I recently got an email from my client, Cindy, regarding
Spinning bikes. Cindy asked if she could take a spinning
class to add some variety to her workout. I said sure
assuming she had looked into it a little bit or at the very
least glanced into the window of the room while a class was
going on.
Well needless to say, Cindy didn’t have a clue what
the intensity would be like nor did she realize the
spinning bikes are different than any other bike she had
ever ridden before.
For those of you who don’t know, the bikes were
invented to mimic conditions of actual road biking like in
the Tour De France. Therefore, instead of only having the
ability to add resistance the way we all are used to doing
it, by changing gears, the wheel in front of the stationary
bike (flywheel) is weighted. Which means it could weigh
between 35 and 55 lbs instead of 1 or 2 lbs. Normally,
that would sound like no big deal. But as many of you
know, when you decide to stop pedaling on a bike, you
normally glide or coast. Well you can’t do that on a
Spinning bike and Cindy did not realize that until well
after the instructor told her to pedal as fast as she could.
After her legs felt like they were going to go flying
off… then her instructor said they would start
climbing a hill and that she needed to increase the
resistance on her bike. The instructor started saying
things like -“Take a full turn up! Another half
turn… You should be working hard now.”
“Crank it down so you feel the road… now add
big turn clockwise… climbing the hill now… add
more resistance by turning it up… now it’s
really steep.”
Cindy had no idea what any of those instructions meant and
that is what I am here to clear up right now.
Spinning is a great form of cardio. It is motivating to
have an instructor guide you through a program while being
surrounded by like-minded participants who are there for
the same reasons. You all want to get a good workout, lose
some unwanted body fat, keep heart healthy, lighten your
own personal stress load and have some fun along the way.
The resistance knob in question is the tool used to add
tension to the flywheel so that you feel as if you are
climbing a hill or if the knob is loose then you feel as if
you are screaming along the open road and cruising. As an
instructor, I believe there should always be some sort of
tension.
If you have never taken a class, I would recommend it. But
here are some things to keep in mind before you do.
Spinning bikes are used frequently throughout the day.
This means that they have wear and tear on them. Each bike
will wear differently and therefore the resistance knob may
be tight on one bike and not so tight on another.
Bikes in your gyms have resistance mechanisms that can vary
tremendously. If you decide to take the approach of
listening to an instructor based on turning the knob to
vary your resistance, you may have a very hard time getting
through the ride with a specific benefit (strength,
endurance, etc).
So What?
Recently I read of a study an instructor did at his club
that tested 21 bikes to see the varying resistance for each
bike. Here is what he found.
The first measurement was the number of turns from all the
way “off” (maximum counterclockwise) up to
where he could “feel the road.” This is a bit
subjective, but not very—even a beginning rider can
tell the difference between free-wheeling and a wheel that
offers some resistance. The second measurement was the
number of turns from “feeling the road” to
“that’s it—I can barely pedal a full
revolution.” using his personal limit. How different
were the bikes from each other? The table shows the
minimum and maximum number of turns among the bikes for the
two measurements, and also the total number of turns from
bottom to top end.
The differences among the bikes were mostly at the low end.
Some riders will feel the road after three turns from the
bottom, while others will turn (and turn, and turn) seven
full revolutions before anything happens. So if riders
start their rides at the very bottom, and the instructor
just talks about taking quarter turns, half turns, and full
turns, some riders will still be free-wheeling while others
will already be into moderate-heavy territory. Rider
inexperience, coupled with our human tendency to take the
easy path if we can while still obeying orders, will thwart
the instructor’s intention to guide a ride according
to traditional categories of benefit. --Results were found
by Gordon Bermant who teaches Spinning in the Virginia
suburbs of Washington, D.C.
I want you to learn a few things from this article. First,
if you decide to take Spinning classes it is important for
you to be very aware of how you feel and the amount of
energy you are expending. This is what you should base
your workout on, not the specific instructions.
Second, I am a fan of Spinning and I like the idea of
someone pushing you to do you best throughout your training
session for 30-60 minutes. If it can’t be me, I want
it to be someone trusted like a certified group training
instructor.
Finally, if you are going to do some training on your own
outside of a class setting, remember that not all cardio
machines are created equal, especially the spinning bikes.
There is a great deal of maintenance that needs to go into
a bike and you should be aware that some bikes are easier
to ride than others. If you are on a bike that takes 7
turns just to feel the tension, then you will need to take
more turns to get you where you want to be when you work
hard. If you are on a bike that turns 2 turns and you feel
like the road just became a hill in San Francisco, then you
will need to adjust accordingly. I like the idea of having
variety in your workout regimen. And utilizing a spinning
bike can be a good alternative to running on a treadmill or
using the elliptical. Cross training is important in my
style of training. Learning how to make the ride
challenging when you need tough intervals and interpreting
the varying resistance to rest when you are in a rest phase
is an important part of those intervals.
So drop by a Spinning class. If that is not your thing,
take one of the many cardio routines I have sent you over
the past 2 years and try one of those programs on a
Spinning bike. I think you will like the challenge.
----------------------------------------------------
For over 17 years Bobby Kelly has taken his passion for
coaching to a level not reached by many in the fitness
profession. Bobby knows the success of hard work,
determination and persistence, and he’ll get you
where you want to be. Visit http://www.resultsonly.com
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