Spin Class

A wise man once said "there is no substitute for the road."  Don't ask me who that wise man was, but he was wise nonetheless.

Spin classes are good for intervals, but shouldn't be thought of as a substitute for real road riding.

Road > Trainer > Spin Class

I have posted questions about spinning classes on here before, and the concensus seemed to be that they weren't a great way for improving cycling ability.

However, I was reading Joe Friel's 'Triathlete's Training Bible' last night, and he actually said that riding a spinning bike was a good way to improve your form. Well, he actually said that riding a fixed gear bike improved your pedalling technique and cadence, and then goes on to say that if you don't have one of these, riding a spinning bike is a good alternative. Obviously he doesn't mean you should use spinning as your main form of cycling training, but he seems to be saying that it is certainly useful as ONE of your cycling training methods.

I'm sure some people will dispute this, but Joe Friel is one of the most famous triathlon/cycling coaches, and thousands have read his books, so there must be something in it.

When the weather sucks I have two choices.  Spin Class or Trainer.  Both are clearly better than bagging the workout altogether.  The advantage to the trainer is it's my bike, the exact set up I'll use on the road.  The disadvantage is that it requires more personal motivation and creativity to do "hills" "sprints", etc to make it less monotonous.  The spin class may not be on my bike, but if I'm more motivated by a good instructor, I get a better cardio workout and my legs are worked hard.  I like both and do one sometimes and the other sometimes.  Depends on who's instructing, the time of the class, etc.

When I was stuck on the inside spin bikes (sans instructor) over the winter I used my podrunner podcasts to fix the motivation and creativity problem.  They're made for running, and you have to kinda like techno, but they're continuous music at a certain BPM with intervals at different BPMs.  They helped me push harder inside than I would have otherwise.  (sorry for the hijack!)

I teach a one hour spin class every week and count it as training.  Would I rather be on the road...YES, but I have kids (read...couldn't get out by myself during the week anyway) and teaching that one hour class a week gives our family an almost free Y membership, so it's worth it to me.   I generally treat it as interval training or hill training.

Spin class is completely legit. It actually can be BETTER than the road for sprints, as you can go as hard & long as you want without traffic or varying road conditions.

I spent a month away from home with no bike, and did 2 hard spin classes per week of 60-90+ minutes in addition to running. Came back as fast (speedwise) as I was before leaving, although my long distance cycling (3+hr rides) needed some brushup work. 

 

If you have a trainer at home and a dvd player, set up your trainer in front of the TV and grab a couple cheap Spinnervals dvd's off of Amazon or someplace. They're great training video's and basically force you to push it by staying with the folks on the video.

I agree with a previous poster, it's a great workout and definitely better than bagging the entire workout altogether...

This user's post has been ignored.

I think spin classes are a fine substitute. I go to the back of the class and skip all the aerobics class stuff, but really enjoy getting after seated climbs and out of the saddle climbs. Worked for me.