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| - First things first - I am a road cyclist and a spin class junkie (though I prefer the term "aficionado"). Last week, I posted the following to my Facebook status after yet another predictably boring YMCA spin class, "If 90+% of your class has us out of the saddle or doing ridiculous 'jumps', it's not a cycle class. It's an elliptical class. It is also a waste of my time."
After reading that Facebook status, a friend of mine sent me an invitation to the "Open House Week" at Flywheel Ballantyne. I had never heard of Flywheel before, but my friend said they were offering free classes all week and suggested we try them. I wrote her back saying, "Given what they charge, I'm interested in seeing how - if at all - this is different from a general spin class." Frankly, having spent hundreds of hours in YMCA spin classes over the past 3 years, I was not expecting much.
I told her as I gripped the handrail down to the parking lot to steady my legs after our first Flywheel class together: "I was wrong."
I *know* your average spin class. Nothing fazes me anymore. I'm not the most fit looking person in the room, but this bod was built to spin and spin hard. I went into the Flywheel class with the mindset that it was cute and theatrical with dim lights and stadium style elevation for the bikes, but that it probably wouldn't be very challenging.
As I said though, I was wrong. There are some key things that Flywheel does that make it much more challenging than your everyday, garden variety spin class.
First, there is the "tech pack" attached to every bike. Most spin classes have a manual dial, or a dimly lit display that shows your RPM's and other stats. You can walk in, saddle up on a bike, and sandbag the whole damn workout and no one's the wiser. This is NOT THE CASE at Flywheel. Your "tech pack" is a brightly lit display, easily visible to all from several feet away. It shows your RPM, Torque, current power output, and cumulative power output. Gone are the good ol' days when your spin instructor would tell you to "turn the dial 75%" to add more tension and you mimed that, while leisurely pedaling. It's been replaced by cold, hard, brightly lit numbers. Forget the other competitive aspects of the class, when I realized that the six people to my left could easily make out my "tech pack" numbers in the dark, I stopped sandbagging and started sweating.
There's a second highly competitive aspect to the ride, the "Torq Board". During "demo" mode, which is what Flywheel Ballantyne is using during their Open House week, the "Torq Board" shows the top 20 bikes. The instructor flashes the "Torq Board" during a few key sprints of the session, and you can see how your power output measures up against everyone else's power output. I'm not the fittest person in the room, but when I saw that I was "on the board" out of 35 people, I rode harder to see how I could hold up. When you sign up for Flywheel, you can opt-in to get your name on the board to see how you measure up against others.
The final, most unique aspect of Flywheel classes, is the 5-ish minutes of upper body work with 2 and 4lb bars that are available at each bike. At first I scoffed at this "workout" with such light weights, but around the 3rd to the last song, your instructor guides you to whip these out. I grabbed both (6 lbs) at the start feeling this would be easy. Soon, I dispensed of the 4lb bar in favor of just the 2lb bar. Two minutes in, I was in agony, struggling to keep proper form. Suffice to say, cycling "aficionados" such as myself haven't had a lot of upper body work opportunities thrust upon them. It was enlightening how weak I was. The upper body workout toward the end is one of my favorite (or, perhaps least favorite) parts.
I have been to two Flywheel classes, and I'm signed up for a third on Friday through their Open House week. I am planning on taking a fourth one on Sunday as well. The prices are somewhat expensive. Individual classes are $18/per though you can buy packs of 20 for $280, making them $14/per. This is still too rich for my blood, but through10/31, they're featuring a BOGO deal on the 5 & 10 class packs, so conceivably you could get 20 classes for $150, or $7.50 per.
It should be noted that Flywheel Sports offers a truly "all inclusive" experience at that high price, though. Each class includes use of a pair of cycling shoes, towel service, bottles of water and fruit, as well as access to lockers. I usually stuff these things into my gym bag before heading to the Y, but it's nice to have it all provided for you. Is it $18 per class nice? I don't know, but there you have it.
My final word on Flywheel classes is this: The instructors know what they're doing. They are true professionals, capable of motivating you to a spin workout harder than you'd get anywhere else locally. If you are in a rut with your local gym's spin classes, give Flywheel a try. I used to think all spin classes were all the same. Now, I know better.
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