first spinning session next week to get fitter after car accident layoff any tips never done this before,
Cheers in advance

Imagine you’re insanely fit, a champion athlete and dead tough to boot.
Your first spin session will hurt so much you want to puke.

You’re none of those things so think what it’s going to feel like now.

They can be very, very painful. Ride at your own pace and sit down when you need to. It’s about you, not being the best in the group and the lady running it at the front will do this every day, don’t be bothered if she appears to be some kind of sado-god. (Which she is)

Wind off when you need to too. The general perspective is if you come away not hurting, you’ve not been doing it properly.

sounds semi-masochistic. It’s not my idea of exercise or fun. That’s why all my weights lie in a corner and I am developing a medium sized gut. oh well. Badminton, Tennis or even ping pong can get you going and it’s still fun social. I dunno. I think I’m scared of spin classes 😕

Know how long the session is. Have a watch on. That way when the instructor screeches something like, LAST PUSH! REALLY PUSH IT! you can look at your watch, notice that there is 20 minutes still to go and measure you’re effort so that you don’t go pop.

Don’t forget to be amazed at how seriously some people take it.

Or just take it easy for the first few sessions then jump in when you’ve got a bit fitter. The pain does put some off but it should only ever be small increments. If its an evening session be prepared for a bad nights sleep as your legs will be overheating all night.

Take a towel in and please wipe up all your sweat from the floor. Drink lots.

And remember its only 45 minutes!

I disagree, spin classes are pointless if you take them easy. Unless you enjoying being shouted at over the top of some crappy music while gently pedalling a bike that goes nowhere.

Yes they are pointless but you’ve got to think long term. After a while you can get a serious rush from the interval efforts but it will hurt to get there.

And its the only time you’ve really got an excuse to listen to crappy music. I love a bit of Kylie!

if you don’t enjoy it try a different class with a different instructor (if possible) quality helps a lot

Why not just ride your bike?

Why not just ride your bike?

Helpful as always, Teej.

Seriously – why not? why pay to use a stationary bike indoors?

And remember its only 45 minutes

The ones I go to are 60 minutes! and yes it hurts.

TandemJeremy – Member
Why not just ride your bike?

Have you looked outside lately?

Why not just ride your bike?

clearly no idea what is involved in spin.

sometimes i focus on sprinting to the point where i can’t see anymore. 😳

not really safe on the roads.

EDIT: sorry op.tips; take a towel for sweating in. & water. at least 1L should do you, 1.5 is better. (2 bottles)

don’t use the spds – the q factor is a) buge & b) uneven!!

I won’t be touching a spin session again. Did them for a month last winter during the snow & it had me off the bike injured,unable to ride for 2months after. On my mtb i spin with a pretty high cadence whereas spinning had me pushing stupidly high loads at much slower cadence,result being fubbared knees & a bunch of leg muscle inbalances. Just be warned.

Double post-deleted.

Why not just ride your bike?

Spin classes can have their place. If you are training to race and want to get an intense session into a lunch hour for example, you’d get more out of a spin session than you would taking your bike for a ride.

I don’t like spin classes, but they can be useful and serve a purpose.

I used to regular spin sessions (before I really got into mountain biking) and really enjoyed them.

Good thing is, you can really go at your own pace as only you know how much resistance you have dialled in.

As above, some instructors are better than others. If you don’t enjoy your class, find another one.

Take a decent sized water bottle and a decent sized towel as you will sweat buckets, unless the air-con is set to Arctic….

I won’t be touching a spin session again. Did them for a month last winter during the snow & it had me off the bike injured,unable to ride for 2months after. On my mtb i spin with a pretty high cadence whereas spinning had me pushing stupidly high loads at much slower cadence,result being fubbared knees & a bunch of leg muscle inbalances. Just be warned.

Was it a proper ‘Spinning’ class or was it something else? There is trademarked ‘Spinning’ and then there is the tut pushed by over zealous personal trainers who have no qualifications.

RPM is the Les Mills trademarked thingy.

I challenge pretty much everyone to push themselves as hard on an actual bike. I nearly pass out after every session.

SPIN etc. is the proper one i’m informed…

see here…

http://www.spinning.com/about/legal-trademark-notices.asp

and here…

http://www.spinning.com/images/spinning_trademark_usage_one_sheet.pdf

Not done one for a while but I found them very good…

I found it was mostly women at the sessions I attended normally led by some evil 0% body fat gym bunny, best tips I can offer are:

1- take a towel you’ll sweat like a bastard indoors and without headwind and it will drip all over the bars, get in your eyes and annoy the shit out of you.

2- take plenty of water and sip little and often don’t guzzle once every 10 mins as it’ll just sit there and slosh…

3- Set up the bike properly – take the time to set the seat/bar heights and fore/aft position and get as comfy as you can.

4- Warm up/down properly – do some stretches, ideally these will be led by the instructor also spend time spinning without any resistance at the start/finish of the session to help avoid cramp…

5- Try to do everything the instructor tells you to – a good instructor will mix high/low intensity/resistance/cadence sections with sitting and standing stress positions, often set to music (normally crappy dance tracks) – these mean you get more than just a workout for your legs.

6- allow recovery time – I would estimate I’m as knacked after an hours spin as after 2-3 hours on my road bike obviously that’s down to what you put into the session, but it’s worth allowing some recovery time, try not to go 2 days in a row if possible.

7- Go regularly! you will notice the benefit if you keep at it; do two 1 hour spin sessions a week for a month and you will see general fitness benefits, skip a week and you will also notice the drop off in general fitness happens fast…

just enjoy it and remember it is only an hour it might seem a bit tough at first but a session is soon over…