Run Today
Tried a SoulCycle Class! My Review.
SoulCycle is a popular indoor cycling studio that began in New York City and has recently been expanding. (You can see a list of all their locations here.)
It took three different people recommending SoulCycle for me to try it. It was hard for me to justify the additional commute when I have a great indoor cycling studio less than 2 miles from my house. It was also hard to swallow the high price tag – it’s $30 for a 45 minute class. Buy a ten class pack and it only reduces in price to $28 per class. That’s insanely expensive. If I were going to cross train exclusively at SoulCycle, it’d cost me $224 a month to go twice a week buying the 10 class package. That’s 62 cents for each minute of exercise. My normal cycling studio is 36 cents per minute… that’s practically half the price. (Running is free. Ahhh, running.)
“It’s worth it.”
“You have to drink the kool-aid, but I totally drank the kool-aid.”
“It’s like therapy and exercise all in one.”
“I dragged my husband there the first time and now he goes at 5:30 a.m. most mornings.”
Ok, ok. I’ll try it.
Here’s how it went:
Ambiance: The studio is a nice facility, with clean lines, bright white lobby, and complimentary combination lockers. There are several showers and changing stalls, all individual rooms, stocked with hair elastics, shampoo and conditioner, and even feminine hygeine products. Very spa-like atmosphere.
There are also free earplugs in a pretty glass jar on the counter at check-in. I recommend taking the ear-plugs – the music is LOUD.
Young, energetic, SoulCycle t-shirt clad employees greet you when you enter, check you in, and give you a tour if you’re a first time rider. The girl who helped me set up my bike was friendly and enthusiastic, and made an effort to find me after class and ask me how I liked the experience.
The studio was pretty warm, which negatively impacts aerobic workouts.
Class: This is not a normal cycling class. I am used to cycling in a cycling class. Off the bike, on the bike, varying degrees of resistance and speed, some intervals, call it a day. This was more like a synchronized dance experience where you happen to be pedaling the entire time. The instructor wanted people to pedal in sync to the beat of the music, calling out “left, left, left, left” until the majority of the class had the exact same foot down at the exact same time. Once everyone mastered that, he’d start with upper body movements on top of this synchronized pedaling. Push-ups on the handlebars. Leaning left and then right. Swaying. Halfway through class, there’s a weight segment where everyone grabs weights from the back of the bike and works their arm muscles while they’re pedaling in a seated position.
“And left foot down, left, left, left, and push ups, down and UP, down and UP, LEFT! LEFT! LEFT FOOT DOWN!!”
Whaaaaaaaat?!!?
I started picture how awesome it would be if Jimmy Fallon did a SoulCycle skit on Saturday Night Live. It’s worth going just to imagine what SNL could do with this material.
There’s no doing your own thing, either. The bikes are stationed very close together, to give you the experience of “riding with the pack”. You’re supposed to gain energy from one another, and a sign before you enter includes this statement: “There is a direct correlation between your energy and your neighbor’s ride. If you want to do your own thing, please don’t ride in the front row.”
I didn’t want to do my own thing, trust me. I wanted to do exactly what the instructor was doing. I simply lacked the coordination to pedal at an exact cadence while simultaneously throwing my body to the left and right of the bike and then doing synchronized push-ups. Lucky for me, I had not booked a bike in the front row. That guideline isn’t in their new rider tips, so I could easily have booked in the front to see the instructor better and felt humiliated after failing (despite my best intentions) to successfully stay on beat. (There was an interesting article in the NY Times about the competition for front row bikes in NYC – YIKES.)
I have no qualms with their front-row policy, it makes sense. However, I think it should be shared in their “First Ride” tips so people know a little more what to expect, and have the heads up that they should book a bike in the back. I had a middle row bike because it was all that was available. (You reserve your specific bike in advance through their website.) If I’d known, I would have waited for another week so I could have a bike in the back.
The Therapy Piece: One person describing SoulCycle to me said it was like a mini-therapy session. In between shouting out directions, the instructor coached people to let go of the stress from their day. To think about what brought them in today, what challenges they’re facing in their life, and to remember that they’re capable and they’re worthy. He asked us to visualize who we were five years ago, who we are today, who we can be in five years. There was a feeling of positive energy from the two candles burning at the front, the dim lighting, the affirmations, and the moments when the entire “pack” did manage to sway in sync.
Conclusion: SoulCycle is not that fun for beginners. It’s frustrating if you lack the coordination and experience to complete the required moves. If you’re looking up to see what the instructor means, you lose your concentration and your footing. Focus on your footing, you’re no longer doing the right upper body moves. Look up to see if you’re leaning the right way, and you’re behind again.
My legs got less of a workout because I was too busy trying to do the right moves to increase the resistance and get in the zone of a difficult workout.
SoulCycle would be an amazing workout if I decided to sign up for a back row bike enough times to get the hang of the various moves.
To be good at SoulCycle would be an other-worldy experience and fantastic workout. I just need to decide how much time I would need to invest to be good enough to enjoy it… and whether I might be better off at my local studio where I can comfortably complete a difficult aerobic workout instead.
Want a peek into a SoulCycle class? Check out this youtube video from RADtv:
Why a 7 a.m. Saturday Spin Class is Totally Worth It
I had a lovely Saturday morning this past weekend. I knew it was going to be a busy few days, so I really wanted to get a spin class in before the weekend craziness began. Exercise energizes me, puts me in a good mood, and helps me enjoy a busy schedule rather than survive it.
I planned to go to the 8:00 class, but it was full and I didn’t get in off the wait list! So I set my alarm for 6:25, put out my spin clothes, and was out the door by 6:40 to get my travel coffee mug filled on the way. (There are two cup-holders on those bikes for a reason, people.)
I admittedly drank more water than coffee, but it was nice to have a still toasty mug of joe on my way out!
I felt like such a rebel being out in the ghost town that is suburbia before 7 a.m. on a weekend. There were more employees at the coffee shop than customers, and almost no one else on the road. Everyone who WAS on the road was headed to the same place I was… where almost 50 other people packed into CycleBar (formerly Spynergy) studio in Wellesley to take class from Andy.
It was my first class from this instructor, and it was INSANE. He kept throwing on different classic music clips from movies, and just when the adrenaline and excitement from that particular clip was wearing off, he’d switch it to a different one. The first half of the class he was switching media practically every 30 seconds, rather than after the duration of an entire song, which would be more like 2 or 3 minutes. The result was a new surge of energy and motivation every 30 seconds, when A Hard Day’s Night clip replaces Pulp Fiction, which then gives way to Easy Rider. It was a well-crafted, entertaining ride that kept me energized and working at higher wattage than I am normally able to maintain.
Andy is an avid biker who does 4 centuries a summer (That means he bikes 100 miles. yes. ONE HUNDRED.) and he looks like it. I suspect he has a few decades on me, and that experience showed in his teaching style. He seemed to know just what to say to get another 30 seconds of hard work from me. I wish I could hear his voice in my head next time I’m approaching the finish line to a race, because I think he could get me there faster. I’d describe his style as hard optimism – he knows we can do it, and he’s going to ask us to.
What a great way to start the day 🙂
I got my shoe stuck in a bike at my cycling studio
So… I got my shoe stuck in a bike at Spynergy cycling studio before Thanksgiving and actually had to abandon it there. Yeah.
How it happened: The SPG clip on the bottom of my shoe had gotten loose, and I was having trouble getting them to click into place at the beginning of class. (This is my least favorite part of cycling, actually, trying to get the shoes to click in, feeling like everyone’s watching me kick at the pedal like I’ve never been to spin class before.)
I was having so much trouble that I took the shoe off to look at it, and noticed one of the screws was actually missing. I figured it’d be fine if I just hand tightened the remaining screw and clipped in.
Everything was fine until after class, when I turned my foot sideways to snap out of the bike pedal and only the shoe turned, loosening the screw instead of pulling the clip out of the bike pedal. The screw wasn’t tight enough to hold the clip in a steady position on the shoe so that the shoe could rotate out of the bike pedal clip. Instead, the shoe itself rotated, loosening the screw, but the clip on the bottom of the shoe stayed straight in the bike pedal. The shoe wouldn’t rotate enough for me to unscrew it from the SPG clip by turning it around in circles, so it was good and stuck.
I had to introduce myself to the cycling instructor (whom I’d never met before because I don’t usually go on Tuesdays) and abandon the shoe in the bike.
Why Spynergy is awesome: Luckily, the cycling studio was amazing. They somehow managed to get it off the bike, and fixed my shoe for me. They even put in a replacement screw! How nice is that?! They stored my shoe behind the desk with a note on it to save it for when I came back after Thanksgiving.
I rushed into the cycling studio behind schedule this morning, checking in with a frantic “Caiazzo! Do you have my shoe?!?! THANKS!” much to the surprise of the women around me, who evidently aren’t in the habit of abandoning their shoes at Spynergy. (Maybe they should be, since a free tune up was involved!)
Check your screws: Moral of the story – check your SPG clips and make sure the screws are tight, especially if you feel like it takes you multiple tries to click into the bike pedals. I tightened my other shoe before leaving this morning, and instantly clicked into the pedals this morning. Not only was my difficulty clipping in probably loosening my screws, the looser my screws were, the harder it became to get the correct angle to click in.
I’m still enjoying going to a spin class about every week – my legs feel FANTASTIC as I write this. Don’t be scared to try it! Just keep your screws tightened if you use clip ins 🙂
Tracking my progress: I snapped a quick photo before I left of the screen read-outs (Spynergy got new bikes so now we can see wattage, rpms, mileage, etc.) I was able to enter that information into my Garmin Connect account, so I’ll be able to compare my indoor cycling sessions and create cycling goals. Some days, I’ll probably just want to go in and ride and have a good time. But it’ll be fun to track my improvements, and occasionally shoot for higher average wattage or a higher max wattage during a specific class. I often wish I’d had a Garmin on for my Couch to 5k training so I could look back and see what my pace was on those early, early runs! I don’t want to miss the chance to have this early spinning data to look back at later on.
Happy running, spinning, yoga-ing, chasing kids around the house and lifting large bags of groceries, or whatever other activity you’re into 🙂
