I must be mad, but I decided to go for a spinning class today at my local gym, having never tried it before in my life. I do cycle, but I’m no triathlete (those would be my children!).
What’s spinning?
For those of you who are unfamiliar with spinning, the idea is that you get on a bike and pedal like mad. Well, actually it’s a bit more organized than that.
You’re in a class with others who are also pedaling away. The teacher ensures that you warm up, do the ‘intense bit’ (such as standing up on the bike while going fairly fast, leaning over it in ‘serious bike racer’ position) and the ‘cool down.’
They also make sure you do some stretches so that you don’t walk away with injuries. Or so that you can at least walk away.
I was a bit nervous (being I think the only 50-something-year-old taking up spinning in the class) but it was really fun!
The best part – at least for my pride – was that you could adjust the resistance yourself so that if you felt like you were about to pass out, you could lower the resistance a bit and still keep up without feeling like you were wimping out.
Benefits of spinning
As with any good aerobic exercise, spinning is good for your heart rate, your lung capacity and for burning calories.
It even works your abdominal muscles. This is a real plus if you’re like me and would rather eat grass than do sit ups.
Plus you can control your own pace (unless you have a rather sadistic spinning teacher which I don’t recommend…) so as long as you listen to your body, you should be able to have a lot of fun without overdoing it. And for us control freaks (of which I am one), this is important.
What to do afterwards
Have a fruit smoothie of course! I had one of my favorites in the car ready for me. Yes I drove to the gym. I could have cycled there, but it would have taken me 30 minutes one way.
So I opted for a 45-minute super-intense spinning class instead. Hmmm….
Where’s the logic in that? I don’t know, but it was definitely fun!
Image credit: Stefan Funke
