Norman Lazarus
is in a spin (class)
Norman is a physiology professor at King’s College London, a former Audax champion and author of The Lazarus Strategy: How to Age Well and Wisely
“I do not recall ever jumping in and out of the saddle like someone who has just had a bee sting on the bottom”
In the middle of winter my time riding on the road plummets. The main reason is that I get cold very easily at 85. I’m not sure exactly why. My bald head freezes and I need a beanie? Much of the literature suggests that this response to cold could be down to downgrading of physiological heat regulation as one ages. On the other hand, there’s research that this may not be the case.
Whatever the reason, my hands and feet get very cold and the sheer discomfort tends to spoil the ride. Sadly, wearing thick gloves interferes with gear changes. So in response to these reactions, I’ve tried spin classes in order to keep my muscles trim.
A side issue here… I know that some older or indeed even younger folk put on weight through the winter. This is because they’re using exercise as part of their weight-loss regime. I’ve stressed many times and will continue to stress that weight is controlled by eating the correct amount of calories for your age and gender. Cycling is to keep your physiology in tip-top shape. Keep in mind that, as you age, the amount of time on a bike will decrease but the amount of calories in a kilogram of fat remains the same forever. That amount equates to 7700 calories. That is a huge amount of energy. Under the ever-decreasing physiology of ageing, how are you going to continue to control your weight by physical activity alone? Especially over those last two or three decades? If you control your weight by your eating then that problem falls away.
It’s interesting that many spinning classes still emphasise the number of calories that you’ll burn in the class. Exercise needs calories and because more than half the calories consumed will be glucose, all those calories need to be replaced. Keep exercise and weight control in two separate boxes.
I’m also interested in why instructors seem to have the idea that intensity of exercise and health are correlated. They are not. For us oldies, health can be defined as doing sufficient exercise to keep the disease-related effects of being sedentary at bay. This means regularly operating at about 60 per cent of maximum heart rate. For me this works out at about 81 beats per minute (220 – 85) x 60 per cent. Any physical activity or movement beyond that does not increase health, it increases the ability to stray into competitive domains. This is not for oldies.
Anyway, back to spinning. The class is full of young people. That is fine but the cycle regime is geared to their young abilities and not to my old body. When I cycle on the roads I tend to try and keep my cycling tempo as smooth as I am able. I do not recall ever jumping in and out of the saddle like someone who has just had a bee sting on the bottom. There also seems to be obsessive attention in spin class as to where hands are placed. So the jumping up and down is accompanied by trying to play jazz on the bars. This jack-in-the-box stuff really plays havoc with my knees. Of course, there’s no way I can keep up with the sudden increases in tempo of pedalling that accompany a drop in resistance. I think this is supposed to simulate downhill cycling. Now, when I’m going downhill I lean down over the bars with my bum in the air in order to decrease wind resistance. That’s the way I go downhill. Why on earth would I spin pedals at that speed against no resistance?
The accompanying music is okay but I’m now faced with another problem. I enjoy trying to keep my pedal cadence to the tempo of the music. But I cannot. I just cannot jump up and down with the agility of a kangaroo, so the tempo of my pedalling and the music are always out of sync. Very frustrating. I still reluctantly attend classes but I find the whole experience a poor substitute for being out there, exploring, on the bike at the speed I prefer – and, ultimately, need.