While most cyclists will usually prefer to head out onto the open road and into the fresh
Spinning Bike
air, there are in fact other environments that will provide a respectable workout and can be a valuable addition to your training workout. Many of us are members of gyms as well as keen cyclists and the free classes available at many venues can be worth considering.
Spinning is one of the best things a cyclist can do indoors and it involves more than an exercise bike. Use one of those to warm up by all means but a genuine ‘indoor’ machine involves a purpose built ‘spinning’ bike which features a riding position similar to a normal bike and a flywheel to make the effort involved adjustable. Newer bikes can also feature clipless pedals, helpful if that’s what you’re used to riding on the road.
Spinning actually dates back to the 1980s when ultra-endurance cyclist, Johnny Goldberg, developed an early version after near miss while cycling at night. The first Spinning Studio opened in Santa Monica, California, in 1989 and when Schwinn picked up the rights to the franchise, Spinning began to take off worldwide.
Classes at gyms may well offer levels for beginners to advanced levels of fitness, although the difficulty of the workout in general depends on the level of effort put in by the exerciser. There’ll be an instructor at the front of the class to talk you through a workout – warming up slowly then increasing the intensity. Interval type training is a big part of Spinning as is ‘hill climbing’ – increasing the difficulty of the pedal revolution and maintaining a steady speed.
If the gym is well-equipped, another option is to show a film of a rolling road on a big screen featuring hills and other landscapes, and tailoring the workout to that trip. For me, the only drawback to Spinning is the static nature of the bike – you obviously can’t move it from side to side as you might when climbing a hill out of the saddle but this is a small sacrifice for staying out of the rain on a winter evening.
