what do you guys look for or what do you think is the best kind of spin class (triathlon speaking)?
I’m not too big into the “Jumping” thing, but I’ve found a couple of instructors that seem to do the class in a way that would be beneficial to my training (I think).
One class we are out of the saddle over 50% of the time doing a ton of hard climbing (resistence of 8-10) and then even the last part of the class we are doing single leg drills in the saddle on 8-9.
The other is more of a sprint type class that has more of stand up and sprint for a 4-8 count and then sit down and sprint 4-8 count. Nothing up and down every 2 seconds (what I consider the jumping type exercises).
What do you look for and find most beneficial to your triathlon training?
I am a new spinning instructor at my Y but experienced as a spinning participant. I find the go/go/go workouts to not give me a whole lot of excitement and it burns out the moderate ability riders.
My classes are made up of about half serious cyclists and half beginners(looking to lose weight and have fun). I want to give them challenging workouts but also want to feel like I am getting a workout myself.
they’ve told me they don’t like the 4-8 second jumps but do like the 20 second on/off “jumps” on a fairly hard tension. We do those for 4-10 minutes at the end.
We also mix up long hard-tension 4/3/2/1 and 1/2/3/4(minute) low turnover sets with 30 seconds between each part. Can be boring for some so I alternate hand positions and some standing. I do most of these in the aero position.
We also mix up low tension high turnover with alternating hand positions.
Try to do about 20% standing and try to incorporate a fair recovery time after the harder sets.
I’ve been an avid cyclist for 15 years and a serious TTer for about the last three. I just did my first-ever spin class yesterday. I loved every minute of it. It was such a change of pace for me and I can feel the workout I got today. The instructor had us out of the saddle probably 75% of the time and we were constantly changing hand positions and doing something he called the “huddle” which seemed like an approximation of an aero position, but out of the saddle. Strange.
But as much as I enjoyed it, I was thinking how lousy it would be if that formed the bulk of a serious cyclists or triathlete’s off-season bike training. All that out-of-saddle stuff promotes “stomping” the pedals and, in my opinion, discourages the development of a good, smooth, efficient spin. (I know certain folks don’t believe there is such a thing as pedaling efficiency, but I don’t care what those studies say. I don’t buy into it.) Most triathletes and time trialist are going to be best-served by learning to generate power seated and in the aero position. All the jumping around is really just a bunch of nonsense relative to that objective. But I understand it’s a spinning class, not a cycling class.
I get to do quite a lot of training on the road through the week, so this class is just a supplement. As such, I think it’s GREAT! Maybe next time I’ll have a different instructor and I’ll come away with a different perspective.
.
I realize that in vernacular, people generically refer to indoor cycling classes as “spin” classes. These may or may not be actual Spinning classes. And though we have a good certification program, Spinning instructors are then free to conduct their classes how they wish.
The Spinning program was created by cyclists and retains a strong association with road cycling. We have a saying: “If you wouldn’t do it on a road bike, don’t do it on a Spinner(R) bike.” Jumps, for example, were never meant to be this endless popping in-and-out of the saddle that I commonly see, but rather, a standardization (or repeat, if you will) of the brief moments of standing that cyclists do to gain power and speed, done with consistent pedal strokes and good form. The program itself recommends that most rides be endurance-based and in the saddle, although I realize this is rarely done in practice.
But to get to the OP’s question! The best kind of cycling class is one that most closely mimics the kind of training you’d want to do on the road. In my experience, the best ones are taught by road cyclists and the transitions and times of movements (Seated Flats, Seated Climbs, Standing Climbs, etc.) mirror what a real road ride might be like. A good instructor will know how to make this interesting, and engage their students, in an indoor setting. Motivational music that works with the general cadence ranges, mental training and focus, and (though not so road-like) proper interval training will be in the mix.
Good instructors will also provide advice and accommodations for the different needs in their classes. There should be ways to make the workouts more challenging for riders with a good base who are looking to supplement their training, and ways to provide for newbies as well.
In the end, though, YOU are the one in control of the resistance knob and the bike. YOU can make the ride as close to what you’d like to train as you want to while still being in a motivational/musical group setting. You’re not required to do every single thing the class is doing, and I steer away from instructors who insist you do.
“Good Spin Class” is an oxymoron. To me it is as helpful to my clycling as playing full court basketball is to distance running. Its better than nothing but not a one for one swap and surely not equal to a structured indoor workout on my actual bike/position whether that be on a computrainer, rollers, fluid/ mag trainer, etc.
IMO, leave out the spin class, aerobics, yoga, kick boxing, pilates, etc and other similar forums until after you’ve logged 10-12 R/B/S workouts and perhaps 1-2 strength workouts per week.
You should train as you race, so with limited time available I would say, lots of seated big gear work and besides this all race pace efforts. All the rest is supplement with little return on investment. So yes it is boring for spinning, but so is triathlon cycling. Get used to it.
You should train as you race, so with limited time available I would say, lots of seated big gear work and besides this all race pace efforts. All the rest is supplement with little return on investment. So yes it is boring for spinning, but so is triathlon cycling. Get used to it.
I respectfully disagree.
It is not possible to “train as you race” all of the time.
Once I got a trainer I never went back to a spin class. No comparison in the type of workout. My experience was lousy music, lame instructors, and to top it off, a loud grunter.
No thanks. I’ll take the solitude of my garage any day.
A “good” spin class is very personal. As you can see some people hate spin classes altogether. This is my opinion:
I don’t like the classes that are built directly for training, I can do that on my own on my trainer. I go to a spin class for a complete change of pace. I look for a class with all those “bumps” out of the saddle and an instructor that demands a lot from the people that participate. Most important though is the music! I love the feel of being at a club with loud music to motivate me. Some of you may remember that commercial with the petite female instructor who says “YOU’RE MINE”, then the door slams shut and the music starts playing. At the end of the commercial everyone is nearly dead from exhaustion. This is my ideal spin class.
My #1 requirement: Emilio is the instructor! Aside from that, forget about that annoying aerobic/cardio stuff from people who don’t ride bikes outdoors - I want good bike training, including max heart rate training and motivation! I get way more out of my 50-80 minute spin workouts than I would sitting on a bike alone or going out for a 2 hour ride alone.
For about a year my wife and I were fortunate enough to belong to a small group of endurance oriented atheletes who found ourselves at the same club, in the same class, with an instructor that got “it.”
He asked us questions, we talked about our goals, we would celebrate somone finishing their first Leadville 100 or their first IM or their first Sprint.
Twice a week from 5:30-5:30am we would gather and our intsructor would lead us through a ride. The lighting was dim, the music matched the pace we were riding at, the mood was serious fun. He would actually have a ride mapped and have interesting waypoints along the ride. He would know elevation changes and depending on the season we would be riding tempo or hitting the gas. In that year we “rode” all over the southwest.
He didn’t ask us to wear HR monitors, we all did. He would come around and check our watches every so often but it was up to us to push as hard as we wanted to.
In one year we never did jumps, I never heard a call for hand position 1, 2, or 3, he talked about relaxing our upper bodies and never monkey-aped the bars in sprints, he talked a lot about form when out of the saddle and we never did 140 rpm with no resistence.
We all got together a few times a year for some epic MTB rides and it had that family atmosphere. My wife and I moved after that year and still talk about what a great group that was. When we left, it was sweaty hugs all around.
Or ya know, I have been to a few others that I really liked but they had more to do with a really hot young fit instructor in a sports bra:)
I work at Cycle University (a training center here in Seattle) and we offer a series of indoor cycling classes that are designed to actually improve your cycling fitness (unlike most spin classes, which are just aerobics on bikes). Obviously I am biased since I work there but I really wouldn’t consider taking a spin class that wasn’t like what we offer.
There are a number of things lacking from a gym “spin class” that we address in our classes. For starters, you ride your own bike. This is really important, due to the obvious importance of position specificity. If you are a serious cyclist or triathlete, there is no point in spending any appreciable amount of time on a setup that you would never ride or race on. At best you are reducing the effectiveness of your training by riding in a position you can’t replicate on your regular bike, and at worst you could be setteing yourself up for an injury. Secondly, you ride on a trainer that gives you power data. Again, if you are a serious athlete it’s important to quantify the work you are doing. Having power data is really the only informative way to quantitatively measure the intensity of a workout. Third, the programs are 2-4 months in length and designed by experienced USAC-licensed coaches so they are real, periodized, effective training plans proven to work over the long term.
Of course, all of these details make the classes more expensive but I couldn’t put it better than another poster on this thread:“a spin class is to cycling what a game of pick-up basketball is to running…” so there really is not much point in doing a regular spin class from a training perspective.
anyone out there ever spin at Bally’s in Michigan a few years ago (Saturday mornings in Novi was where I was but may have taught elsewhere), and know the guy who taught named Stephen? mathematician/cat 1 or something like that, PERFECT classes, been chasing that kind of class ever since (theres a guy here in Philly who comes close)… but yeah, seated rides that echo outdoor rides are great, im especially a sucker for things like imaginary peloton riding rotating pulls by row, visualization of “that guy/break you are trying to catch” or the person riding your wheel who you need to sprint away from, and instructors who come in with a plan of efforst matched to suitable music that is well scripted and thought out
the instructor actually rides a real bike from time to time. And has a clue!
the instructor is more interested in the workout than the music.
the instructor doesn’t change too often. I’ve tried some local spin classes, and after having the “flavor of the week” for five week in a row I decided to take my business somewhere else.
the workout has a structure that makes sense, not just a lot of jumps or random intervals without specific workout purpose.
the instructor can actually explain what the workout is trying to accomplish
the instructor understands that single-leg drills mean single-leg drills, not single leg “I can press the gym” stuff
