Vive la Revolution

Scott C

Many of us in the running and multi sport community have long utilized indoor cycling, which for this piece we will refer to as spinning.

We spin for a variety of reasons ranging from the obvious––that it’s a fun intense activity–– to the perhaps not so obvious as it can:

• Torch 500-700 calories an hour
• Compete with a speed work session in terms of maximum heart rate, sweat factor and a great group dynamic, and
• As a non-impact, or more accurately a non-weight bearing activity, be done by many on a daily basis year round.

I want to go deeper here, I want to try and bring the uninitiated into the world of spinning both from a class participant's perspective and from the perspective of a teacher, a class leader whose bike sits on a platform and who can address, motivate or sometimes even alienate a room full of 20-40 eager cyclists ready to rip up their bodies, drench their clothes, and exit that spin room feeling totally spent.  

As a running and multi-sport coach, I integrate specificity into each athletes scheduling model.  Specificity often takes on various components such as implementing a pattern of intervals segments that differ based on distance goals. The training approach will include a progression in tempo and hill repeats using pacing ranges that allow an athlete to explore a greater depth or be more “in touch” with their leg turnover and pacing range.  Focus also is placed on developing and enhancing their conditioning to enable each athlete to achieve a better overall understanding of their mechanics.

As a “middle aged” athlete who some may have accused of being reckless with my body in the past as an arrogant Type A overachiever, I have had to learn that as my body ages I need to work smarter. I now need to be open minded and patient.  I need to work in greater specifics on how I utilize my volume and where I want to maximize my energy in selected work outs. And, I need to try and look at the bigger picture.

I’ve discussed the above context with my athletes, and considered it for myself, as it can and does relate to the activity known as spinning.

Spinning History

To offer a brief history, spinning was created by a man known as Johnny G more than two decades ago, and the first indoor “spin” class premiered in Venice, California in 1992. Johnny created the weighted “flywheel” you see on all spin bikes as well as the ability to allow a cyclist to add or to minimize their resistance levels. Both the flywheel and the ability to progress, adapt to resistance levels using cadence or RPM variations, which I will offer more explanation on, give each rider the feel of being on bicycle and simulating that sensation within a class dynamic.

Add a strong motivating instructor and some great loud music and you just might be hooked on this awesome work out!

How Can Spinning Help a Runner?

Spinning can help runners gain greater range of motion, enhanced functional strength, improved heart rate, and the ability to add at least one cross-training activity to increase not just training volume and variations but also our athletic “shelf lives.”  In addition, spinning can help develop perhaps the most integral and important aspect that any runner needs to take that next step in achieving more PR’s…..confidence!

From a class participant's perspective and from an individual who teaches a 45-60 minute spin class, spinning should offer diversity, and that diversity needs to begin with and include a 7-10 minute warm up period where your objective is to relax your shoulders, put some flexion through your elbows and begin developing a fairly high cadence by working with a resistance level that should simulate riding a bicycle outside on a flat smooth road. Moving past the warm-up and looking to increase our work load we will put ourselves through segmental training that will involve high RPM intervals, tempo riding and hills, hills, hills! 

Cadence and RPM

The terms cadence and RPM (revolutions per minute) are interchangeable to both an indoor spinning participant and to an outdoor cyclist. Both relate to the number of times our legs are turning the crank on either a spin bike or a road, mountain, hybrid or triathlon bike.

To the recreational cyclist cadence might be 70 RPM on a flat road. To a more aggressive cyclist or “freaks of spin” it might mean 90-110 RPM, again on a flat road within a very manageable resistance spin range or rear gear range on an outdoor bicycle. Conversely when utilizing hills, either outdoors or on a spin bike, our cadence range will decrease in reflecting the difficulty or rate of perceived exertion.  When spinning indoors, we use resistance to simulate a challenging gradient, or outside riders can find challenging gradients on paths such as Central Park's winding Northern Hill.

While there are certain spin bikes that can measure our cadence anyone can do this by counting within a 15 second range the number of times your left or right knee or foot turns over, multiplying it by four to calculate the RPM whether on a flat road (high cadence) or on a fairly challenging hill (lower cadence).

The relevance and subsequent benefit to both the cyclist and the runner behind our change up in cadence directly relates to developing and utilizing our range of motion and leg turn over thus increasing our leg strength, utilizing changes in heart rate for interval, tempo and hill segments.    

Structure and Stimuli

The relevance and benefit to not just an older athlete but any athlete steeped in one dimensional training is that it allows your body to develop, progress and adapt to different stimuli and overload while gaining not just physically but psychologically as well in getting enjoyment from a new found activity and quenching the urge to explore your own limits from within.  The physical “push me hard” and the psychological “I feel drained” are two components that spinners seek and leave them wanting to keep coming back for more.

However, the two components have limited success unless the spin instructor leading his or her charges can provide the spinners with a structure, a menu based on working past the warm up and getting everyone to be on the same page and to take them into the next stage.  The structure might include, for example, working through higher RPMs, using limited time-based interval drills, or maybe a blend of both endurance and functional strength using an extended hill set that features both vertical and seated climbing over a length of time––all based on changing gradients and resistance levels or categories.

A Spinner's Perspective

No matter what type of structure an instructor might bring, for many spinners often what's as or more important to the spinner might be how that instructor “bonds” with the class, how personal he or she is, how well he or she takes command of the room, what type of music is played.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of  an instructors style, your personal taste or more precisely what works for me just may not work for you.

I genuinely love spinning and the rewards I get from it and because of this I’ve been an instructor for 10 years now, I’ve taught at Crunch Fitness, Reebok/Sports Club LA, the 92nd Street Y, and some other smaller private clubs.  During this time I’ve learned a lot about people, about venues I’ve worked at and while some might seem peculiar some have also been valuable (but I think that might be left to perhaps a follow up piece I can call…..Confessions of a Spin Instructor!).

Some Qualities of a Good Spin Instructor

I will say though that one of the more important things any instructor needs to do is ask and  identify anyone in the class who is either new to spinning or isn’t seated correctly on their spin bike. I make sure to do both as I think it’s important that someone new to spinning understand the intensity behind it and use those first few classes to ride properly and more conservatively and within an easy resistance range vs. too aggressively so that they aren’t turned off by the experience.  This helps a new spinner to give spinning the chance it deserves, and if they aren't fit on their bikes correctly they do not allow their knees to have a fair range of motion, and they may also risk injury.

A good instructor will explain both proper form and why and how he or she wants you to work through a ten minute blended interval segment. A good instructor will encourage, never disparage and never put someone on the spot or isolate them for doing something wrong. A good instructor will be firm but fun. A good instructor will never go to anybody’s bike and turn up their resistance but will rather explain that their cadence is too fast and resistance is required to make the most out of their time.

Finally a good instructor will understand that everyone is different and while one person might be there to leave a puddle of salty water under their bike, someone else may be there for a different reason that the instructor may or may not agree with or relate with, but should respect, too.

Spinning is hot and I know some people who ride and take as many as 10 classes per week shuttling between Equinox, Flywheel or Soul Cycle where some instructors are rock stars, have intense followings and are sometimes more important to the spinner than their therapist, hairdresser, or maybe even their boyfriend or girlfriend!

Spinning certainly has been a welcome cross training activity for me as it’s allowed me to develop my leg turnover, increase my strength, work hard during a triathlon off-season to prep for a new season, and to burn calories dressed in a triathlon kit sweating profusely indoors while it’s freezing outdoors.  And it's great to get paid to be the instructor to make my spinners work hard while I get my work out in as well.

Scott C Leading His Spinning Class

If you’ve been curious then try it!  And if you're interested in trying out a spinning class at the 92nd Street Y, please don't hesitate to contact me and I’ll arrange to give you a guest pass so you can try one of the classes I either teach regularly or for when I sub for others when they need the help.

Spinning Play List

This is the play list and structure for one of my recent classes

The warm up

Beautiful Day/ U2

Speed of Sound/ Coldplay

First blended hill interval segments

Sweet Nothing/ Florence Welch

Ooh La La/ Goldfrapp

White Flag/ Dido (Rich Radio Remix)

Hill Work combined vertical/seated climbing based on categories

Sprawl Arcade/ Fire

Anything Can Happen/ Ellie Goulding

Brain Damage/Eclipse/ Pink Floyd

A Loop in Time/ Wally Brill

        .      

Final interval work

On the run/ Pink Floyd

Anthem/ Moby

Cool down

Novio/Moby

-Scott C 

Blogmaster's Note: I happen to love spinning and have taken lots of classes at lots of places.  Recently I took Scott's spinning class at the 92nd Street Y and it was great!  I especially liked doing "hill #4" when he had us visualize riding six repeats of the northern hills of Central Park (hill #4 was conquered while Scott had us working hard to the beat of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb) -Dave K.