With celeb fans such as Victoria Beckham and Vanessa Hudgens, spinning is a fantastic workout that anyone can try, and it can also be really enjoyable. Here are 8 reasons why spinning is the best workout ever.
Running is a great form of cardio, but that pounding on a treadmill or concrete ground can have a serious impact on your joints, particularly your knees. So if you are susceptible to joint problems or just find that running isn’t for you, spinning is a wonderful alternative. Spinning is low impact – meaning you can work your ass off and it won’t affect your joints.
HIIT – known fully as high-intensity interval training – is a short but intense workout that uses short bursts of all-out effort followed by a recovery period. It has surged in popularity over the last few years, and spinning is one of the ways you can incorporate HIIT into your active lifestyle. By performing sprint bursts and then pedalling steady, and repeating the whole cycle (pardon the pun) you’re really challenging your body and building up your stamina. One of the best things about HIIT is that it is supposed to be shorter than a regular workout, so if you don’t have a lot of time, a 20-minute spin class will work wonders!
Most workouts either focus on cardio or strength, but spinning combines the two! Most spin classes use a balanced amount of faster sprints and slower controlled cycling with adding resistance. The use of resistance, simply managed with a dial that your instructor will ask you to turn up or down, is a really effective way of toning and strengthening your leg muscles, which are of course the biggest and one of the most important muscle groups. At the end of a spin class, you’ll be out of breath and your muscles will feel worked.
Of course, you’re predominately working the legs during spinning, but one of the best and often surprising reasons why spinning is such a great workout is that you’re actually working muscles without realising it. When you think about what you’re doing, spinning is actually a full body workout. During standing climbs, you’re toning your glutes as you push through that heavy resistance. You are also working the arms and shoulders as you stay composed while standing, and during those very heavy standing climbs, you have to keep your core tight and use it to literally push your legs through the workout.
A spin class brings not only a great workout, but a sense of belonging and teamwork as the whole class works together. It can be a brilliant form of motivation to join a class, and you needn’t be intimidated – it will not be full of super-fit athletes. When I first started going to spin class, I was nervous that everyone would be better than me at it, but I was surprised to find that I was one of the youngest in my class – by about 30 years! Spinning really is for everyone. It’s all about supporting and motivating each other, as well as having the support of the instructor, who won’t let you rest when you shouldn’t!
Group workouts, not your thing? That’s okay too. Once you get the hang of how spinning works and how it is different from regular cycling, just find yourself a bike at the gym or even buy one for your home. I bought one when I found I didn’t have as much time for the gym, plus spinning became the only class I would never miss! Just remember that you need a proper spin bike: it needs to have the resistance dial, the lowered handlebars and the straps for your feet. If you are still unsure about how spinning works, please talk to an instructor – it’s really important to do it right for not only a great workout but to prevent injury.
Even if you’ve got a great playlist, workouts like running and swimming can eventually become a bit monotonous. Spin classes are far from boring. What differs spin from regular cycling is the variation in what you’re doing on the bike. The instructor will assign songs to specific phases of the workout so that you’re always changing pace, resistance, and position. Spinning usually matches the beat of the song to how fast you’re pedalling. For example, you’ll be doing light resistance sprints to fast pop or house music, and for slower, heavy resistance cycling, you’ll cycle against the beat of a melodic rock song. The variety in a spin workout is what makes it so challenging, calorie-burning and fun.
Perhaps one of the greatest things about spinning, as it uses HIIT, is something called EPOC. This means excess post-oxygen consumption, also known as afterburn. Essentially, your body continues to burn calories for up to 24 hours after you have completed the workout, as the body has to work strenuously hard to restore the oxygen levels back to normal after such an intense workout. So if you burn, for example, 500 calories in a 45-minute spin class, that number will continue to rise for nearly a day! This is why high-intensity workouts such as spin are so effective.
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