Do Spinning classes help you do better on the road?
 

I train/ride with a small group of friends here. Until recently, we've been riding our bikes out on the road or working individually on our trainers at home. A friend of ours has just started riding with us and she's quickly become one of the strongest in our group, despite having limited road experience. She has been taking a spin class for about a year. Thinking this was one way to improve, some of us started doing spin classes. I'm surprised how much I like doing them and how much better I do then when I took spinning classes before I got serious about cycling and fitness. But I'm wondering, do they really translate to the road? Should I be concentrating on certain types of spinning? Or is just keeping the motor going and the heart rate up enough? The convenience is among the most appealing aspects of spinning - twice in the last two weeks when I only had time for a shortish bike ride (23-25 miles), I took a spin class later in the day so I could get in more of a workout. But I wonder if I'm fooling myself on whether it's making me stronger? And I worry a little it about riding so hard in heavy gears in class since I've always been taught that keeping the legs spinning is better for the knees.

Of course it helps. It's basically the same thing as real cycling in terms of a workout.

Absolutely they help! :)

For one thing, the spinning classes have helped me increase my road cadence from low 80s to high 80s.

Another thing ... in 2007, I needed to be ready for a hilly April "Hell Week" (200K, 300K, 400K, and 600K all in one week) on Vancouver Island. I lived in Alberta and winter there is not conducive to a whole lot of cycling. So I rode outside as often as I could (occasionally on weekends), and I rode my trainer at home 2-3 days a week, and I did two 1-hour spinning classes each week. On my spinning class days, I also walked/jogged on the treadmill and lifted weights ... made an evening of it in the gym.

Unfortunately, I crashed badly at the 100K point of the 200K, but I finished the 200K within time, skipped the 300K, and made it almost 3/4 of the way through the 400K before I finally had to pull out (having trouble controlling the bicycle with a separated shoulder). But nevertheless, I'm convinced the spinning classes got me into enough shape to be able to do that much! Especially in the hilly terrain on Vancouver Island.


Now regarding "riding so hard in heavy gears" and a few other questionable aspects of spinning classes ...

That spinning class I took in 2007 was run by a triathlete. He was of the opinion that riding hard in really heavy gears was not good. You wouldn't ride like that in real life, so you wouldn't ride like that in a spinning class. He'd get us into harder gears, but we had to be able to keep our cadence over 80 rpm. So when the instructors in subsequent classes have us sit and push a really hard gear, I push a gear just hard enough so my cadence is in the mid-80s.

Another questionable activity is "jumps" ... they are utterly useless and put a lot of pressure on the knees. When the instructor starts doing jumps, I stay standing.

But that's the thing with spinning classes, you can make them what you need them to be. You don't have to do exactly what the instructors say. And you can push as hard or as easy as you want.

Oh, and also make sure your spin bike is set up correctly for you ... they are quite adjustable.

If say "yes and no". I've been taking a spin class for a month now and find it very different from riding outside. There's a lot of high cadence and in/out of the saddle. I normally ride at a 85-90 cadence and find I tend to naturally go back to it during class even though I should be spinning slower.

On the other hand it does make you stronger but it's at the expense of your riding "form".

On the other hand (again), the class is full of women in their 20s and 30s, so the view from the back of the class is very pleasant.

All I know is the one spinning instructor who was not a dedicated roadie but considered a tough instructor was a dog out on the road. A friend invited his spinning instructor to ride with our group. The guy had nothing in the tank after 20 miles. After 40 miles he was downright slow and we waited for him.
I am sure there are spinning instructors out that can ride like the wind. I do not do indoor spinning classes...but if traveling have ridden an exercise bike. I relocated to a warm climate so I can ride year around. My buddy who faithfully attended spinning classes also wasn't a strong rider. To me the way to get fastest is to ride with the fastest guys you can hang with on the road...not in a spinning class where RPM's are no substitute for load which can be adjusted to make everybody look good. Also there is much more to riding a road bike fast than just spinning the pedals in a room without air drag.

If you are in for the winter it helps keep you in cardio. There is no substitute for the open road, though.

Go to spin class to stay in shape during the off season. Youll still feel tired on your first ride out.

You've got to put something into the spin class in order to get something out of it. If you just toodle along with hardly any resistance, then you probably won't see much benefit. But if you work hard ... you will. :)

I don't think you can make the generalization that because one instructor was a dog or a beast on the road that spinning helps or doesn't help your fitness on an actual bike. This is not causation/effect.

To be clear though, spinning will improve your fitness on the road, if the choice is to spin or not ride at all. But obviously there is no substitute for being on the road.

I analogize this to how an indoor rowing machine would help your fitness on the water. Most of the elite rowers in world use the indoor rower for training. It does nothing for your technique, but it uses the exact same muscles you'd use on the water.

Seems like you would be right however there wasn't a correlation with the one instructor I rode with. My buddy always talked about how brutal his spin sessions were and buckets of sweat on the ground. His instructor was barely a B level rider if that.

I am sure there are spinning instuctors who can drop me on the road no problem. Just wasn't the case with one of the so called aggressive instructors I rode with. I admit to being quite surprised as to how poor a bike rider (and handler) he was...a guy who allegedly tortured his students.
Guys riding trainers on here to specific programs on the 41...I know many are stronger than me out on the road. So there is no doubt that simulated riding can pay dividends...perhaps big dividends. The issue is that of load. It all comes down to duration of RPM and pedal force. Duration and RPM without high load won't making anybody faster on the road. Most people that attend spinning classes aren't going to want to ramp up the load that would simulate riding at 20-22mph on the road in their own air. Rather they opt for the pedal forces in the 16-18 mph range.

But you've never actually attended a class, right? :)

One of the instructors is a triathlete and has done everything from sprints to full ironman. In fact he was my son's swim coach in high school.

His classes are more interval based and medium to high tension with little out of the saddle. Other instructors do a lot of high cadence with long session of constant up and down with is killing my knees.

Don't do those constant up and down things ... that's where they have you sit for 2 seconds and then stand for 2 seconds and sit for 2 seconds and stand for 2 seconds etc. etc.?? Those are called jumps, and they're terrible. There's absolutely no point to them, and they are really hard on the knees. Don't do them!! When they go into that nonsense, just stay seated and do intervals or shift into a reasonably high tension gear and stand for a while.


Most of my instructors have been into the intervals. Around here, there are so many hills and so little flat ground that it is next to impossible to do intervals outside, so I get my once-a-week interval day at spinning class.

I look at a spin bike like many other machines in the gym. Any kind of cross training to improve your strength and cardio will help your fitness on and off the bike.

An hour on the spin bike doesn't translate to an hour on the bike, but its certainly better than sitting on the couch. You can practice high spin cadence, standing while pedaling a low cadence, etc. It can be a great workout and keep your cardio strong.

As long as you have no issues with your knees, spinning in a low gear shouldn't be a problem. I try to do one training interval per week riding in the big gear (53/11) for one hour. Most of my riding is done at a much higher cadence ~ 90-105 rpm avg.

Trust me, @ 59 and after rehab'ing my left knee a year ago, i'm not doing those. I just crank up the tension and get my arms down like i'm on aero-bars and crank away.

I told the instructors that i'm a cyclist and will be somewhat doing my own thing at times.

They're all cool with it.

BTW... i invited all of them to come ride outside with me when the weather gets nice.

Sounds like those frequent hills ARE your intervals.:D

:thumb:

Hill repeats. Lots and lots of hill repeats.

I have been looking for the flattest routes around, and my flattest routes still involve 286 metres of climbing over 20.92 km, or 453 metres in 40.7 km, and similar.

I have been doing spinning two to three times per week since October, when my outdoor mileage dropped off because of the cold weather and shorter days. Sometimes I do the classes, sometimes I do my own thing. It isn't perfect. Spinning classes are usually an hour or less, where as I would usually ride outdoors for significantly longer. But it has, in the past been beneficial to my outdoor riding. I hope it works this year.

It all depends on the class. I also think the up and down routine is nonsense. The 'spin class' I go to, which we call a 'trainer' class - since we all bring our own bikes and our own trainers - focuses on sprinting, standing and one legged drills. The high cadence spinning is primarily only for warm ups and cool downs. The program we follow is designed by a cyclist, for cyclists, and clearly improves your cycling ability.

If you have a trainer at home, why are you going to spin classes ? Buy PerfPro Studio or signup for Trainer Road and the workouts you can do will far, far exceed any spin class.

I've seen some people benefit and some that don't. One guy that I ride with loves spinning and does very well in the Spring.

I had a similar experience with a pair of instructors that showed up at a B level ride. They couldn't keep up after the first slight grade 2 miles in to the ride while we were still warming up. We never saw them again.

And that was a B level ride and not the A group. The guy who loves the spin class may just happened to enjoy it and it may in fact do nothing for his riding in the spring. Some guys come out of the gate in the spring just fine even after a lay off.
I believe Nachoman said it best. Most spin classes are just that...'spin'. If spin classes turn into actual 250 watt hammer classes than there should be some benefit but most don't. A large part of what separates riders aside from physical differences is 'mentality'. If a typical spin class was targeted to an A or A- rider, then all the B and C riders in the class wouldn't return.

Yes, Campaq, the guy is a natural athlete.