SPin Class for road riding - helping me or hurting?
 

Ive been taking spin classes for about a month, and I feel much faster, but I have noticed that
there are a few differences in the way the spin classes work compared to the way things seem to work on a bike.

Im not planning to quit spin classes but I am curious what the consensus might be.

Are the spin classes good for riding? or bad?

I spin in the winter / bad weather. Good for aerobic conditioning but different than riding on the road. I'm just riding the road now, no spin class till Nov / Dec for me.

I found spin classes to be fairly beneficial when I was getting started. It provided a little variety, added some structure & interval type training. I haven't done it for a while and would probably not find it as helpful now. Some of the things that some spin classes do are really lame but if you get a good class...

I found spin classes to be good exercise but not necessarily a good cycling workout. I prefer to separate big gear stuff in different workouts from from small gear high cadence stuff, intervals, etc. Spin classes try to be all things at once.

I think it all depends on the instructor. Some instructors don't do the stand up things. Some want you to do intervals based on heart rate. Anything to get you fitter and work those muscles is good at this point. But when you get further down the road, you'll probably want to pick your own workouts to suit your cycling goals.

I spin one to 2 times a week as part of my training and feel it is helping me out tremendously as far as conditioning and weight loss. I do a one hour class that is pretty high intensity and occasionally we do a 1.5 hour class on saturdays when the weather is ugly.

I don't take spin classes, but in the spring I run in a very low gear and spin around 120 rpm for miles and miles. It teachs you to pedal correctly according to what I have read in several places. Done correctly I suppose a spin class could do the same thing.

In bad weather I run.

I teach spinning all fall and winter and keep one class going throughout the summer. Spinning indoors has it's place in your training routine. No matter how hard the instructor tries to make it, it will never have the intensity of a hard outdoor session. So, you should insert a spin classes into your schedule where you would normally put an endurance ride. For this reason, spinning all winter helps to build a great base for the spring intervals.

Spinning can also help with your pedal stroke. Spinning forces you to pedal all the time which is a good lesson for those of you who get on the front of a pack and coast. And because you're pedaling the whole time, your body has to learn how to recover while pedaling. This helps on the road. Finally, a good instructor will help you work on proper pedaling technique as well as controlled breathing. These also translate well to the road.

-mark

I think spinning classes are a perverse form of torture, and should be banned by the Geneva convention....

i spin once a week to supplement my road days. when I do spin, it's usually part of a brick work out so i hit the pool after a 45min session and get in a good 30mins of laps. That's my normal Monday evening routine, lift, spin, swim, steam. Perfect for monday's after work since I'm normally coming off the weekend and mentally preparing myself for the week ahead.

I do feel improvements on the road from spinning, climbing harlem hill (cp) standing is a much different work out now then it use to be. I can only attribute that to the training from spin class since I normally am not out of the saddle during climbs, only in spin class am i out of the saddle for more then a minute...

Please don't mince words, ho do you really feel?

It's not a perfect replacement for riding outside, but it's good exercise if you work. There's no coasting in a spin class.

I always felt that it is whatever you make of it. I was always amazed at the people who go there and hardly sweat.

One thing I noticed is that it helped with climbing out of the saddle. I never did much until I took spinning classes.

Good for winter. Especially in classes filled with attractive ladies.

Your muscles and body adapt based on the SAID principle, Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands, that means that your body will adapt to the demands placed on it, so a Spin class will definitely help with your body adapting to cycling. But the body is very specific to the demands put on it, and I would imagine your "Fit" on your personal bike is different than the fit you get on the Spin bike, so it won't translate straight over. The best training for riding your bike is riding your bike. I'd consider Spin classes as more cross training than cycling specific training.

The spin class I go to has alot of really hot girls and a really hot instructor. The group rides I occasionally go on....dudes in spandex. I love spin class.

I'm not buying this.

My position on the spin bike is off by at most a cm here and there. Partial proof is that you get the same sensations in the same muscles. Moreover, spinning isn't hard enough to make it a strength training activity which means it's almost strictly aerobic. This isn't encumbered by position.

Spin classes are good for cyclist-spin classes are not a replacement for being on your bike. I always feel the spin class only people are missing out on the enjoyable part of biking by not getting out on the road.

Spin classes, IMO, build a decent base in the winter for when spring rolls around. My pedal stroke was all messed to hell though when I got on the real bike in early March. God spin classes get boring tho.

And conversely, I was always amazed at the people (at the gym) who won't do the spin class because it is "too hard"...

spin class is what you make it, you can go in and cheat yourself or you can really push yourself. it is easy to spot the slackers, they are typically the ones with the fastest legs and hurkey jerkey movement because they have little to no resistance on the knob. I typically drink 2 full bottles of water and do not have a dry stitch on me when I walk out.

I went to my first spin class yesterday. The weather wasn't cooperating and my riding partner "forced" me to do it. I resisted all winter because I burned myself out on indoor riding while on my trainer. Had the urge to puke before I even got on the bike. That urge got stronger and stronger 25 minutes in. It was embarassing. I can't wait to go back to try to redeem myself.

Are "spinerval" dvds considered spin classes? I find those very helpful.

I'd love to try one of these this winter, but my 'Y' doesn't offer it. Oh well..

I take spin class over the off season and have been doing 1 or 2 nights a week for the last few weeks due to all of the rain we've had here lately. I think it's a great workout and you can certainly put yourself deep into the pain zone in spin class if you so desire. I do find, however, that's it can be tougher to get the heart rate as high in spin class as I can outdoors, especially if the instructor has you working on low-rpm, high resistance work. I've had to drop the resistance down in order to get the HR back up, oddly enough.

The problem with the spin bikes is there is no power meter (at my gym).