Beauty

Experience a pumping soundtrack and a thumping heart at a Tribe Cycle session

Take a spin with the crew at Tribe Cycle

The treatment

A 45-minute Tribe Cycle session at the new Tribe Yoga Leith Walk, £12, or five classes for £50, ten for £95. Other multi-class deals available, as well as monthly membership from £85 for unlimited classes.

Why go?

It’s too chilly for outdoor exercise, so get along to one of these heat-generating spin sessions, reminiscent of New York celebrity favourite class, Soulcycle.

Our spy says

I should have got the bus to Tribe’s new studio. Instead, I cycle all the way across town. Twit.

Thankfully, by the time I’ve changed into my vest top, trainers and leggings, my battery has slightly recharged, and I convene with the trendy youngsters in the studio.

My cheery instructor, Kat, sets the saddle on my stationary bike to the right height (at hip level, so my knees are still slightly bent when the pedal is at its lowest). I’m glad she’s doing it, because it takes a while for my eyes to adjust in this candlelit space, which has a clubby feel and a huge mural of the road through Glencoe on the back wall (so, when you look in the mirror, you can imagine you’re spinning along the A82).

She also shows me the dial in the middle of the bike, which decreases or increases resistance.

After a bit of a stretch, and yogic affirmations – today, the word is “authenticity” – things go from nought to 100mph (literally, if these bikes weren’t fixed to the floor).

The playlist volume is turned up, so you get into the groove (and presumably the weeping of the class is muffled). There’s Stevie Wonder, Shakira, and lots of other poppy tunes, with pedalling that’s choreographed to the beat of the songs.

Sometimes we’re in the saddle, other times we stand on the pedals, with Kat shouting words of encouragement. The hardest bits for me are when we’re out of the saddle, leaning forward, but sprinting with our legs. While Kat’s pins rocket round like a hamster in a wheel, mine are more like the badly lubricated pistons of an old steam engine.

While pedalling, we also do pressups on the handlebars, and lift in and out of the saddle.

Sounds complicated, but all the moves are simple to follow, and I only feel like I’m reaching my cardiovascular peak when we get past the sweaty halfway point. Towards the end, we pause to pick up the handheld weights on brackets behind the bike, and do some arm exercises.

Another couple of other tracks, then we dismount, with legs like jelly.

The results

I’m high as a kite, and feel as spent as one should after a good exercise class. Now for the cycle home, if someone will tow me. n Tribe Yoga Leith Walk (35-36 Haddington Place, Edinburgh, 0131652 3924, www.tribe.yoga)