Outside > Trainer > Spin class

IMO

ETA I think there ca be a benefit of a spin class here or there, but personally three hours a week on the trainer will be more effective (with a good plan) than three hours in spin. However, I have a CT with a coach and a designed plan, so I'm not just spinning. I hate spin class but would hate just spinning on the trainer more.

What are your goals? How much of a masochist are you? Showing up to spin class 3x/week is better than setting your bike up on a trainer and then not actually using it.

A few winters ago I thought taking spin class 3x a week would set me up nicely for the season.

I only made that mistake once. No substitute for the trainer, IMO. I say suck it up.

If you find the right class it can be VERY beneficial

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I can't see how taking spin classes could hurt.

Ok, if you ONLY do spin class, and don't do long rides and are racing 70.3 or IM, sure, that won't work.

But if you do something like weekend long rides, then 3 hammerfest spin classes per week where you really throw down the power, how could that not work? It might not be the BEST training method for one's particular race, but you can really hammer for a good hour in most spin classes.

This.

I never found spin to be particularly beneficial. It's better then doing nothing, but your time is better spent on the trainer or outdoors.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Last year I used spin classes to break up my trainer rides from time to time. First I rode an hour or so in the trainer, then hard spin class, then another hour on the trainer. It worked well for me.

I don't think this is necessarily true at all.

It completely depends on what you put into it.

Our local triclub's weekly 'long' group ride is a totally mellow, conversational-level ride with very little hammering going on. It's popular, but you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to get to the FOP with that softie ride.

Same with the trainer - if you wuss out and don't crank it up, it's not so great. Especially if it's so boring that you do it way less than you're supposed to.

You can similarly flub spin class, but there's nothing particularly awful about spin class that makes it so terrible.

I rarely do spin classes myself, but I have definitely made myself go to a spin class once inawhile because I was so unmotivated to bike on my trainer or on my own outdoors (I'm usually VERY good about hitting my training targets, though.) The group environment, music, and cheerleading definitely do help you kick some butt when you're unmotivated. There's a reason SoulCycle and their knockoffs are worth nearly a billion dollars now - it's a pretty potent combo when done right.

How much does the spin class cost?

 Decided this winter to see if spinning at a class for 3x1hr a week would help with early season fitness .
Classes vary in their structure but I feel after 3weeks I am gaining a little bike fitness .I prefer this to the trainer .Plan on doing this until the end of March so hopefully I'm not too out of shape when the road season starts .
Should I just suck it up and get on the trainer or give this a go ?

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I coach 4 early morning Spin Classes per week, I have participants ranging from multiple Kona Age Group Podiums to an 88 year old lady and every fitness level in between. Spin Class is what you make of it. You decide how hard you want to work........ it's your ride, you control the resistance knob. I find it to be a good break from my indoor trainer here in Utah.

CJ
Slow, Old 2x IM

I'm a spin class instructor. The trainer is much better for you it really is. Trainerroad and a youtube channel or something to motivate you is the key. That's not to say you cant make a spin class hard for yourself because you can, I just find it 'easier' to work harder and hit more performance type of targets on a trainer.

I don't necessarily agree with the others that outdoors is better than a trainer either. For long rides outside is much better purely from a motivational viewpoint, but I value trainer rides indoors during the week where I can hold intervals for designated time periods etc without having to worry about traffic, random animals jumping in front of you on the path etc.

Everyone is full of shit. I did 45 min spin classes 3x/week as the core or my ironman bike training. More fun than the trainer. Better scenery too usually.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

This is my main problem with it.

The ones I used to go to were scheduled as a 1 hour class, but by the time you've messed around getting the last class out of the room, adjusting the bike, stupid easy warm-ups, followed by a cool-down and mandatory stretching session at the end of the class, you're lucky if you get 30 mins of quality cycling in. Not to mention all the stupid press-ups on the bars and waving your arms about. Also my gym wouldn't let you do back-to-back sessions due to over-subscription, so I really wasn't getting that much decent training time for an outlay of ~2 hours including travel time to-and-from the gym.

I agree that you'll get out of it what you put in. If the motivation of a group class and a fixed appointment every week means that you'll get in some workout time that you realistically wouldn't on the trainer, then sure it's going to be a net benefit. However IMO, time spent on the trainer has a much better return.

I couldn't stand the crazy press up things. It depends on the instructor I suppose.
I prefer the trainer but 3 times a week early season will make you fitter just by doing hard work 3x per week.
Just get more specific later on in the season.

I tried a single spin class 2 years ago and decided it wasn't for me.
To me it seemed like the worst of all worlds. Less convenient than an outdoor ride or the trainer. More time spent getting there set-up and back home afterwards. No control over duration and little ability to tailor the workout for your own needs/preferences and some silly bar push up stuff that really seemed an inefficient use of time as it did little except distract from the work my legs should be doing. Previous years I did a little work on the indoor trainer but mostly got out on the road. This year I've started using my trainer with Zwift during the week and I'm doing a lot of interval training and virtual races. This makes the trainer much less boring and helps improve the quality iof the work you do on it. In addition to this I've moved house and now have space to leave the trainer set up permanently which makes it by far the most efficient option for use of time. Put on shorts, fill a water bottle, turn on the laptop/TV, check tyre pressure and I'm warming up in 5-10mins. I've typically been doing 2 hard trainer sessions a week. Each are somewhere between 70 and 90 minutes. For example, a 2x20 threshold session would be 70-75 minutes including warm-up and cool-down.
However, I can have that 70-75min session done in only 80 minutes from the time I get in from work or get up off the couch. 90 minutes if you include a snack and shower afterwards.
I sometimes do a trainer session with my club, in a local school hall, mostly for the social aspect.
We happen to have done a 2x20 threshold session last week. For the same 70min session:

Check tyre pressure and put the bike and trainer into the car - 5mins
Get changed and pack a bag with towel, bottles, clothes for after - 5mins
Drive there - 10mins
Take stuff from car to hall and set up - 10mins
Session - 70mins
Take stuff back to car and have a chat - 20mins
Drive home - 10mins
Bring bike and trainer back into the house - 5mins

Some of those figures are conservative and it still comes to 2hrs 15mins for the same amount of training that takes me 1hr 20mins at home. A spin class would skip the bike and trainer trtansport but the rest would be the same. Let's say 1hr 50mins but likely a less beneficial training session.

My advice: if you haven't already then try Zwift or similar to make your trainer experience more enjoyable. If possible, leave your trainer set up permanently so it's quick and easy to hop on. However, if you prefer spin classes, and the time spent and probable training compromises aren't a big issue for you, then do them. Enjoyment is as important or more important than anything else for most of us!

 
I am a Spin instructor/cycling coach. And I call my class "Indoor cycling for cyclists". It is 45 minutes of simulated hills, and speed intervals, with high cadence drills mixed in. I don't do jumps or weights, and you can put your hands wherever you want on the bars. I typically rate my success on how many are leaning on the handrail going down the stairs. It very much depends on the instructor, and the quality of the Spin bikes, but it can be a heck of a workout added into your trainer ride regime.

If you put in the work during a spin class then you would definitely benefit from it.

I haven't done one in several years but when I did, I had 4 or 5 friends that did it too and it was a social moderate-hard workout. We tracked intensity with HR.

In addition to the spin class we would run 45 min on a treadmill together before the class and then 45 min afterwards.

With that said, if I'm riding indoors, I prefer riding on Zwift, but that's just me.

i never understood why some instructors opt for lame push-ups on the bars etc....i did a spin class on holiday one day and the instructor had us lunge and squat on the pedals and all sorts, it was horrible.

Must have been a huge treadmill!

I had wondered about posting a very similar question as it’s something I have been doing over winter in an attempt to help keep the cycle legs ticking over …

We are friendly with a guy (multiple IM finisher) who owns a local fitness studio. He does our tri club a private class at preferential rates on the understanding that it’s at a time when he didn’t have anything else running in the studio and that we fill the class for him (or give him ample notice if we can’t). I think we have filled the class every week and because of us he has recently increased his bike count from 15 to 20.

It’s a good laugh to have the room full of your mates with the old school tunes booming, the lights dimmed and the lasers on as you hurl abuse (encouragement …) at those around you.

No push ups or strange positions - As a general rule it's either out of the saddle sprinting or down in aero recovering.

His hour classes are proper hours i.e. he allows us in early to warm up / set the bike and allows 15 mins change over time between us and the lady that comes in to do hot yoga after us. He has just started 2 hour ‘endurance’ based spin classes but I haven’t made it to one of those yet.

It will be interesting to see if it helps with early season fitness – I can’t really comment either way (First year in tri / first winter at spin) but if anyone’s interested, here are my polar stats from a typical session :



WD :-)

Depends on the instructor, classical "spin" instructors that don't know jack about riding real bikes tend to do all of the up and down, arm waving, whatever it is they teach them to do in spin class school/videos.

I got lucky in my early days... spin instructors at my gym were a local stud mountain biker, TeamUSA lady, Xterra Regional champ, another local cyclist and the other 1 or two were the "class spin biker instructors"... I learned to avoid them or just not do their stuff... like the fast up and down while sprinting, arm waving... i.e. stuff you don't do on a real bike.

With the cyclist it was like going on a 45 minute bike ride with no coasting. It was a good workout especially since I didn't really have a real bike at the time.

In terms of good workout, it is okay but I find probably the best workout honestly is on a trainer or rollers. I prefer riding outside and I haven't done a spin class in years. They were okay and when I finally did get a bike I was in some cycling shape.

For the goals of the people on this forum the quality of the spin bikes is the determinant. A good instructor makes the workout more enjoyable, but isn't necessary.

I didn't say it would hurt; I said that for me it didn't help. And I WASN'T doing it as a supplement to the trainer or long weekend rides. Like the OP, I used it as my sole source of "bike" training over the winter. That was a mistake, which became apparent when I did my first long outdoor ride attempt in April, made it 27 miles before getting completely dropped, had absolutely nothing in my legs to get me home, and my coach literally was pushing me up hills the last 13 miles. The following 2 seasons I did trainer sessions 3x a week instead and came back in the spring at the exact same level of fitness as when I ended in the fall. As with all these questions on slowtwitch, I'm an n=1 and YMMV.

I think the only way a spin class wouldn't help compared to a trainer, even as a sole source of bike training, is if you didn't go hard or long enough in the spin class.

There's nothing limiting about a spin class in terms of effort and power production compared to a trainer. Even if the instructor doesn't make it a particularly hard class, if you feel you need a hammerfest, you can amp it up so that you can totally crush yourself in an hour pretty much no matter what.

3 hours of hammerfest spin classses during a week (and no other training) will greatly outperform 3 hours of chillin trainer rides (and no other training) no matter what.