 by Leslie V. Vicas | |
| You're on your bike. The road is wide open. Your road. Down, down, down.. Your legs are pushing hard on those pedals. Your ride. You see the hill up ahead. Your hill. Your road. You start pedaling harder as you climb.. Your hill. The wind caresses your dripping forehead. Right? Not quite. Your pedaling all right, but going nowhere. |  |
| You're sweating big time but if anything is blowing through your hair it's the fan overhead. And the road? Well, the road is in your mind... Just what is this?? This is SPINNING! It's spreading like wildfire... A craze? A fad? I don't think so. But just what is Spinning? | |
| Invented more than a decade ago by Johnny G in his garage as a way to improve his road racing performance (after he failed to complete a cross country bike race), Spinning is a stationary bike workout designed to replicate riding on the open road. | |
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Johnny G. owns the Spinning trademark but several companies including Reebok are currently making moves on the studio-cycling market. The classes are set to music while the riders (usually 20 to 30) are led by the instructor up and down hills which are simulated using the bike's resistance knob. The intensity of the workout is varied; it shifts from moderate to intense and back again |
| numerous times throughout a typical workout. The lights are dimmed or off, the ride is intense and the focus within one's self. This can be a meditative, trance-like experience, as you push yourself to the limits of your own endurance. Just how hard it is, is up to the individual Spinner; you decide just how hard you make your ride. | |
| I started spinning after much procrastination. It just looked too damn strenuous. Eyeing the sweat drenched, red faced, athletic types as they filed out of the spinning room, I just didn't feel up to it. What convinced me otherwise was a chat I had with a chubster turned svelte... "It definitely changed my body, I mean look at my butt!" Indeed the butt in question was enviable, (she assured me that 40 lbs ago it wasn't.) Since weight loss has always been a primary aim and focus in my somewhat distorted perception of myself, spinning became a challenge which would soon turn into an addiction. The workout is intense yet fun. I love having a little lake under my bike at the end of class. It gives me a concrete sense of accomplishment. I have heard one burns 900 calories in 45 minutes... What more can a girl desire? Whether or not these numbers are backed by scientific data, I have yet to know or care. They keep me in a state of self-satisfied contentment . This combined with the ensuing endorphin high make me one very happy spinner. | |
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