Today I got in a spin class at lunch for the first time in a long time. I had forgotten how much of a beat down you can give yourself in just an hour. I say “you can give” because you set the tension on the bike throughout the workout. This allows both beginners and the ultra-fit types to get equally beat down in the same session. Any who, It was a good workout, but the reason for the post is that my instructor for this class was really good at keeping everybody motivated and he had a bunch of motivational one-liners. I’m sure that much of them were not his original creations, but it was a good compilation. Some were cool and some were corny but they did help to keep everyone spinning.
The more interesting ones were:
Find your comfort zone…and get out of it!
I don’t want much out of life…Just ALL of it!
Ride for the Hellth of It!
If you don’t act tired….You won’t be tired!
Find out what you can’t do!
That was the warm up (He said that 50 minutes into the 1 hour class when many of us drenched with sweat)
Do spin classes help with cycling? Personally it is not so much a “form” thing as a cardio thing for me. On the cardio front they are really good. The guy teaching today had us out of the saddle for 85% of the hour so there is certainly some good training of your legs for out of the saddle efforts. I was certainly not sitting at my desk surfing the Internet during lunch which was a good thing.
-Bill
Well said. It may not be the best cycling-related training, but it beats sittin’ on yer ass.