Just yesterday morning at 6:30 am (yep, you heard me… 6:30 in the morning), I decided to attend a cycling class in the IM building. For those of you who may not know, cycling is essentially riding an indoor bike. Some of you may have heard of cycling referred to as spin, as cycling classes have been all the rage recently. (ever heard of soul cycle?) Despite cycling’s growing popularity, I’ve never done it before in my life. Let me tell you though, I absolutely loved it!
Out of all the workout classes offered here at Penn State, I chose to do a review of cycling for my first post as I knew I’d have a non bias opinion from never participating. What’s funny about cycling is that growing up, I always remembered by grandma telling me she was going to spin class, and I never truly understood what that meant. Well, many years later I finally do!
To get started, the days following my cycling class I was so nervous. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Yeah, OK, I probably could have looked up what a typical cycling class entailed, but I tend to be a little lazy sometimes. The entirety of the night before I kept building up scenarios in my head of how I could possibly make a fool out of myself in this class. What if the instructor expects the cyclers to know exactly what to do? Should I tell the instructor I have no idea what I’m doing? So many questions were running through my head, but I figured it would be a good time to go to sleep considering it was 2am, and I needed to be up in four hours to leave and be on time for the class. By the way, I live in South, so it’s about a 15 minute hike.
By the time my alarm went off, I honestly wasn’t even tired because I was so ready to get to this class. I jumped out of bed and threw on my workout clothes. Before heading out the door, I grabbed my typical (and favorite) breakfast bar, the peanut butter chocolate chip Larabar. If any of you are looking for any healthy bars to eat, I highly recommend this one! The peanut butter chocolate chip bar only has 4 ingredients and some even have less.
As I made my way to the IM building (on foot, of course), my nerves had finally calmed down. Once I arrived, I found other people making their way down to Room 9 where the cycling class was held. At first, there were only a few girls in the room, so I figured it’d be a small class. Before everyone started showing up, the instructor, who was a super motivating and very kind woman, helped me adjust my seat so my ride would be comfortable. By the time I was settled in with my feet strapped in the pedals, more and more people began showing up to the point that we had a full class. The instructor was so ecstatic about this considering it was a Thursday morning at 6:30.
When the big digital clock in the back of the room hit 6:30, the instructor, who cycled at the front of the room with a microphone attached to her shirt, began telling all the cyclers what to do.
We began with what they call a “flat ride” which is simply cycling without adding any resistance to the bike. This was very easy, but eventually things got pretty hard. We were told to do our fastest pedal to try and boost the “power” up on the monitor. The power is used as a reference throughout the session serving as a motivator, as our instructor was always trying to get us to surpass this amount by cycling very fast.
Eventually, our instructor told us it was time to turn our residence on. Keep in mind, although this may sound horribly brutal, the instructor shouts motivational blurbs throughout the session and plays fun, engaging music. With the resistance up on the bike, peddling became extremely hard, and the instructor referred to the feeling as your quads going through quicksand. However, she stressed that we must push through that feeling, because our legs are strong, but it is our minds that are weak.
For at least 20 minutes, we did an on and off period of high intensity cycling where you would actually push up on your bike, similar to when you stand on a bike while riding it down the street. This fast, intense period was then followed by period of slower pedaling, where you sat back down and pedaled with the resistance still on.
About 6 reps of this occurred before switching to a new kind of cycling. For the second half of the class, we then were told to put our bikes up to the highest resistance we could stand, almost to the point where it was nearly impossible to pedal. With this, we then did a hard, intense cycle for about 15 seconds, followed by a break period where we would turn the resistance completely off for flat ride.
After 45 minutes, the ride was over. I was honestly so tired! The instructor then guided us through some breathing exercises while sitting on the bike. We then got off the bikes to do some guided leg stretches. The instructor then congratulated the class and expressed her joy for having “a full house” on such an early day (she even took a group picture).
After wiping down the bike before leaving, I made my way back to the dorm. I was completely drenched in sweat (along with everyone else). For those of you who like to workout, you know this is an amazing feeling. During the walk back, I felt so proud of myself for not only getting up early but for completing my first cycle session. For me, working out always makes me feel happier and proud of myself, and the cycle class sure didn’t let me down.
I would highly recommend this class to any current cyclers and of course any new cyclers as well! The instructor was such a motivating, helpful woman that if you’re having any doubts, she will calm you down. The actual workout is intense if you follow exactly how the instructor insists, but you always have the option to not go as hard as suggested. However, you’ll see how persuasive the instructor is, so not trying your best is almost not an option. Additionally, for those of you calorie counters, your burned calories are displayed on the screen. Trust me, you’ll be shocked by this amount!
Let’s just say although I only attended this class for a review (and yes, because I enjoy working out), I will definitely attend again. There was just this certain feeling of accomplishment I could not get rid of after leaving the class, and I’m sure you would all feel the same too.
This is such a cool thing to blog about!! I liked how you talked about the night before your class because I have felt the same way before I have gone to new exercise classes, or just new gyms in general. I also liked how you talked not only about the class, but about what you did before the class. I checked out the website for those protein bars and now I really want to try one. You also gave me a great idea of what a cycling class is like, which now I definitely want to try!
I go to the gym a bit, but have not tried any classes yet! Some of my friends have recommended the PowerRemix class to me, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Thank you for your recommendation or the protein bar, I usually eat the Nature Valley ones but I will definitely give it a try sometime. I look forward to seeing what other classes you try!
I do not frequent the gym, but I did attend spin classes for almost my entire high school career. I really grew into the classes and learned to enjoy them, but I remember my first time as being awkward and uncomfortable. It’s great to read another experience of that first time and to see someone else join the exercise craze that I found particularly beneficial.