Spinning: Keeping It Interesting

Normally I would research an exercise class before trying it. But this time, I just decided to walk in. The allows a free walk-in class before you have to pay, so what did I have to lose?

I’d seen signs outside the door for “Spinning Classes” and was intrigued. How is spinning turned into a workout? And how do you keep from getting dizzy?

When I walked in the classroom, however, my heart dropped. Instead of the open mat floor I expected, I saw rows of indoor bicycles with the word “spinner” written on the side of each. Great. It’s a cycle routine.

Don’t get me wrong, I love bicycling—outdoors. But indoor cycling drives me crazy in about 10 minutes. I’d take a step machine or treadmill any day over an indoor bike. And here I’d just signed up for an hour of this. I began hoping that maybe I had misread the schedule and this was only a half hour class rather than an hour. Surely you couldn’t get a group of people to do an indoor biking routine for an hour.

There were six other women there and one man, each of varying fitness levels and body types. One of the women was also new to the class. The instructor, Lee Hodik, quickly helped us two newbies adjust our bikes so they were comfortable and showed us the red knob that we would use to increase and decrease the resistance level.

Then she started some rock and roll, jumped on her bike facing the class, and we were off!

One of the core principles of Spinning is that it involves your mind as well as your body, so you actually don’t get bored. Hodik constantly changed the routine, switching us up between flat sprints, hills, standing pedaling, and basic “recovery” biking. She encouraged us to pedal to the beat of the music (or double-time the beat), which shuffled between various rock and roll songs. Each song meant a different routine: high resistance hills, low resistance sprints, two minutes standing pedaling with two minutes sitting, etc.

“This is a short song,” she would sometimes encourage as she pushed each of us to go to our max. “You can do it.”

Each person controlled their own bike’s resistance, which meant you could go at your own level while still being pushed by the group adrenalin and Hodik’s constant coaching. She gave pointers on back positions, hand positions, and what level to put the resistance at so you didn’t wobble while standing—higher resistance meant less wobbling.

“I got into Spinning a year ago,” Hodik told me later. “And I think the variety of music makes all the difference.” She said that each instructor will give their own style. One of the other instructors at the Recreation Center uses more pop songs than rock; or one might focus more on speed and cardio, while Hodik likes to focus on core and strength.

“The beauty is that the instructors can learn from each other,” she said. “I’ll come to someone else’s class or have another instructor come to my class—and not just to support each other, but to learn something new.”

About half way through the class, right when I was getting my second wind and realizing I could actually go more than half an hour, a song came on that sang, “I love you, I hate you, I can’t live without you.” That seemed to sum it up. This was an intense routine, but it felt great. Unlike the promotional posters on the wall with groups of smiling people on bikes, there were no smiles here. We were sweating it! But when we finished, everyone was beaming. The other new girl got a high five from her friend and our token gentleman passed out sanitizer towelettes to wipe down the bikes.

We finished with a cool-down stretch, again using the bikes to help stretch our wobbly legs.

This was the second Spinner class Hodik had coached that morning, having filled in for another instructor, but she couldn’t help grinning. “I have a regular job, but then I come here and teach and I’m like, ‘Wheeeee! I get to de-stress and help people,’” she said.

Hodik told of one lady who has regularly come to her Spinning class for six months who couldn’t even stand up in the pedals when she started, and is now doing the two-minute standing pedaling with vigor. Hodik said she loves helping people push themselves to the next level. “If you’re not really going to push yourself, I’m going to push you,” she said.

I’m glad I didn’t look up the class first because I probably would have been scared off. But I was pleasantly surprised and didn’t get bored—which is always my biggest concern when it comes to exercise—and I was certainly worked out for the day. As I left, Hodik gave a friendly, “Be sure to come back!” To which, of course, I said, “I will.” And I’m pretty sure I wasn’t lying.

Make sure you bring:

• Plenty of water. I emptied my 23 oz bottle by the time we were done.
• Comfortable shoes. You’ll be doing plenty of stand-up pedaling so you need support.
• A towel. You will sweat.