If you've never tried a spin class before, you're missing out! I'm a little biased as teach 2-5 spin classes each week but I promise you, you won't regret it if you give it a shot! 

The Benefits of Spin

Spin is a great form of cardio. It's lower impact than running and supports muscle building rather than working against it. For the entirety of the workout, you're challenging yourself with gear on the bike, which helps you build strong quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core. 

As a bikini competitor (currently in my improvement season), my goal is to add muscle size to my legs so it's vital that I choose my cardio wisely. I've found that cycling has had little to no effect on my ability to build my legs while also helping me to burn major fat. 

There's also a fabulous sense of community in an indoor spin class. You'll notice you feel a lot more motivated to push yourself when you look around the room and see people of all ages, sizes, and activity levels working so hard. 

And of course, spin wouldn't be complete without a killer playlist. If it's curated correctly, you should almost forget you're working out and start feeling like maybe you're out at a club on a Friday night with a group of fit girlfriends, all dancing to the rhythm of the upbeat party music. 

DIY Spin Class

Whether or not you decide to sign up for a class, you can totally hold a class all by yourself! I've included one of my recent playlists so you can give it a shot yourself. 

Get ready to break a serious sweat!

(Don't worry! The drills are explained below the workout so you can follow along even if you've never been on a spin bike.) 

The Drills Explained

Warm Up

During our warm up we always do some light pedaling and some upper body stretches. We stretch the lats, shoulders, triceps, wrists, and chest. As we moved into the second song of this playlist, we took our warm up a step further and completed 30 seconds in several RPM ranges: 

90-100 RPM

80-90 RPM

70-80 RPM

60-70 RPM

With each 30 second interval, we added gear to the bike to bring us into the new RPM range. 

Jumps

During jumps, I advise the group to take their gear to a 6 on a scale of 1-10 rating their perceived exertion (10 being the most intense, heaviest gear they can put on the bike and pedal at 60 RPM)

We transition from pedaling in the seat to standing, and then back to the seat. 

These transitions should always feel slow and controlled.

Don't use your body's momentum to transition. Keep the core tight and push up and down with your legs.

Sprints

When we sprint, I encourage riders to find 100-110 RPM. Any higher than 110 RPM puts unnecessary pressure on your knees and can cause you to lose control of your pedal stroke. 

If you find yourself bouncing up and down when sprinting in the saddle, raise your gear a little bit. 

If you find yourself pumping with your upper body to get through each pedal stroke, lower your gear a bit. 

Climbing

When we climb, we most often take our RPM to 60-70 RPM. This allows us to put some nice heavy gear on the bike. 

Don't let your RPM fall below 60. This, again, isn't safe for your knees. 

As with sprints, if you find yourself pumping with your upper body, take some gear off the bike.

If you're in a standing climb, hands should travel to hand position 3, which means they are wrapped around the very top of the handle bars. Keep your back flat and your hips back over the saddle for hamstring activation and proper form. 

Rolling Hills

When we incorporate rolling hills, the group climbs uphill (usually finding their 8 on a 1-10 scale of perceived exertion). Then on the way down, we lower the resistance until they find their RPE 6 and we speed up. 

Sometimes we stand uphill and sit downhill. Sometimes we do the reverse. Sometimes we do a whole hill standing and a whole hill seated.

Feel free to get creative and spice it up each time you try this drill!

30/20/10 Drills

This is currently my FAVORITE drill! It's amazing and the class really enjoys it... maybe we all have a love/ hate relationship with it. Haha!

We want to maintain 80-110 RPM for the WHOLE song. It will get harder as the song progresses.

For 30 seconds, we find our 6 gear wise on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most gear we can handle for 60 RPM.) This means nice, moderate gear. 

Once 30 seconds is up, we add 2 gears to the bike and speed up for 20 seconds.

At 20 seconds, we add 4 gears to the bike and perform at max output for 10 seconds.

Then we return to our 30 seconds of moderate gear.

We rotate through these intervals for the duration of the song. 

Cool, right?! 

Cool Down  

We take the gear back down for the cool down and take a water break while continuing to pedal. Once the heart rate starts coming down, we do some of the upper body stretches from our warm up.

Then we dismount the bike. We do standing quad, hamstring, and glute stretches.

Always make sure to also do some foam rolling post class for optimal recovery!

And that's it! 

I hope you enjoyed this and give this workout a shot on your own! 

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