If you’re looking to bring your sufferfest indoors, but don't care to sweat it out solo on the trainer, you’ll be hard pressed to find yourself in a town without a Spin class.
Riding indoors on a Spin bike (or in some instances, a trainer or rollers) in a group setting is, at its best, just as motivating, social, and skill-specific as any outdoor training ride with friends. But while leaving a post-workout pool of sweat on the floor or posting higher watts than your neighbor seem to signal a job well done, these aren’t reliable signs that you’re getting an effective workout for your individual cycling goals. Joining the right indoor cycling class for your needs can help you improve certain aspects of fitness and cycling technique in an encouraging environment.
Here are the three things you should know to make sure you end up in the best class for you and to ensure you get the most out of your next Spin class workout.
More From Bicycling
1. Choose the Right Class
Most local gyms offer different types of Spin classes, in which you’ll find everything from choreographed workouts to “instructor's choice,” to interactive experiences, to glorified aerobics on a bike. It’s important to know what you’re getting into before you saddle up, or you might find yourself doing sprint intervals for half an hour when you need to be putting in tempo miles for century training.
The key is to find a class “structured around what we would do as cyclists training outside,” says Lesley Tomlinson, a former Olympic cyclist who competed for Canada and a co-founder of the TaG Cycling studios in Vancouver. There are a few class elements that can help you figure out if your studio fits the bill: Look for classes that include drills targeting skills in leg speed, pedal stroke, acceleration/deceleration, and climbing, to name a few.
Next, it’s important that the workout itself is in some ways specific, quantifiable, and about more than just burning calories. That can mean anything from a specifically structured routine, to metrics on your bike, to heart rate percentages, to pre-workout interviews and taking fitness tests at the beginning of your training. (All new TaG riders complete a Maximum Aerobic Power test within their first week of riding, and every class uses percentages of this number so that everyone is getting a tailored workout.)
After a warmup and drills, a good class will feature a challenging, threshold-based main set with clear instruction. Some studios such as TaG also have a weekly class structure, with longer efforts on the weekends and two specific workouts a week focused on one skill.
Workout Checklist:
• Structured
• Purposeful
• Specific
• Quantifiable
2. Find a Great Instructor
Next in importance to the classes themselves is who’s leading them. The instructor holds the key to your motivation and the success of your workout, helping you go longer and harder without falling into bad habits. With that in mind, try to seek out classes led by certified cycling coaches or pros tuned into form and training strategy.
“It’s important that the instructor understands that if, for example, you go really hard for four minutes, you can’t do a sprint right after," says Karen Mackin, a Massachusetts-based ex-bike racer who has been coaching and teaching indoor classes for 15 years.
When auditioning instructors, Mackin says, listen for whether they communicate in a way that makes sense to you, and whether they’re very explicit and clear when defining intensity.
“Lots of instructors will just say, ‘Now go harder!’ What ends up happening in those classes is people just do their own thing,” she says. If the bikes themselves don’t provide specific metrics, look out for instructive, explicit communication including comments about how you feel that apply to everyone in the class: ‘Right now you’re breathing really heavy,’ or ‘It should be hard to carry on a conversation.’ These indicate the intructor has a clear understanding of rate of perceived exertion (or RPE), a common scale used to measure intensity.
Beyond the workout itself, ask yourself: What else is important to you in an instructor? Are you training for something and looking for someone who can help you target your workouts to meet your goals? Do you just want to get in some intervals with great music? How much does their knowledge of form and biomechanics matter to you? Or maybe you're looking for a positive, motivating teacher who makes you want to show up and do the work. Zero in on your priorities, then look for someone who matches that criteria.
Instructor Checklist:
• Knowledgeable, purposeful
• Clear, instructive
• Welcoming, friendly
• Motivating
3. Make Sure the Equipment Is Dialed
One of the key elements of a good indoor cycling experience is riding a bike that fits. Some boutique studios and teams offer classes where riders bring their own bikes and trainers, or use personal bikes with Computrainers. Though highly specific, and thus preferable for some riders who want to train on their own bikes, the added hassle of dragging gear around can deter many riders from attending.
For those riders, classes featuring adjustable stationary bikes—the typical ‘Spin bikes’—will work best, as these bikes make indoor riding easier while still offering big fitness benefits. If you attend indoor group classes that use Spin bikes, you must make sure that multiple elements of the bike are adjustable, not just the seat post, so you can better replicate the fit of your personal bike. You can take measurements of your bike at home, then arrive in the studio a few minutes before class to try to match them as closely as possible. Some studios also offer a fitting service to help you dial in your bike.
For riders who like training with data, taking classes with ‘smart’ spin bikes will be optimal. Features to look for include power meters, which measure your energy output in watts; integrated bike computers, which show you how fast and how far you’ve gone; and Bluetooth or ANT+ accessibility for all of this so you can download your data onto your phone.
If maintaining an outdoor-like ride quality, prioritize classes that use bikes with freewheel hubs. This not only prevents you from relying on momentum to keep “moving forward,” but allows you to rest when you stop pedaling.
In addition to the bikes themselves, other equipment considerations can include things like the services the studio provides (think: atmosphere, showers, toiletries, the general vibe), and making sure your instructor is able to help you set up your bike—saddle, pedal type, and more—before you ride. If you want to clip in, be sure to check which cleats you need or if you’d rather not, be sure the studio has cage pedals. This ensures that you’ll be comfortable and less prone to injury, which will help you enjoy the workout and make you more likely to stick with it.
Though not important to everyone, full-service amenities can be a draw for people who only want to put energy into the bike. At TaG Cycling, for example, staff fill water bottles and clean the bikes for you, and set up the bike ahead of time. Certain studios like Flywheel offer free water and shoe rentals if needed.
Side note: Though coaches like Tomlinson and Mackin prefer access to power meters because of their ability to give riders a better idea of their effort, Mackin says many instructors out there don’t know what to do with the numbers—or simply don’t operate with them in mind. If you find yourself in a class with an instructor who doesn’t give power-based direction, and you don't ride with power normally, heart rate or RPE can be a decent stand-in for tracking your intensity and seeing whether you’re progressing over time. If you’re training with specific cycling goals, though, a power meter is definitely useful to have.
[Find 52 weeks of tips and motivation, with space to fill in your mileage and favorite routes, with the Bicycling Training Journal.]
Equipment Checklist:
• Adjustable
• Fit assistance
• Clean and in good working order
• Power/cadence/heart rate option
