A New Spin to my Workouts!

Sunday, August 27, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning!

Last Sunday, Kathy suggested I try a spin class at the fitness center she works at. Well, I have never felt motivated or courageous to pedal my tail off, but I have been trying to open myself up to new challenges, so I decided to give it a spin (hahaha)!

Kathy’s description of the of the instructor was spot on. Jonnie was a few years older than I, but her energy level was that of a helium balloon! From the time, she started us off to the merciful end, she bellowed out commands, sang along to the music and constantly yelled out encouragement and praise! Her enthusiasm while completely over the top, was genuine and very motivating.

The workout itself was something I have never experienced before as far as the level of consistent intensity. You start out by riding a bike like you might on a recreational ride, but then you begin adding greater resistance and before you know it, you are standing and it feels like the recreation ride is over. Every 20 to 30 seconds, Jonnie encourages you to increase the resistance and memories of my 3-speed bike on a hill come back to me. Next, we moved to a posture that solely focused on using only the legs and my goodness, my legs felt like heavy cement! Trying to focus on keeping my butt back, while hovering over the seat was as about as hard a physical thing as I have ever done.

Next, we did some sprints and those were crazy! Jonny, was all over me about being a runner and that I should understand what a sprint was. From the previous routine, my legs were quite tired, so sprinting was not exactly easy. Of course, I controlled my resistance, and I must admit that every once in a while I pretended to increase, and might of even reduced it!

Each segment was the length of a song, and some songs were pretty darn long! I tried not to pay attention to the song, but I found myself thinking that a song would never end. I of course was pretty drenched in sweat and my water seem to empty out quite quickly. By the time the last song came to an end, I was not sure if my legs would hold me up when I got off the cycle, but I needed to be off!

This new experience was challenging both physically and mentally, but it gave me a tremendous cardiovascular workout. I cannot say I enjoyed it, but I most certainly would do it again. In fact, I can see where it would be a great addition to my overall fitness. I also think it makes sense for the winter months, when getting outside is not possible. I followed this workout up with 2 pretty good runs, so it may have helped me with my running as well. I just have to get more comfortable with the positions and the awkwardness of them.

If you have never done a spin class, I would recommend you give it a whirl. I know a few of NFLR clients does them as a part of cross training, and now I can understand why.

Have a great week ahead and God Bless!

Mike