You spin me right round…

I know on the whole this blog has focused on my running. To be honest I suspect even that is a fairly dull read, hence a while ago I decided not to blog every gym session I took. However, on my tube journey home tonight I decided to write a little post about my spinning classes.

I joined FF almost a year ago to the day, I was getting fitter and by this point had completed my first 10km and felt joining a gym an appropriate next step. I was by no means a gym virgin having been a member on and off since 6th form but had in the past thrown money down the drain on 1 visit a month memberships and with London adult prices this is not a good thing to be doing! Anyway, when I started running I didn’t do it to bulk up muscles it was more about increasing my general fitness etc so not long after I started having got bored of the machines I decided to head into a ‘spinning class’ and ever since then I have been hooked – going once or twice a week for an intense cardio workout.

What is spinning? Well put simply it’s an instructor led class with music and a bike with a gear that can be adjusted to increase resistance. There is a music playlist and then the instructor guides you through varying ‘terrains’ all by telling you to increase/decrease resistance. To give a simple example if the terrain was mountain climb the instructor would yell you to increase the bikes reaistance thus making it harder to pedal whilst in the meantime there is a song playing which has a beat on it that yuh are supposed to keep your legs in time with. It’s entirely upto you how you change your gears so if you are really struggling and the instructor says to turn you don’t have to but at the end of the day it’s supposed to be a 40min intense workout (and for me this is ALWAYS the case!). Hopefully that all makes a bit of sense?

Why do I do spinning? Well I’m no scientist I’m not going to start preaching about what you should and shouldn’t do whilst running mainly cause whatever I have picked up accross the year has come through mags etc read whilst half asleep on a rush hour morning commute. However, when I took my marathon training schedule to my trainer a few months ago he seemed perfectly fine for me to carry on spinning (whilst informing me to ditch pump as soon as possible). I guess logically cycling should complement running, it’s low impact and has a controlled mechanism whilst working the thighs, quads and glutes and some of the classes have elements which work on the core – all of these elements should feature high on where a runner should train. Regardless of the scientific benefits I really enjoy it – its a 45min session that is not easy, every week there is a puddle of sweat around my bike (apparently the same is the case with my dad) and the sense of a thoroughly worthwhile workout. Other than the nike+ training runs I do nothing else I do in the gym compares to these classes in respect to effort.

Basically if you are a member of a gym that offers spinning classes, go try it out – I suspect if there is a competitive element in you, you will enjoy it. I know I certainly do!