it a complete drag. The classes I was able to take with good instructors were very enjoyable but I do have to warn you about the real glaring weaknesses in the class. Since you literally spend the entire time on the bike it can wreak havoc on your knees and back. It is also very likely to build some significant muscle imbalance in your legs due to the tremendous amount of stimulus to certain muscles with little to no demand placed on others.

If you have never tried a class out before, I suggest you give it a shot. If you luck out and get a good instructor I think you will really enjoy it. Just do yourself a favor and make sure you do a very thorough warm-up and following the class do some standing lunges and kneeling hip flexor stretches, also some cats and dogs and kneeling roller coasters would be a good idea. for examples of all these check out our Exercise of the Week Program.