Not ready to return to the spin studio?
Create your own indoor cycling experience at home
Rooms full of dozens of bikes packed together, music blaring, instructors shouting a mix of directions and motivational messages, and participants whooping as if they are at a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden.
That was the indoor cycling experience, and even people who weren’t regulars at spinning studios seem to be missing it.
It may be a while before those gyms reopen to the endorphinhungry masses at full capacity, so spinning enthusiasts and newbies alike are looking for ways to replicate the experience at home.
Here’s some advice on how to keep pedaling with a community of sweaty strangers from afar.
Ride from home, live
The closest you can get to a real spinning studio experience is by streaming a live class or pulling up a prerecorded session on the website of Peloton — the maker of the indoor cycling bike — which has a library full of content.
Earlier this month, the Times reported on the phenomenon of Peloton panic buying. As the severity and longevity of the coronavirus pandemic have become clear, consumers have flocked to buy home exercise equipment, from a $5 jump rope to the $2,245 Peloton bike, which offers streaming classes for an extra $39 a month.
In April, Peloton reached a record when more than 23,000 people joined one of its live classes.
Usually, classes see live participation of about 500 people, with thousands of riders tuning in to participate retroactively.
“The energy has been so electrifying,” said Alex Toussaint, a Peloton bike instructor. Toussaint, who usually teaches in the high-tech Peloton studio in New York City, has been leading sessions from his apartment, and said the number of riders participating in his live classes had reached an all-time high. “The community is showing up every day for their rides, 7,000 to 20,000 strong every single time.”
No Peloton bike? You can try the classes with a 30-day free trial of the content. Many local fitness companies are looking for creative ways to keep an income stream, and renting out their equipment, including spin bikes, during this time has proved successful.
Many gyms ran out of equipment to rent almost immediately, but you could also purchase a bike online and get it delivered. (SoulCycle’s $2,500 home bike is on sale and expected to ship this month.)
Some popular instructors from other boutique gyms, including Akin Akman of Aarmy, are hosting their own live spin classes on Instagram, while other studios host spin classes on Zoom and require participants to sign up and pay online before class begins.
Hop on your spinning bike, prop up your computer or smartphone, squint a bit, and it may almost feel like you’re there. Kind of.
Ride from home, on your own time
If you are not wedded to the live-class experience, there is a growing selection of indoor cycling equipment that can be connected to a variety of cycling apps on a tablet or your smartphone.
Most bikes are $699 to $2,500, including the Diamondback 1260Sc, Bowflex C6, the Myx, NordicTrack Commercial S22i Studio Cycle, Keiser M3i and the Horizon Fitness IC7.9. Some have their own integrated apps, and others allow you to connect to apps like Zwift and Rouvy that focus on road-style cycling and racing. These apps also have some live-ride options but are more geared to cyclists than spinning enthusiasts.
Ride from home, on your own road bike
If you’d like to ride from home on your own outdoor bike, buy bike rollers or an indoor bike trainer, which secures the rear wheel and bike frame (about $100 and up). In effect, the trainer allows you to bike inside as if you were outside. And without the distractions of riding outside (potholes, people, squirrels), you may be able to get an experience closer to that of a spinning class.
You can also get strategic with how you set up your bike, using speed and cadence sensors, and interactive programs. You could be at home on your own bike in a small apartment but feel like you are cycling through the Tour de Suisse on Rouvy with video from along the course.
Or to feel like you are tackling a workout in the park with a group of friends, you could coordinate a session together on Zwift, where participants get their own avatar and it appears as if they are biking together.
Ride outside, safely
Perhaps the best and most affordable way to keep up your cycling habit: Bike outside while following all traffic laws and social-distancing guidelines.
Many spin classes are formatted around a series of intervals or speed repeats, something that’s easily replicable on your own outdoors. Tara Parsons, a cycling coach in New York City, recommends starting with a simple timer to do your own intervals.
You could do an intense session where you go all out for 30 seconds to a minute, followed by a three-minute recovery. As you improve your fitness, you can decrease that recovery time to one or two minutes between hard efforts. Make sure you are focusing on your leg speed, or rotations per minute, Parsons said, so that your effort is pushing both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. If you want to do longer intervals, do five or 10 minutes at a perceived effort level of seven to eight out of 10, and then break with a recovery session of the equal amount.
It’s probably best to tone down the dance moves that are popular with some instructors. Choreography and cracks in the street might not go well together.