Bums in the air? Now RIDE EASY! (Spinning)

Member Name: ShoppingGirl

Product:	Spinning
Date:	01/09/03 (4687 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Burns a gazillion calories

Disadvantages: Sweat, sweat and more sweat

I think it?s probably fair to say that most women speak with two voices. So for example, when I watched a recent documentary about Jennifer Lopez, my (loud) outer voice was saying, ?Oh for GOD?S SAKE, what a ridiculous woman. Who the hell cares about her arse? Anybody could look like that if they had her money!? etc etc. But my quieter, inner voice was saying, ?Sigh. Look at that rear end. Wish mine was as pert as that. I?d kill for those buns.?

My inner voice won that little argument, and before you can say cellulite, I?d signed up to add spinning to my bulging gym class repertoire.

Now I?ll be honest. When spinning first burst onto the gym scene a few years ago, I was pretty sceptical. After all, it?s just going quickly on an exercise bike, isn?t it? And that?s not exactly new ? I mean, who here doesn?t have a dusty old stationary bicycle taking up space in the spare room? Spinning looked to me like just another fad from across the pond, designed to part us with our cash.

However, I soon learned from friends who had actually tried it that spinning was in fact a whole world away from plodding along on an exercise bike in your pyjamas with Abba on the headphones. Spinning was a whole new approach to the world of stationary cycling ? and one that was catching on with as many men as it was with women, a sure sign that it wasn?t just a girly aerobics fad.

Most decent gyms will have a bank of exercise cycles as part of their ?cardio theatre? ? as they rather bizarrely call it. These bikes are often very advanced, with all sorts of whistles and bells attached, including of course the beloved calorie counter.

But a spinning bike is nothing like this. It?s pared down, has a hard seat, and only one wheel. It looks almost like some kind of medical contraption, and I must admit at first glance it?s less than inviting.

But with J-Lo?s glowing buns hovering adamantly in my mind?s eye, I was willing to take the risk and give
spinning a whirl. Here?s what happened:

OK so I turned up to my spinning class in plenty of time to adjust my bike. The seat is meant to be at hip height but I found this was too high, resulting in a very sore backside the next day! Stick with what you?re comfy with would be my advice there. I sat up high on the seat, and off we went.

The class began with a ?gentle warm up?, but it wasn?t so gentle for me, as even adding the slightest bit of resistance caused my leg muscles to scream and my lungs to feel like bursting! I stuck with it though, and after the warm up the real work began. I should point out that after the ten minute warm up, sweat was running down my face so much that I had to take my glasses off to avoid a slippy nose/ smashed specs incident.

So the rest of the class was done with very poor vision! The great, strong music kicked in and off we went, on an hour long endurance ride, up hills, along the flat, and (mercifully) also enjoying ?recovery? periods.

My particular class is called ?RPM?, and consists of lots of separate dance tracks, each with their own cycling programme. The music is pretty much what you?d hear at a gay disco ? funked up remixes of female vocalist tracks like Cher, Pat Benatar and Sophie Ellis Bextor etc, with a few ?classics? thrown in too. This is great, as it means the tempo is always varied, and that there?s some great, hard beats to keep up the motivation. Some spinning classes are done to an hour long mix of generic music, and these are much harder going in my opinion as they don?t provide that ?lift? that only really funky, poppy music can give you.

The instructor kept barking out unfamiliar phrases, but I quickly caught on. For instance, ?Ride easy!? doesn?t refer to your lax morals, it?s just a term to describe sitting in relaxed fashion, both hands on the bars, cycling at a relatively easy rate. She also kept saying, ?And a little bit more!?, meaning, turn that dial and add
on yet more resistance. As a beginner, of course I couldn?t add nearly as much resistance as the other class members, but the joy of spinning is that nobody else knows how much resistance you?ve got on, and so they can?t kick sand in your face! I hate being the newbie in any situation, and I found this ?ability anonimity? to be very comforting.

I can?t begin to describe to you how hard I worked in that first class. I have literally never sweated so much in my life ? and folks, I?ve been to Las Vegas. Just when you think your feet can?t push the pedals round another inch, it?s time to add on yet more resistance, and stand up out of your seat in ?race? mode. This is the true killer in spinning ? the standing up bits. Luckily, these most intense sections are kept to bursts of no more than about four minutes at a time, followed by a nice ?ride easy?, but if you haven?t done it before then prepare to suffer ? it?s really, really hard. Those of you who are into sports science will be aware that repeated hard bursts of work followed by recovery time (known as ?interval training?) is the most efficient way of burning calories and strengthening the heart and lungs.

With luck you?ll have an instructor like mine, who constantly shouts out encouragement and motivation ? whilst pedalling furiously herself, and even smiling at the same time! I made it to the end of my first class vowing never to try spinning again ? I was so sweaty and uncomfortable I just couldn?t bear it. But a funny thing happened during the cool down. I began to feel great.

Having burned many hundreds of calories, and soaked my clothes and hair right through with sweat, I realised I hadn?t expended this much energy in recent memory. As I stretched my muscles I began to wonder if in fact I could bear to come back and give it another go. You can guess the rest ? I?ve now been going for weeks and hate to miss a class. I?m not the newbie anymore, I can add a decent amount of resistance
, and already I can feel my legs and bum getting that bit firmer.

I?ve even invested in some spinning-friendly slinky cycle pants, which never fail to show up every lump and bump, giving me all the motivation I need to go on!

I can?t recommend spinning enough to anybody who wants fast fitness results. You?ll burn enough calories to effectively cancel out your evening meal ? and if weight loss is your goal, this can only be a good thing. You will sweat uncontrollably, so if you?re one of these hilarious ?ladies? who think the point of going to the gym is to ponce around in Nike gear, full make up and fake nails, whilst never breaking a sweat or huffing and puffing out loud, then this isn?t the class for you. You?ll feel jolly undignified.

Take a large water bottle with you (you clip it to the bike) or you will faint with dehydration. Take a towel to mop down your dripping face. And take that big, wobbly backside ? and whip it into buns of steel.

Anybody got any walnuts they need cracking ?

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