I recently got an email from my client, Cindy, regarding Spinning bikes. Cindy asked if she could take a spinning class to add some variety to her workout. I said sure assuming she had looked into it a little bit or at the very least glanced into the window of the room while a class was going on.

Well needless to say, Cindy didn't have a clue what the intensity would be like nor did she realize the spinning bikes are different than any other bike she had ever ridden before.

For those of you who don't know, the bikes were invented to mimic conditions of actual road biking like in the Tour De France. Therefore, instead of only having the ability to add resistance the way we all are used to doing it, by changing gears, the wheel in front of the stationary bike (flywheel) is weighted. Which means it could weigh between 35 and 55 lbs instead of 1 or 2 lbs. Normally, that would sound like no big deal. But as many of you know, when you decide to stop pedaling on a bike, you normally glide or coast. Well you can't do that on a Spinning bike and Cindy did not realize that until well after the instructor told her to pedal as fast as she could.

After her legs felt like they were going to go flying off& then her instructor said they would start climbing a hill and that she needed to increase the resistance on her bike. The instructor started saying things like -Take a full turn up! Another half turn& You should be working hard now. Crank it down so you feel the road& now add big turn clockwise& climbing the hill now& add more resistance by turning it up& now it's really steep.

Cindy had no idea what any of those instructions meant and that is what I am here to clear up right now.

Spinning is a great form of cardio. It is motivating to have an instructor guide you through a program while being surrounded by like-minded participants who are there for the same reasons. You all want to get a good workout, lose some unwanted body fat, keep heart healthy, lighten your own personal stress load and have some fun along the way.

The resistance knob in question is the tool used to add tension to the flywheel so that you feel as if you are climbing a hill or if the knob is loose then you feel as if you are screaming along the open road and cruising. As an instructor, I believe there should always be some sort of tension.

If you have never taken a class, I would recommend it. But here are some things to keep in mind before you do. Spinning bikes are used frequently throughout the day. This means that they have wear and tear on them. Each bike will wear differently and therefore the resistance knob may be tight on one bike and not so tight on another.

Bikes in your gyms have resistance mechanisms that can vary tremendously. If you decide to take the approach of listening to an instructor based on turning the knob to vary your resistance, you may have a very hard time getting through the ride with a specific benefit (strength, endurance, etc).

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