A year of spinning as 2016 begins!

Yesterday I ended 2015 by attending a spin class in the morning, walking 3 miles to/from the gym, and training with Flaminia ("Fla") with boxing. 

Today I started 2016 by attending Fla's spin class.  She got me in one last time at the hoity-toity gym where she teaches.  It was at the farthest location from my house and I really didn't feel like going, but I'm so glad I went.  Of course, I say that now that it's over.  Traffic was great, parking was a breeze, I got a good workout, and I got to see my Fla.  An excellent all around way to start the new year! 

I started 2015 weighing 240 lbs. and I finished the year weighing 182 lbs. which means I lost 58 lbs. this past year.  To date, I've lost a total of 124 lbs. from my heaviest weight a few years ago.  I'm going to shoot to lose another 20 lbs. in 2016 and hopefully I'll succeed. 

One of the biggest changes I experienced in 2015 was regarding my spinning escapades.  A year ago, in January 2015, Fla had me attend a spin class that she was teaching at Total Woman ("TW"), my gym.  It was my very first spin class ever.  Back then I had no idea what transpired in spin classes, and I was petrified to even try it.  But I went.  I describe my first few classes in more detail under "How my exercise program evolved."  Suffice it to say that it was not pretty and I didn't push myself too much.  As much as I always hated exercise, I always hated the bike the most, especially a stationary bike that goes nowhere.

During my first couple of classes, I did not increase the resistance on my bike at all.  My goal was merely to pedal for 50 minutes which was the longest I had ever been on a stationary bike.  I was pretty proud of myself for finishing that first class.  I thought that was going to be it, just one class to try it out.  When I realized that Fla expected me to go to her spin class EVERY week from then on, my heart sank.  Me, having to attend a spin class once a week from then on???!!!  Oh, the horror!
  

That was then...this is now...

So after that first spin class in January 2015, I continued to attend Fla's class once a week.  When she was out of town, I attended spin classes taught by other instructors.  In fact, whenever Fla was out of town and we couldn't train, she wanted me to attend spin three times a week.  And I did.  Why?  Because Fla wouldn't let me pass just because she wasn't here and by then she was the boss of me.

During class, Fla's habit was to sometimes walk around the room and she always worked her way towards me to increase the resistance on my bike, often more than once during the same class.  I knew I was in trouble every time she got off her bike and started pacing the room while giving instructions to the class over her microphone.  She also often called out my name to tell me to increase the resistance myself or, my favorite, she'd point her finger towards the ceiling if I happened to glance at her during class.  That finger was meant just for me and I knew what it meant.  UGH! 

In April 2015, Fla stopped teaching at the TW near my house so I followed her to another TW location and attended her spin classes there until she finally quit TW altogether around July 2015.  After Fla left TW, I continued to attend one or two spin classes a week that were taught by other instructors.  In fact, I purposely tried different instructors to see who I liked best.

In August 2015, Fla invited me to attend one of her spin classes at the hoity-toity gym where she taught and got me in as her guest.  Eventually I was following her all over the city to attend her various spin classes three times a week.  I told my friends that I was stalking Fla all over Southern California.  My workout routine now included spin classes on Monday mornings in downtown Los Angeles, Wednesday afternoons in Glendale, and Friday afternoons in Century City.  What's interesting is that it could take me up to 2 hours to come home from the Century City location due to traffic and yet I kept going.  I told myself that being retired, what else did I have to do.  Soon thereafter, I added a fourth class on Saturday mornings that I attended at TW.

In late 2015, when Fla informed me she was going to move to New York soon, I joined a spin studio for unlimited classes each month.  TW offers a few spin classes throughout the week but often the class times don't work with my schedule or I don't like the particular instructor.  Unfortunately, Fla ruined me for other instructors because she's really great at it and so now I can't help compare other classes to hers.  At the spin studio, they offer several classes every morning and several classes every evening, seven days a week.  I've tried several of their instructors and so far I've found a few I really like.  By the end of 2015, I was attending spin classes at least four times a week, sometimes more.  Once I attended two spin classes on the same day!  If it were up to Fla, I'd be spinning twice a day, every day.

As time passed, I've been getting stronger and have been improving in my cycling abilities.  Initially, I could only pedal at low to moderate resistance.  Now I'm working at higher resistance levels and I continue to challenge myself during each class.  It's been a long time since Fla's had to turn up the resistance on my bike because I started doing it on my own.  Eventually, I tried standing up on the bike, and initially I could only stand up for a minute during each class.  It took me months before I could stand up with the rest of the class.  In fact, once I was able to stand up for long periods of time, you couldn't keep me seated.  Many times when the instructor told us to stay on the saddle (i.e., the bike seat), I was standing.   

The nice thing about spinning is that once you're on your bike, you decide what kind of workout you'll have.  You control your own bike and it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing.  Of course, that didn't apply to me initially if Fla was around because she loved increasing the resistance on my bike!  But, arguably, it's true for everybody else.

When I'm in spin class, I only worry about myself.  I try to keep up with the rest of the class, but if I can't, that's okay.  At least I'm there trying.  There was one particular time that I was in competition with someone else - only he had no idea we were competing!  It was one of Fla's classes at the hoity-toity gym in downtown Los Angeles.  That particular location is in the middle of the business district and the people who attend that gym are very fit and attractive.  In all the months I've gone there, I think I've seen 2 overweight people.  On this particular day, as I was setting up my bike to my specific preference, a very good looking man decided to use the bike next to me.  He was tall, very muscular, young, and very fit.  It occurred to me that just a few months before I would have been mortified to be spinning next to such a specimen, but on this day my attitude was, "I bet you think this old, chubby lady won't be able to keep up with you, right?  I'll show you!"  And show him I did!  

Not only did I keep up with the class, but I cranked up the resistance on my bike and stood up for longer periods than the rest of the class.  Even Fla mentioned to me later, "Did you notice you did better than most of the class?"  I had noticed.  Watching myself in the mirror while I cycled my little heart out, I was the picture of a spin queen.  My form was good, my legs were moving fast, and the sweat was pouring off my face.  In my head, however, I was screaming, "OH, MY GOD!  THIS IS FRIGGING TORTURE!  I'M DYING!  WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!" but I refused to give up and I kept pushing myself.  I was not about to let this young whippersnapper win!  When class was over, I chuckled to myself because I won the competition I was having with the specimen next to me, even though the reality was that the specimen himself hadn't noticed I even existed.  But that's okay.  I won nevertheless even if he didn't realize we were competing.

In September 2015, I bought cycling shoes which I absolutely loved from the day I got them.  I posted my purchase on September 24, 2015, and titled it:  "My latest reward to myself:  cycling shoes!"  I couldn't wait to use them and even went to TW when there were no classes scheduled so I could practice spinning with my new shoes when the room was empty.  My normal walking shoes worked fine, but it was a pain to get them in/out of the cages (straps on the pedal) and my toes were sometimes going numb which is apparently common.  I'm told it's because we tend to curl our toes and also it's best to tighten the cages which makes it harder to get your foot on/off the pedal.  The cycling shoes work best because they clip into the pedals and that gives you more control while pedaling plus you can click in/out easily and quickly.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, my feet hurt every time I used my cycling shoes.  The pain gravitated all over my feet and I couldn't pinpoint what the problem was.  I was so disappointed!   Worst of all, eventually the bottom of one foot where the cleat is located also started to hurt a lot and that kept me from being able to stand up on the bike.  Fla told me to keep going to spin classes and just sit through the class or switch back to my regular walking shoes.  I told her, "It took me months to be able to stand up and I'm not about to sit through the whole class now!"  As for switching back to my regular walking shoes, I was stubborn.  I wanted to wear my cycling shoes that made me feel like a pro.

I consequently tried different things:  moving my cleats a few millimeters, using different types of shoe inserts with varying degrees of cushioning, wearing different types of socks, and tightening or loosening the shoes while in class.  I even went to my podiatrist to see if he had any suggestions, but he didn't.  He confirmed the cleats were part of the problem and told me he's had patients who had to give up cycling shoes altogether because of pain.  For some reason, some of us are more sensitive than others to the cleats.  But I refused to give up that easily. 

It took me a good two months' worth of pain and discomfort while I tried different things until I finally found the right combination and now my cycling shoes are perfect.  I love my cycling shoes!  I'm so glad I didn't give up on them.

So what happens during spin class?  I had no clue until I started attending them.  The first thing instructors do is they turn down the lights to make the room as dark as possible while still being able to see what's going on.  At the studio I attend, they turn on colored strobe lights during class which work best during evening classes when it's dark outside because one side of the room is all windows.  Then music is blasted through speakers.  Every instructor has their own playlist that they change every so often so you never know what song is coming up.  I don't know why, but spinning is better when the room is dark and the music is blaring.  Sometimes, however, the music is way too loud and it's actually painful.  I started taking ear plugs for these situations.  Some instructors have a really good playlist and the beat of the music pushes you to pedal faster and harder.  But I've also had a couple of instructors whose music was just awful and made finishing the class that much harder.

What happens in class depends on the instructor.  Their bike is in the front of the room, facing the class, and they wear a head piece with a microphone so they can yell out instructions to the class.  The instructions can be anything at all:  pedaling while standing, pedaling really fast (called sprinting), pedaling with higher resistance (called climbing), or any combination of these.  In my opinion, the best instructors are those who provide a variety throughout the class.  Those who don't will keep the class pedaling in the same sequence for long periods of time without any change and, to me, these classes are incredibly boring.  My favorite is when they do circuits which means sequences where you're working really hard for a short period of time (say, 1 minute), then there's a short recovery period (say, 30 seconds), and then it repeats for however many times the instructor wants.

There are also fusion cycling classes which means cycling is combined with something else.  For example:  some classes use free weights (2 or 3 lbs.) while spinning, some classes have 30 minutes of spinning and 20 minutes of mat exercises.  Personally,  I don't like fusion classes at all.  When I attend spin, I want to cycle and I don't get anything out of the "fusion" part.  I'm already training with much heavier free weights as well as various floor exercises during the week so I don't need this "fusion" part when I'm spinning.  Ironically, these classes seem to get crowded so I must not have the popular opinion.

Overall, I've had about 15 instructors and they all differ.  There are those who don't say much during class (boring) and others who won't shut up for a second (annoying).  I find the best instructors to be those who fall in the middle, the ones who give instructions but don't ramble on about nothing.  Those who don't say much have boring classes because there's very little variety in what the class is asked to do.  Those who talk too much just like hearing their own voices and usually end up talking nonsense interspersed with instructions to the class.  

There's one instructor who really doesn't say much during class, but every few minutes she yells into her mike, "Oh, YEAH!"  It makes me laugh because I always think, "Oh, NO!"  I find her classes incredibly boring so I pass when she teaches.  

One particular instructor has a sequence in her class where she tells us to close our eyes, concentrate on the beat of the music, let everything go, and just concentrate on spinning.  That's a great idea except she won't shut up for even one second so it's too distracting to concentrate on anything but her annoying chatter.

Most instructors recognize that not everybody is able to do whatever the rest of the class is doing so they leave you alone.  For example, if the class is standing up but you sit on the saddle instead, that's okay.  Or, conversely, if they tell you to pedal while sitting but you want to stand up, that's okay, too.  If you're supposed to pedal at the highest resistance but you can only do low resistance, that's fine.  In other words, each student does what they can do.   However, I've encountered a couple of instructors who made me their personal project during class.  My tendency is to look down at the floor when I'm pedaling and one particular instructor will come up to me several times during class to tell me to keep my head up and chest up.  Why?  I prefer to look at the floor.  The whole time I'm sitting there thinking, "Just leave me alone!  Go away!"  She approached me about this so often that I stopped attending her classes.  

There was one particular instructor who left me speechless.  I was already clipped into my bike and ready to go when she arrived.  The schedule only said it was a "cycle" class, but I soon realized it was going to be a fusion class when the instructor told everybody to get 2 lb. free weights.  I contemplated leaving, but I was already there and so I stayed for her class.  I figured I could just listen to the music and I'd do my own thing.  The class was pretty full and I was in the back, off to the side, not bothering anyone.  At the time I was working on standing up while pedaling and that's all I wanted to do, but she kept the class on the saddle so we could use the free weights.  I wasn't interested in that so I just pedaled standing up to the beat of the music.  This particular instructor's music was a bit too loud and I couldn't hear her instructions, plus she kept talking non stop about nonsense so I tuned her out while I listened to the music.  About half way through the class, she actually got off her bike, walked over to me specifically, and told me I HAD to do what the rest of the class was doing.  I couldn't believe it.  In all the classes I've attended this past year, no instructor has ever told anyone they HAD to do what the rest of the class was doing.  Needless to say, I never attended her class again.

I can't say I enjoy spin itself while I'm doing it because it's always challenging (i.e., torturous), but I feel great when it's over.  By the time class ends, I'm usually drenched in sweat, I already drank two bottles of water (6 glasses total) during class, and I feel like I got a great workout.  More than anything, I'm proud of myself for doing it.  Whenever I don't want to go, I tell myself it's "only" 50 minutes and I can do anything for 50 minutes.  Once I'm there, I'm fine.  The hard part is getting me to class, but I still manage to go several times a week.  Since I've been spinning regularly, my bad knee feels better and I noticed that my walks have improved in speed and endurance, too.  Not only am I burning calories during class, but I'm getting stronger legs, too.

As I explained in my post titled "Peer pressure at the gym" dated September 29, 2015, the biggest mistake people make when they're attending their first spin class is they try with all their might to keep up with everybody else.  It's nearly impossible that they'll be able to keep up so they end up killing themselves and they usually leave at the halfway point, I'm sure feeling embarrassed and defeated.  The second biggest mistake they make is they never return because it's just too hard.  I've seen it happen time and time again.  It took me months of going regularly before I could stand up and keep up with the rest of the class.  And now it's taking me months to work on higher resistance.  Just as with anything physical, it takes time to see improvement.  The key is to keep going and not give up.
    

There are times that I can keep up with the class without any problems, there are times that I can't keep up at all, and there are times that I do better than most in the class.  No matter what, I keep going and I keep pushing myself to do more.  The most important thing to me is that I keep going and trying.

What I've found to be most fascinating about myself this past year is that I've never been one to push myself when it comes to physical activity, yet these days I keep challenging myself to do more.  It's all thanks to Fla, of course, because she's always pushing me to be better.  Whereas the old me always thought, "I can't do that," the new me always thinks, "I can do it!  At least I have to try!"  The end result is I can see the rewards of my efforts and it's been incredibly satisfying both emotionally and physically - regardless of what the scale says!