Spin Classes

I have been "sitting in" spin classes for a number of years now (maybe 6 years). I use the word "sitting in" because the teacher at our gym gets paid by the number of attendees so I show up to help them out pay wise. However, I do not typically follow the choreography since I started learning more about the metabolic adaptations and what is required to progress. These days I usually sit in the spin class and do active recovery.

Don't get me wrong. I think following the instructor helps when one is at a starting fitness level.
The choreography of the Les Mills type RPM classes will have a brief burst of a minute or less type of sprint to sitting at brief intense seated effort then rest. They continue that way repeating various forms of this for 45 minutes.

What you begin to learn about training to improve your functional threshold is that you need more sustained efforts of like 15 plus minutes of duration at that power output level and the classes that I have attended never have a long enough duration. These short intense effort will help sprinting a short rolling hills, but the difference is training or riding outdoors one may need greater endurance that will not be built up quite the same as doing longer sustained efforts.

I may be reading too much into your post, but it sounds like you are at a starting point and spin classes may be a good benefit to you especially if that is all you have available on bad weather days.

I have attended spin classes regularly for the past two winters. When the roads are clear, I prefer to be on the bike.

I have found that the instructor will greatly influence the your spin experience. My faviorite, regular, instructor is a triathelete and will do a couple of Ironman level events a year. He is also a music nut, he has custom soundtracks for all of his workouts. He keeps the intensity high, very short "breaks" followed by increasing efforts is one of his favorites.

Other instructors are not bikers and the workouts are just not the same. Once a step instuctor led the class, it was painful to watch her - she was bobbing up and down and doing pushup like motions with the handlebar for the whole session. The pedaling was not smooth and the workout, though intense, was not for a cyclist.

After spending a few months in spin class and on the trainer, the first road ride on a bike can feel a bit strange. You get used to the lack of inertia on a spin bike, on the road one cannot accelerate nearly as fast. Spin helped me keep my fitness up, for the first few group rides of the early spring - my fitness are leaps and bounds above my colleagues.

Maydog, your spinning experience kinda sounds like mine. My two favorite instructors (one guy & one girl, both road riders) only allow us to "rest" long enough to grab a drink & towel off before we're back into the heavy activity. Maybe 10 seconds at the most. Both instructor's are pretty intense, but the guy will tell us to do stuff & then GET OFF THE BIKE & go around high fiving people, lol. That's always seemed a bit silly to me. He also competes in Ironman races, but has to get off the bike every 20 minutes in his spin classes. I can't imagine the step instructor leading a spin class!!!

I think one of the BEST things that spinning has done for me is get my tush accustomed to the saddle, so I can take long outdoor rides right off the bat!

I tried spinning as a lark (note: I'm a rather heavy girl. LOL) ... the first time I went it was everything I could do just to keep pedaling and not think about the damage I was doing to my unmentionables, even on a gel seat. Through the winter, our class tended to dwindle but once the weather started warming up and the days getting longer it was back to lining up at 7:30-7:45 am to ensure a seat in the 8:15 class.

Nine months later (and typically hitting maybe two spin classes a week in addition to other fitness activities) I can keep up with the rest of the class. It helped me prepare for road cycling to a far lesser extent than I'd expected (I cannot do a hill climb out of the saddle on the road to save my life. I'm sit and spin all the way) but it definitely gets the blood pumping. I'm less likely to ride with the padded seat for spin class now as well. (I bought padded shorts for road riding - I wouldn't have been able to do it again if I hadn't)

I too find it rather annoying when the instructor gets off his/her bike and walks around harassing people ... unless you see someone in a form so atrocious that they are assuredly going to injure themselves, stay on the bike, please? I also note that I had one instructor (a personal friend) whose class I will never attend again because she took it upon herself to adjust my tension during a class (my sister has done the instructor training course and she told me the first thing they tell you is that you NEVER adjust another person's bike.)

A lot of instructors are too busy worrying about moving between positions and doing rapid count jumps. I pay less attention to that and spend more time working on seated climbs at very high resistance because THAT is what helped my road cycling the most. (IMO)

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by IronGirl2011 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

I tried spinning as a lark (note: I'm a rather heavy girl. LOL) ... the first time I went it was everything I could do just to keep pedaling and not think about the damage I was doing to my unmentionables, even on a gel seat. Through the winter, our class tended to dwindle but once the weather started warming up and the days getting longer it was back to lining up at 7:30-7:45 am to ensure a seat in the 8:15 class.

Nine months later (and typically hitting maybe two spin classes a week in addition to other fitness activities) I can keep up with the rest of the class. It helped me prepare for road cycling to a far lesser extent than I'd expected (I cannot do a hill climb out of the saddle on the road to save my life. I'm sit and spin all the way) but it definitely gets the blood pumping. I'm less likely to ride with the padded seat for spin class now as well. (I bought padded shorts for road riding - I wouldn't have been able to do it again if I hadn't)

I too find it rather annoying when the instructor gets off his/her bike and walks around harassing people ... unless you see someone in a form so atrocious that they are assuredly going to injure themselves, stay on the bike, please? I also note that I had one instructor (a personal friend) whose class I will never attend again because she took it upon herself to adjust my tension during a class (my sister has done the instructor training course and she told me the first thing they tell you is that you NEVER adjust another person's bike.)

A lot of instructors are too busy worrying about moving between positions and doing rapid count jumps. I pay less attention to that and spend more time working on seated climbs at very high resistance because THAT is what helped my road cycling the most. (IMO)

I'm with you in that it didn't prepare me for outdoor cycling like I thought it would. Apparently what I consider a hill in class isn't even CLOSE to an outdoor hill, lol. On a spin bike you keep going "forward" no matter what, but my legs can only do so much on an outdoor hill before I have to stop altogether.