Tuesday, July 5, 2011

My First Attempt At Spinning

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.  
~Albert Einstein

Do you remember this post on living life as a daring adventure?
How about this post, on doing one thing every day that scares you?

I took both of these to heart this past Thursday as I decided to do one thing that scared me: take a spinning class. I'm sure you're thinking something along the lines of "seriously...why would getting on a stationary bike scare you?" or "what does that have to do with living life as a daring adventure?". Here's the deal. I haven't really ridden a bike since the summer of 2001. I was on the back of a tandem bike for about 1 minute last fall, so that hardly counts. Essentially, I haven't done the biking motion in exactly one decade. I decided it was time to "get back on the bike" and try something that freaked me out just a little bit.

I decided to start off with a 30 minute spin class. The instructor started class off by coming over to make sure I got the bike set up well, and giving an encouraging word. I LOVED that. It led me to feel cared about in the class, and empowered that I could actually do this thing. We started with a short warm up, and then started climbing the hills. We would climb hills for up to 3-4 minutes, the whole time standing on our pedals, and then sit down as we "went down the hill." A few times she got off the bike and walked around giving encouraging words to people, which I thought was fantastic. Towards the end as we were climbing our final big hill, she walked around with a bottle of water and cups for people who hadn't come prepared.
I guess my other workouts have gotten me more in shape then I thought, because I didn't struggle too much!

The other thing I loved about this was that immediately following the spinning class, the instructor walked us to a different room for 30 minutes of stretching and core work. I loved the combination, and I'm sure helped me be less sore the next day too.

What's the verdict? I would definitely do spin class again, and already have it on the schedule for this week! This also fulfills one of my new years resolutions, which was to try a new form of exercise!

What I'd like to know:
Have you done anything lately that's "scared" you at all?
Do you like riding bicycles, or would you prefer another type of exercise? 

2 comments:

  1. That's great that you did it! I wanted to try spinning this winter but just never did it. I don't know why. I guess I'd rather just ride my bike outside.

    I was scared to try the kickboxing class at the gym but I finally did it. And I didn't like it. But glad I tried!

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  2. I haven't done anything, lately, that has scared me. I did take a spinning class once...once! I think I prefer riding a bike outdoors.

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