First spin class tonight

Will I die?

Have seen the bikes and they take cleats. Anyone know if Shimano cleats fit Spin bikes?

MM

Yes they do.
You’ll probably find that all the bikes have knackered BBs

Cool thanks. Better knock the mud out the shoes then!

I’ve only done one and was glad I spent a few minutes warming up as we were straight into sprints and didn’t stop for 45 mins.

Pedals are normally shimano.

You can die if you like or you can spin lightly throughout. I’ve been on the verge of throwing up during a class whilst the people next to me discuss their plans for the weekend.

Oh that’s good to know. Maybe I should get there early then. Already done my 20 mile daily commute so getting my excuses in!

Seat at the back. Take in the view.

Don’t forget it doesn’t ‘Freewheel’ …….

Yep, you gonna die.

Don’t keep turning the resistance up every time you’re encouraged to, get used to how the classes work before you really go for beasting yourself.

View from the back can be disturbing…

I didn’t like it, it’s to cycling what Ducks were to the Apollo Programme, well they both involve flight don’t they?

Don’t take this as a negative though, I’m constantly at odds with the world it seems.

The resistance always felt like drag and not climbing, the seats are massive and meant I couldn’t get my usual stroke in, they were fixed and connected to what felt like several tonnes of dyno so when I reached my limit my brain said “coast” my legs said “coast” but the bike said “nah **** that” and I hit my head on a ceiling tile.

Also worst music ever, played at 90’s rave volume levels.

Whatever you do, don’t try freewheeling. I managed to get the back end about 6 inches up in the air when I tried stopping. Also if your shoe comes out of the pedal, it takes about 5 milliseconds before it comes round and cracks the back of your calf. Just normal stuff if you ride fixed or track bikes.

My spin bike distance record is 66km in just under an hour – have a go if you like?

Meh, I like them, I’m too lazy to get that sort of workout straight out of the door from my office in the winter, the music at my local classes seems decent, the bikes are good enough (no fancy displays on the bars but they all seem pretty smooth) and ultimately I genuinely seem to feel the benefit.

They’ve become a regular winter evening routine for me (possibly because I’ve also made a routine of getting injured at the end of every summer so that I can’t ride the real bike).

I’ve been going 2-3 times a week for three years. It’s pretty hateful but if you get a good instructor (which we have) and some decent music then it’s bearable and it definitely improves your (well mine anyway) fitness for cycling.

I tend to do the 7am ones because a) it’s 10 mins before my body realises what’s going on and b) the hardest thing I’ll do is get out of bed so the actual spin bit isn’t that bad!

Looking in from the outside the spin classes at my local gym look bloody awful, bangin’ tunes at 110dB and one of the “fitness motivators” shouting at everyone over the top of it.

if you do spin classes regularly for long enough, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find the next time you’re out in the hills, you’ll rip the legs off your mates* 😉

*relatively speaking!
I used to be crap on the hills, now I’m just poor, but when I first went out after doing spin for a while, people that expected me to bimble around at the back were most disturbed

Spin is awesome.

bangin’ tunes at 110dB and one of the “fitness motivators” shouting at everyone over the top of it.

yep, that’s about the size of it. I wear earplugs. I do still want to be able to hear my drums after all

Agree with the comments above. I like spin and have gained benefits on the proper bike. Take it easy on your first go, suss it out. And take a sweat towel.

Just back from 2 b2b hour classes. Love em for winter training and the 1500 calories as well . There’s no way I’d do that distance on turbo and find the classes motivation . If your instructors **** there a proper ball ache though . Fortunately I have the choice of two local gyms that my membership covers and have 4 different instructors doing the 5 sessions I currently manage a week so music and routines are mixed up more which keeps it fresh

Well I’m back and still alive.

Sat at the back…good tip and the proper cycle shoes worked a treat.

Pushed hard but not too hard as wasn’t sure what was going to happen but I enjoyed it. Soaked through and steaming at the end 😀

4 times a week in the winter months, really feel the difference when the sun returns. Good instructor really helps.

Something I don’t really understand about spinning is why you sweat so much – far more than from any other exercise.

DrJ – Member

Something I don’t really understand about spinning is why you sweat so much – far more than from any other exercise.

Probably a question for a Doctor that.

Probs because you are on the spot with no breeze going over you to cool you down.

DrMM

Probs because you are on the spot with no breeze going over you to cool you down.

Yeah but that’s true for the various cross trainer type gizmos as well. Maybe there’s something specially sweat-inducing about pedalling!

Are you working anywhere near as hard on a cross trainer though? Someone posted an interesting link on the Zwift thread a while back. (If it’s to be believed) basically the body is approx 21% efficient therefore if you’re generating 300W at the pedals then you’re also pumping out 1-1.2 kW of heat. Which is a hell of a lot, if there’s not sufficient cooling going on, and/or there’s a load of you in a room doing the same thing!

Speaking of which, stop fannying about on spin bikes & join the STW Zwift club!!

What other exercises cram that many people into the space? I’ve never done any other sort of gym exercise so don’t really know, but I bet it would be pretty unsafe having that many people doing free weights in close proximity!

Also I’d bet there’s a lot of heat generated at the flywheel, as the resistance is mostly friction? (could be wrong) whereas with weights etc. you’re just moving the weight and little or no heat is being generated. So That 21% number is just the heat coming off your body, I’d bet a fair percentage of the remaining watts is also getting converted into heat?

I agree with most of the others.

Good bikes (fixed gear, magnetic resistance)
Good instructors (warm up, 20min of pyramids, 10min of sprint intervals, cool down)
Good sessions

Shit bikes (freewheel, friction resistance)
Shit instructors (no, clearly no one is going flat out for all of them if you’re asking them to do 20x 1 min ‘sprints’, and no I refuse to snap my ACL’s pretending to go round corners).
Shit sessions.

Back to back sessions with good instructors is an absolute killer if you’re fit enough.

Also I’d bet there’s a lot of heat generated at the flywheel, as the resistance is mostly friction? (could be wrong) whereas with weights etc. you’re just moving the weight and little or no heat is being generated. So That 21% number is just the heat coming off your body, I’d bet a fair percentage of the remaining watts is also getting converted into heat?

It’s all heat, the resistance unit it just converting that 21% into heat.

So yep, 20 people all putting out around 250W would be near enough a 20kW heat output (in a small room). It’s not all sensible heat though, some of it is latent heat in the form of sweat, so it’ll rapidly go from ~50% humidity to 100% (which means sweat sticks to you and takes longer to evaporate as well).

I used to do spin classes at least once a week, often more. They were great

I now cycle to work everyday, and if I do a spin class my legs are completely mullered and cycling back is a struggle.

In fact there was a little leg circuit in a boxing class I did yesterday, my glutes are really painful. Am definitely cycling slower as a result. There’s no good opportunity for a recovery day

I now cycle to work everyday, and if I do a spin class my legs are completely mullered and cycling back is a struggle.

I’ve done this a couple of times as well. Really not recommended!

I do like spin classes though. Although like others have said a lot of it is down to the instructor. It was hard to take today’s spin class seriously when the instructor has her saddle about 3 inches too low

I think I’ll stick to the Concept 2 rower when the weathers too crap to ride my bike. It’ll save me the dilemma of deciding what to wear for the spin class, I’d be torn between impressing the rest of the class with my mtb/enduro garb or just going incognito in normal gym wear 😀

about the sweat bit – i probably sweat more in the spin class than anything else – but swimming would run it close if you could see the sweat.
Spinning is only a replacement as i live too close to work to cycle.

You sweat a lot on an exercise bike, but I think it seems more excessive than it is, if like me, you tend to look down more – which causes it to pour of your face/off your nose.

I don’t think you sweat when you swim. Water transmits body heat something like 20 times quicker than air so plenty of cooling action going on meaning your body doesn’t have to sweat.

Spin is just very intense. Over half an hours spin class i’ll burn anywhere between 375 and upto 500 calories. I get nowhere near that when running (not a good runner to be fair) or on a proper outdoor bike ride. It’s the interval nature of it, constantly changing the speed and intensity.

Any idea which cleats I need for a lifecycle GX spin bike? Not used to road pedals so don’t really have a clue!.

I don’t think you sweat when you swim. Water transmits body heat something like 20 times quicker than air so plenty of cooling action going on meaning your body doesn’t have to sweat.

You still sweat though. You can lose about a kilo an hour of serious* swimming. I always assumed it was because the body’s response is evolved (or conditioned) to equate a given amount of exercise with a rate it has to sweat. Remember you sweat in response to fear/stress too, so it doesn’t have to be hot to sweat. Also your core temp will rise, and you breath heavily through your mouth so you lose a lot by respiration too.

AND/BUT.. swimming in cold water makes you pee. The bodys response is to constrict blood vessels near the skin and in the fat layer to preserve core temperature, which increases blood pressure, so the kidneys do their best to get rid of that excess fluid. So you lose a fair bit of fluid there too.

Any idea which cleats I need for a lifecycle GX spin bike? Not used to road pedals so don’t really have a clue!.

They’re always** shimano MTB pattern cleats.

* as in training with a swimming club, not just randomly doing lengths as a cyclist doing some cross training. The difference is a bit like looking at the yummy mummies in the spin class and extrapolating their lack of perspiration to conclude “cycling doesn’t make you sweat”.

**I’ve never seen any others and I’m a serial gym swaper.

the seats are massive and meant I couldn’t get my usual stroke in

I assume you were you at the back 😉

wobbliscott – Member

Spin is just very intense. Over half an hours spin class i’ll burn anywhere between 375 and upto 500 calories. I get nowhere near that when running (not a good runner to be fair) or on a proper outdoor bike ride. It’s the interval nature of it, constantly changing the speed and intensity.

thats about what i do on my commute.. tuesday was 911 burnt on the round trip which totally at a tad over an hour

They’re always** shimano MTB pattern cleats.

Bollocks, that’ll mean I can’t use my SPD-SL Shimano RO78 shoes then?.