Spin Class & Group Riding - Any Correlation?
 

I'm just wondering if there is a correlation between people who participate in spin classes and riding with others when out. I almost always ride solo. It's one of the places where solitude can exist in my life. I'd never consider going to a spin class, not because of the challenge, but the lack of solitude. So, what are your thoughts about any possible connection? If you're prone to riding with others are you more or less likely to go to a spin class than those who generally ride solo?

In Chicago, the spin classes can be divided into two populations: The YMCA crowd and the Tri-geek & Crit race crowd.

The YMCA crowd spin on stationary bikes, It's not much different than running on a treadmill.

The Tri-geek & Crit race crowd bring their race bikes to highly specialized training centers and benefit from a wide range of performance data. Many of these locations use Computrainers: http://www.racermateinc.com/computrainer.asp

If spinning with a group on Computrainers, it can be a race. Each cyclist has a position on a bar graph and there are clear winners and losers. The system even provides a handicap, making the outcome highly competitive.


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No. Many group riders don't do spin classes.

That sounds fun. Well, as fun as cycling indoors without going anywhere can be anyway.

If the spin class makes you stronger such that you can more easily keep up on group rides . . . yes. Otherwise, no. If you were to ride outside at a comparable level of effort, of course, the result would be the same.

Due to the beat of the music and the verbal encouragement of the leader, many folks will be able push themselves harder in a spin class then they would on the road (either alone or in a group) but that varies with the individual.

I've done maybe three different spin classes in my whole life . . . and I would rather ride on the road, pretty much any time, rather than do a spin class. YMMV, of course!

Rick / OCRR

Not much. In my spin classes there have been participants who are non-riders, social riders, club riders, cat racers, people training for Tri and double centuries, and hardcore solos like myself. The correlation seems to be to the instructor; if he/she is a social or non-rider you get more of those type of participants...and if they are competitive riders you get guys coming to spin class in bike shorts, shoes, and jerseys (jerseys not too often). Good instructors expect part of the class is gong to deviate from the routine and do there own thing, they simply lay down the framework and intervals for the avg participant.

I ride most of my classes with earbuds in, take my cues from the instructors feet and pretty much do my own thing. It's an important mid-week workout, I hate having to miss it.

Then there are spin rooms open 16 hrs a day or 24 hrs a day, only used for classes maybe 3 hrs a day. You'll often seem solos come in with own videos and gameplan. I've taken sufferfest videos to the spin room, and dropped in at 2am on nights I couldn't sleep. You can't get more solo than that.

Then again there are the big screen spin rooms with actual terrain and road races you can select from a central laptop station. I've found them very disorienting, you tend to lean right/left, bunnyhop, yell at pedestrians - it more of a mind job than a spin workout.

In spin class I sometimes yell "On your left" just to see if anyone looks. :)

No. More often than not spin class inhabitants, if they ride on the road at all, are solo riders. Spin class is not a group ride. No one helps any one else.

In my gym's spin classes, I am usually the only cyclist.

I don't know that for sure, but I think it is true because I'm the only one in bike clothes, usually the only one in bike shoes/cleats, the only one with bars lower than saddle, and the only one who ignores the stuff that seems non-cycling (bar pushups, pedaling in reverse).

So in my spin classes, there would be no correlation to group or non-group cycling.

Ditto. We don't have many instructors that do the pushups, but most all of them like to do 'jumps', where you get off the saddle then right back down, repeatedly. I think that is dumb, and has no real world cycling equivalent, and it makes my back hurt. So when the rest of the class is doing that, I’ll usually stay out of the saddle the whole time.

Remember, it's your work out.

I found spin classes extremely helpful over the winter. Just like group rides, if you generally don't get along with other people, or don't spend the time to find a compatible group, you probably won't enjoy them. I agree that most of the people in spin classes aren't road cyclists, and most of the instructors are poor to mediocre. BUT - you don't have to follow everything they're doing. I usually rode at my own pace, using the music as guide and motivation. If the instructor was competent, I would follow their program to the extent I thought helpful. In addition to spinning, I took yoga/pilates classes and used various pieces of other gym equipment.

I enjoyed meeting everyone, and had lots of roadie friends from various groups who spun (spinned? span?) over the winter. I now have a Keiser spin bike at home, plus a bunch of other fitness equipment, and no longer maintain a gym membership.

Like leob1 said above "Remember, it's your work out."

My health club has a "team" that members can be part of and enter endurance events like centuries and triathlons and marathons... I don't usually ride with them but I go to spin classes in the winter and it's nice to get acquainted with them. About 1/4 of the spin class folks are real riders.

Also, we just got this new thing if we need an excuse not to look at the instructor:

#t=42

I take a spin class, once a week - taught by one of our local racers and current state champion in his category. Definitely has helped my cycling - particularly the intervals. Out of a class of 20 or so - maybe 3-4 road cyclists. Classes that I've taken taught by non-cyclists haven't been as much fun, and the routines didn't seem to translate into real world cycling.

I do spinning classes about once a week and group rides about the same. There's a definite motivational factor for me to not let up on my efforts in both group settings. And, that's a main reason I do them.

Spin classes help keep me motivated enough to ride for 30-40-50 minutes on a stationary bike. If I try that one at home, alone, I get bored after about five minutes, and I don't ride as hard.

I watch something on Netflix when I use the trainer.

Overlapped the wheel of the "spinner" in front of me when the idjit slammed on the brakes without warning...last spin class for me...

Spim Class
 

I do spin class during the colder months or wet weather. This is a good way for an old man to maintain his fitness level. Our pin classes are one hour long and very intense. I ride with a group but also ride by my self, so I don't have an answer to your question.

"most all of them like to do 'jumps', where you get off the saddle then right back down, repeatedly"

I could have written that. None of our spinning instructors are cyclists. They all do it for the exercise, although some do ride here and there. Nothing wrong with that but it was quite a surprise when I first started out to learn that the instructors were for the most part, not cyclists. I also tend to remain standing and keep a high HR while they go up and down.

For road cyclists with good core strength (esp. good climbers), the "jumps" are super easy. Yes, they are silly, but as a road cyclist I've destroyed "pro" spinners in jump sets. What's fun is to pair up with another spinner and take turns trying to out guess the other person when you're going to jump - or how fast. In my experience, good road cyclists win every time.

They are easy but what is the point of jumps?

On the road, I never get out of the saddle for 4 pedal revolutions, back in the saddle for 4, out for 4, in for 4, etc. If you saw someone doing that, you'd conclude they were about to get off the bike.

How do these spin facilities handle health issues? I mean during the winter months with colds and flu season, sweat and ventilation?

I do most of my training and riding alone but do enjoy weekly group rides in the fall and winter with a group that has developed over the past few years. We are not a club or team but most share the same interest and are around the same condition. The rides are social but can be challenging. We can push the pace but always regroup or split into small groups. After the rides there usually is food and beverages in some establishment. For me that is a great dynamic that I look forward to. I have done spin classes and indoor cycling programs and will relate that the work done in those settings is more individual and I have not felt the connection with others that the group ride provides. One thing to keep in mind is in a group ride there is a bonding with the others and you don't leave someone behind because they got a flat or couldn't make it over the top of a hill, in spin class no one is looking out for you and getting dropped is a non factor. I am well aware there are group rides that drop riders and push the pace trying to get Strava KOM’s, but in my opinion those are races and not group rides. Some of the new indoor spin and computrainer programs are morphing into the "race/Strava mode" where some people need/seek the public motivation. Turning the indoor group session into a race could defeat the purpose of training and be intimating to those not at the top of the make believe podium.

It's like any resistance training that you do in the gym, but with jumps on a spin bike, the resistance is your body mass. Sure, there may be a lot better ways of accomplishing the same thing, but it's not totally pointless. Just partially. How many people do bench presses in the gym because they need to do bench presses outside of the gym? I'm sure it's very close to zero. Jumps, bench presses, and most other forms of resistance training are done to develop specific muscle groups as part of a broader training program.

They don't. Everyone using a gym eventually gets sick and dies.