Indoor Cycling with Yesim

Wow. Hours later, I’m still sweating.

Yesim adjusting my bike

I finally got up the courage to try indoor spinning recently. Despite the fact that I am a cyclist, I was really intimidated. I didn’t know what to wear, what to bring, what the equipment was like, or if I could even keep up! I was afraid everyone else in the class would be a hard-core rider who has completed six Triple Bypasses and eats nails for breakfast – or at least raw eggs.

But it’s cold, and it’s icy, and I can’t ride outside, so I decided to give Indoor Cycling a try. I took Yesim Petty’s class, Tuesday mornings at 9:15 am at Buchanan.

I showed up in bike shorts and bike shoes, which was a good move. Yesim fitted me to the seat of the bike, but as I looked around, I noticed that most of the bikes had cages on the pedals, which means anyone with a stiff-soled athletic shoe can do it. The seats were nicely padded, so you don’t even need padded shorts, but I would recommend them.

A slim, fit blonde woman who arrived early to warm up on the bike told me afterward that she has lost 30 pounds spinning. Thirty pounds! Julie Sharber has also completed a couple of Triple Bypasses since she started. “Where else can you go for an hour and burn 600 calories?” she asked as she wiped the sweat from her brow. 600 calories? Whoa!

The bikes come with a high-tech monitor that tells you how much effort you’re expending (your “wattage” – some formula of effort and revolutions per minute, or RPMs, which measure how many times your wheels turn a complete revolution each minute.) It also tells you your pace and calories burned, so you can compete against yourself.

Yesim took us though a challenging hour of work on the bike that included warm-up, intervals, standing, sitting, efficient pedal stroke, hills, flats, warm-down and stretching. She mixes it up so that each session is different, accompanied by rockin’ music that gets your heart pumping from the get-go. With each transition she would tell us to set our individual bikes to a certain amount of effort (say, 70%). I set mine slightly lower for the first class just to make sure I could get through it.

“The whole class is in your hands,” Yesim explained afterward. (She was sweating more than anyone in the class, by the way.) “The theory is that an 80-year-old grandmother can come in here and ride next to a road racer and both will get a good workout.”

The way Yesim describes indoor cycling (a.k.a. spinning) is this: "It's an efficient, intense work-out. You can't burn this many calories on a bike any other way. Ever."

Things I’ll remember for next time:

• Call the Rec Center front desk the night before to reserve a bike. (I didn’t do that because it was a holiday week.)
• Arrive early to give yourself time to adjust your bike.
• Bring a lot of water.
• Bring a towel to wipe off the sweat, because you will sweat.

Wulf Recreation Center is creating an indoor cycling studio as well, so sometime in 2014 you’ll have the choice of either Rec Centerfor indoor cycling.

Learn more about the class.