What to expect at a Group Cycle Class with me!

Indoor cycling, Cycle Fit or spinning as it is also known as can be an incredible form of group exercise with many benefits such as heart health, lower body strength, coordination, general fitness & a great mood booster.

Like many classes in the fitness industry, in some cases, class experience - lights, rhythm/music, choreography, adding weights - can be emphasised over the effectiveness of the class. If your classes have any of the attributes listed above, I am not suggesting your class is bad, unsafe, or not worthy of attending. However, I am writing this to help those make an informed decision about what type of class is best for you and the style of class I prefer to attend and teach.

As an indoor cycling instructor, I try my best to encourage newcomers and beginners to my classes & frustratingly would often hear from well-capable clients of mine: ‘I could never do a spin class, it’s way too intense’ or ‘I tried a spin class once & I couldn’t keep up with the pace of the class’, ‘I injured myself in class as my I couldn’t control the speed the instructor wanted me to pedal at’ or ‘i felt I couldn’t keep up’. I hated hearing this because I knew they are capable of the class but perhaps poor class management had let them down.

Here are some top tips that you should expect from a class:

1. Bike Setup

Poor bike set up is all too common & most people sit with their seat far too low to get the most out of the bike. A good bike setup will allow you to ride in good posture and should allow a pain-free ride. Your instructor should help you get set up, show you around the workings of the bike, and address any concerns or questions you may have. A good bike setup will make all the difference in your class.

2. Resistance & safe cadence

When you get on the bike, put on some resistance, we avoid pedalling with absolutely no resistance even when warming up and cooling down. Here’s why, the indoor bike is made with a weighted fixed wheel, this moves if the pedals are moving and the pedals move if the flywheel is moving, therefore an unsafe low level of resistance & high speed means the legs are being taken around by the weight of the flywheel, not by the power in your legs which can give you a feeling of no control over the pedals.

This brings us to cadence (speed). Unsafe high cadence & low resistance can not only lead to an injury, it is also just very ineffective. Unfortunately, I see a lot of unsafe practices in the industry that encourage high cadence levels of up to 150 RPM (speed) and even higher in some cases. This encourages riders to decrease resistance so they can somehow meet this target (if you can at all). This may give you the impression you are pedalling at great speed but without proper resistance, it is ineffective and unsafe. In a road race, a cyclist wouldn’t go down to the lowest gear to sprint to the finish line, this would look slow and uncoordinated, instead, they would do the opposite, they would increase their gear and power to the end. A great way to check with ourselves if an interval was effective - you feel your HR rise, your body temperature increase, and your leg muscles will feel like they are working.

In class with me, you will be guided to stay within 60 rpm and 110 rpm. Lower than 60 is too much for the regular rider and can overload the joints; anything above 110 is usually done with an unsafe and ineffective level of resistance.

3. Clear instruction:

In a class, you should always know what you are doing and even better if you know why. I will aim to always let the rider know

• what it is: For example 3 hill intervals or a time trial etc,
• how long it is, how it will the interval be and how long we have to recover.
• Intensity - how it should feel. Easy, medium, max effort etc. Is your heart rate increasing? Is your breathing laboured? How do your muscles feel?
• Autonomy: It is your class - my instructions are guidance but you are in control!

An instructor should guide resistance level not dictate it. Instructions such as 1 turn up, 2 turns down is not the most effective way to guide a class as no two riders are the same. Two turns up will feel very different for a rider who is there for the first time, the rider who is a regular on the bike, the rider who is training for the Tour de France & the rider who may be coming back from injury. A rider may feel a hill after two turns up but the rider beside them might feel a hill after 5 turns up. It is all relative to the person on the bike. With the instruction points above, as a rider you can set your resistance and cadence to a good balance to achieve the drill and everyone will get a good workout according to their fitness levels and ability.

If the instruction is more based around rhythm, dance, or choreographed moves then this is falling into rhythm rides. Personally, I believe this makes the instructor more of a choreographer & the class is less about a good workout & more a fun experience. If you connect well with this, great but please be safe with it, if you don’t, please know that all classes are not like this and it has nothing to do with your ability or fitness levels. I do not believe rhythm movements or dance-type movements belong on the bike. This is my professional stance.

4. Avoid moves that you wouldn’t do on a road bike.

In a class with me, we will not do anything we wouldn’t do on an outdoor bike. This includes lifting weights whilst on the bike, body weight exercises, jumps, tap backs, and hovers. In most cases, these moves are done with an unsafe level of resistance which just makes them unsafe and downright pointless. A lot of the time these moves are added to make the class different and ‘cooler’ to the gym next door. Choreographed type moves on the bike can be challenging for the uncoordinated rider and they won’t benefit you. Les Mills, peloton, and Soul Cycle are all guilty of this. They place experience over safety and effectiveness. They usually have a very athletically fit & toned person taking the class to make it look like they got that body by doing push-ups on a bike and pedalling fast with no resistance. I can assure you they did not.

Overall, we can use an indoor bike to get an effective cycling workout that mimics outdoor terrain and provides an amazing workout with many benefits. We challenge our strength, endurance, and fitness with a fine balance between resistance and cadence. If you don’t have time for the outdoor bike then a well-instructed group cycle class is a great option. You can even mix the two or use indoor cycling to improve your road cycling. Dark studios, loud music, bike push-ups, choreographed routines, and fast pedaling are all too common in classes. It’s OK to join a class because it provides a good experience but keep yourself safe and if you find you aren’t making much progress on the bike, consider what is being taught in your class- is fast pedaling and push-ups the norm? It is ok to question if this is appropriate or effective for me and if you deem the answer to be no, it’s ok to not participate in some moves. I like to keep it simple, aim to feel challenged, feel the HR elevate, the body temp increase, and listen to your muscles - they’ll tell you if they are working!

We can make things a bit more effective by using the bike for what it is designed for and keep those push-ups & Squats for the gym floor! Remember, the fitness industry is a marketing industry and they will market you anything to get you through their door.