Movement: What's the big deal about cycling?

Earlier this year my friend, Courtney, took me to my first cycling class. To be honest I had zero desire to go, it sounded like torture! I expected to ride in a dark room for 45 minutes while a cycling instructor yells at me to go faster. But, I love my friend and I love spending time with her so I signed up and joined her for a 9:00am ride.

I didn’t know what to wear to a class like this so I wore typical gym clothing, a loose-fitting t-shirt and shorts. For the record, not the best outfit to wear. Wearing tighter clothing like biking shorts and a form fitting shirt is ideal. The reason is because loose clothing may get caught on things or become a distraction. 

I arrive at Rideologie at 8:45am, I like to arrive early for new activities so I can scoop the place out, ask questions, and get familiar with the people and environment. My friend arrives and we check in, we get these cute shoes specifically designed for cycling. They have a hook-clip sort of thing on the bottom of the shoe. This hooks into the bicycle pedal, as you cycle your foot is locked into the bike so you are more stable and secure.

​We head into the cycling room and hook our feet into place. It took me a lot longer than I care to admit just to get my feet locked in. Once I finally figured out, I thought that was all. Oh no honey! There was still so much more! I had to adjust my bike seat to keep my hips at a high elevated level, but not too high because I didn’t want my knees smashing into the bike handles while riding. Then I had to get hand weights in my desired weight. I’m thinking, “Why the bloody hell do I need weights? This is a cycling class.” I get baby 4-pound weights because I don’t know what we are going to be using them for. 

As I’m juggling weights, adjusting my seat, and trying to re-clip my feet into the bike our instructor comes in, shuts the doors, turns down the lights, and the music begins. 

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​Katie is our instructor and when she came into the room there was a shift. Once the lights were down and the music was up, it was on! Within a matter of minutes she had us all sweating, she had our whole body working on the bike. “Hips off the saddle!” She would shout, “Stick that butt back! Now dip! Side to side, work with the beat of the music.”  She was in it with us, doing everything she requested us to do. She was devoted. “Take off some road and get a drink of water.” She would say right before another powerful surge. 

Now, to pause for a moment let me explain some terminology. When Katie said, “Take off some road” she’s referring to a dial on the bike you turn to give the pedals more or less resistance, turn it all the way to the right and it gives you the most resistance and makes life horrible, turn all the way to the left and there is no resistance. There are also hand positions from first, second, and third position. The instructor will say, something like, “Add some road, hands in third position, and hips off the saddle.” The saddle is your seat.

Back to the story, about twenty minutes into this and I am feeling pretty good, I’m sweating, the music is good, and the room has a variety of different lighting effects going on, a rainbow of colors and brightness. With the lights and music, I felt like I was in a discotech! 

Then Katie tells us to “weight up!” We grab our weights and as we continue to cycle, we do weight lifting to work out our arms, shoulders, and backs. “Oh! This was why we needed weights.” I caught myself saying out-loud. This made the cycling more exciting, I felt like I was getting a full body workout. After the weight lifting we go back to normal cycling.

As the class comes to an end we cool down with some slow cycling. The doors open and two girls walk in with baskets of towels, the hand one out to everyone. They are cold towels that smell of lavender (I was sold when I smelt lavender). We jump off the bike, place the cold towel around our neck and do some yogic stretching, working out the tension we built up, and taking a moment to come back to our bodies. 

After cooling down and cleaning up I exit the bike room, return the strange shoes to the counter, and signed up for Katies next class. 

Cycling was so much more fun than I expected! It felt like I was partying first thing in the morning with the music and setting. Katie worked us out so intensely, I felt sensations of exhaustion and energetic by the end.  Katie is also very inspirational and motivational in her directions. She had us all pumped up, believing that we can conquer the day, achieve our goals, and show up for ourselves and the world. She spoke phrases of inspiration and motivation in our cycling and in our lives.

Cycling classes can run as short as 30 mins and as long as 60 mins, it is a great form of movement and exercise. Not only will cycling raise your heart rate, it will help burn calories, lose weight, build strength, and endurance. Whether you cycle in a class room or cycle to work and/or around town you will achieve all of these benefits and more.

If you want to explore cycling and try it out for yourself I encourage you find a studio near you and check out Classpass  to see if there are studios in your area you can try for free or at a discounted price. 

Cycling is a great area of movement where you can start wherever you are in your journey of movement or fitness. 
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I hope you all enjoyed my story and the ins and outs of attending a cycling studio. 

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