When I was a student at the University of Central Florida, Hurricane Charley hit and caused some pretty intense damage on campus. The UCF gym was affected pretty badly and for months students didn’t have access to the amazing workout facility.
UCF worked to move weights into other rooms around campus, but everything felt very out of whack and I began limiting my workouts to group exercise classes since they were well organized. Spinning was my favorite! (This was also during my “cardio queen” phase, so I wasn’t too bummed out about not having access to weights at the time.)
This morning I took a spinning class and remembered why I liked it so much. Spinning really is such a great workout. Talk about sweaty!
Though I used to take spinning classes at UCF and post-college at our gym in Orlando, this was my first time taking a class at our gym in Ocala.
Our gym apparently spent some dough on some snazzy new spinning bikes! I’ve never seen anything like them.
(Source)
At first the bikes looked totally normal, but after adjusting my seat and hopping on, I noticed that there wasn’t a nob to rotate to change gears, but a little silver thing to tweak up and down that altered the resistance.
(It’s the silver piece right below the handlebars.)
The bike was also equipped with a computer that told riders the following information:
- RPM
- Power Output Displays in Watts
- Heart Rate (Polar compatible)
- Pedaling Time
- Gear (Resistance)
- Odometer / Trip Distance
Knowing my RPM and resistance level was incredibly helpful because the instructor would use it as a reference point, saying things like, “Your RPM should be between 90 and 95.” I’ve never really had a direct measure of my work effort in spinning before and loved having a way to make sure I was working in the zone I was supposed to be in. It was also neat to see how “far” I biked at the end of the 45-minute class.
It made me think that taking a treadmill class that did something similar would be really cool. I’m not sure how a gym could work that out since treadmills are usually located with all of the other cardio machines, but I think a group treadmill class would be awesome! I’d love to tackle treadmill interval workouts and intense incline walking with other people by my side, motivating me to kick my booty!
Breakfast
Breakfast this morning was the usual egg, cheese and jelly sandwich.
I are my breakfast at the kitchen table with a hot mug of Georgia pecan coffee. It’s a rainy morning in Ocala, so eating a warm breakfast sandwich and sipping on a steamy mug of coffee felt oh-so-cozy.
Still Missing Blogger Reviews Updated
Just a little head’s up that the following book reviews were added to the Still Missing review page yesterday:
- Daydreams and Shoestrings
- A Better Life with Burgers
- Peace, Love and Oats
- The Quilting Doberman
- My Freckled Life
- Beanie Bumbles
- KyRee90
- Chelsea Eats Treats
- A Year of Quick Eats
I was off my rocker earlier in the week and posted my review early, so these blogger reviews were sent my way after my review was published. Check ‘em out!
No Marathon on the Books
To avoid any confusion over yesterday’s post, I just wanted to let you guys know that I am not planning on training for a marathon (nor is my relationship with Ryan on the fritz). Those were just two examples I used for the whole “yes but/ yes and” analogy. Sorry to disappoint my running friends out there and any evil little rascals who may be rooting for the big Fagan family break up of 2012.
I will not be running billions of miles and Sadie will continue to hog a bed shared by her two loving humans.
Question of the Morning
- What is an out-of-the-box group exercise class you’d love to see offered at your gym?
In addition to the treadmill class I mentioned above, I would love some kind of a swimming group exercise class that centered around games like sharks and minnows, water polo, water volleyball, Marco Polo or something of the sort.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
HAHA that might be the best Sadie caption yet :)!
those bikes look sick- and they look like they hurt!
My gym does a treadmill class called Trekking- it’s similar to your interval workouts where the instructor tells you when to adjust your speed/incline
Those are the bikes we have too – they really make you work!!
So glad you are taking spin – it’s definitely one of my favorite workouts 🙂
I used to go to a gym that did a treadmill class. It was awesome!! It was only 30 minutes, so we weren’t hogging the treadmills too long, but it was a mix of jogging, sprints, inclines, etc. I would be nice and sweaty by the end!!
We have those same Spin bikes at my gym. I took a Spin class that was 20 minutes Spin and 20 minutes abs and I wasn’t almost dead by the end! Spin is harder that it looks!
I spent about three entire summers playing sharks and minnows every day. Ahh…memories.
LOL, Sadie needs her own website. She is hilarious!
I totally second that!! plus, she is “adorable”…I think she refuse to do it kristin, so she doesn’t wanna take the spotlight away from Julie! LOL!
So glad you’re back on the bike! 🙂 I teach at a gym that doesn’t have the meters on the handlebars yet but I’d love it if we could get some. Wattage definitely help riders to understand that when they cycle super fast with barely any resistance, or if they pound it out on the pedals super slow with tonnnnns of resistance, their wattage (or power output) isn’t as high as it could be, so they’re not really maximizing their workout even if they think they are. There’s a happy medium in the middle that’s super intense and that’s where the results happen! I actually just posted a workout this morning for the bike that you might enjoy, full of HIIT on the bike! http://wp.me/p1Y0xO-3IC Have a great Friday Julie!
In the past few months, the majority of the Central FL Y’s have gotten those bikes as well. I hated them at first, but they’re actually really cool! I love that you can see how many miles you have gone, and I tend to make it a goal of mine to ride a certain amount.
Those are the bikes they had at my old gym and I LOVED them! It took me a little while to get used to the instructor telling us what number to be on, instead of the number of turns I should make on the dial. But, I love data, so this was awesome! Enjoy!
Hah! I love Sadie’s captions. She is too cute 🙂
hahahahahaha!!! love the sadie quote. too cute
I love those spin bikes! I am always confused in class because I don’t know what I’m doing compared to everyone else!
I would love to take a class like that, you could be the instructor?!?
I love spinning class! It’s so fun an a great workout! I would love to see some sort of treadmill class too! I would also like to see my gym offer more classes around 7am…usually most of the classes are before or after 7, which does not really go with my schedule!
They have classes like that! But not at any gym I’ve been to for the very reason you stated that the treadmills are in the public area. My gym now doesn’t have classes 🙁 but it’s 24 hours and usually pretty empty so for me the positive outweighs the negative
first off those spin bikes are amazing! I love that it tells you the resistance, because I always turn the knob & don’t know if it’s high enough, low enough, etc. always a guessing game! & i think the treadmill class would be amazing, because like you, i love the interval training, but I find it sometimes hard to complete an interval session on my own without others there to push me through, I feel that I always give 120% at a spinning class because I am surrounded by others who are also pushing & an instructor who is encouraging & urgent in getting me to up that resistance and/or finish that last hill sprint!
I like those bikes; we have them at my gym. I wish I could attend spin more often. It’s just not at the right time for me. My fav instructor runs the class at 9:30 a.m. on Fridays. That’s seriously not in the cards for this workin’ girl.
I’ve still yet to try a spinning class. The one time I wanted to, I got there and found out you had to have signed up like a week beforehand, so I gave up. I’d love to try it some day! And as usual, love the Sadie pic 🙂
That’s a sweet bike! And Sadie is too cute, as always!
You went to UCF!? I went to Marshall, we were in your conference, so we’ve played you a lot in sports! I still live in the same town that my Alma Mater is in, so I could still go to my gym (which is also amazing and has a rock climbing wall), but the YMCA is only a block from my house, as opposed to 3 miles. I still swing by occasionally.
I just took my first spin class on Wednesday and loved it! I’m actually going back in a little bit for another one! I needed to mix up my gym routine a bit, and the spin class is a great way to do so!
I love those spin bikes! My old gym offered a treadmill and a spin class in front of these huge movie screens—so it looked like you were running or biking in the countryside, by the beach, etc. Super cool!
we had those bikes at my previous gym (I miss my gym! I moved…) and I LOVED them. spinning is my favorite anyhow, but those bikes made it über stellar. so glad you enjoyed 🙂
My gym in Chicago actually has treadmill classes! They’re awesome, you dont realize how amazing the workout is until after you’ve finished. It’s actually how I got started running 🙂
I would love to see an obstacle course type gym class offered! We used to do them all the time in school and I know there are outdoor ones now – how cool would it be to train for one of those through the gym?
Ugh I hate spinning, that bike hurts!
The gym near my parent’s house has a treadmill class! They actually put a piece of paper on about 10 or 15 of the machines saying “Reserved for class” and you have to sign up ahead of time. I can’t tell you how many times I wasn’t aware there was going to be a class and was so annoyed because the remaining treadmills were full! I took the class once though and it was awesome! The instructor just kind of walked around in between the treadmills giving instructions.
I’m a spin instructor so I always love hearing people say how much they enjoy it.
One of the gym I teach at has the Keiser bikes but not the computers. I’m sooooo anxious to have them though.
Another gym around here has a class called “Tread and Shed”. It’s a treadmill class that uses the treadmills right in the middle of the cardio area. Like you suggested, it’s predominantly intervals. They put reserved signs on the front row of treadmills. It’s only 30 minutes so it’s not too bad. What is weird though is that they have a stereo and a mic right there so pretty much everyone hears what is going on. If the instructor has good music, it’s great, if not….
My gym has this same class and I love it! It got me into running and less than a year later ive run 2 half marathons. Its a great way to bust out and interval workout, and it seems like a super easy class to teach because the instructor just says what incline and how hard you should be working!
Love the Sadie caption! haha
I would love to see a Body Pump class or glow in the dark spin class neither are that out of the box but our classes are fairly boring!
Did you know that today is National Doughnut Day? I hope you and Ryan celebrate!
I can’t believe I never thought of a group treadmill class….but it sounds fantastic. You should spearhead the movement, might the next big fitness craze!
We have those bikes at the college i go to and the room is black light, its awesome!
my gym has those too, and i was so confused because i thought the lever was a little emergency stop. i really like how you can see the distance and your rpm/resistance!
Can we have a “dance like a fool to 90s music” workout? Ooh, or a roller blading one?
I want those spin bikes at my gym! Spinning is by far my favorite! As for what classes I’d like to see, I’d say maybe a jump rope class. I’ve been wanting to get into that more and a group class would be fun. I also love Body Pump, but they don’t have that class at the local Ys where I live.
When I joined a new gym and tried those bikes for the first time, I was blown away! The readout is SO handy!
When I was in college, I took a water aerobics course as a required exercise credit. I was an avid runner at the time and the difficulty of the workouts really surprised me! The water resistance works every muscle in your body and before you know it, you’re sweating like crazy. It’s funny because I used to think that classes like that were just for older crowds. I’d do another class again in a heartbeat!
I am a current college student and we have the same exact bikes! Needless to say after my spin class I couldn’t walk for a day. -_- I would like to see the treadmill workout class! That would be fun! 🙂 Have a great day
I would love to have the RPM meter on a spinning bike!
Was the seat more comfortable too? The seats on the bikes at my gym usually hurt my tail bone
I always wanted to try a pole dancing class. It would be an awesome upper body workout!
A treadmill class would be innovative. You should pitch it to your gym and offer to market it and lead a couple classes at the beginning!
My husband and I always laugh and say we could never split up because neither of us could live without our dog, Harold!
We only have plain stationary bikes at my college, no spin bikes. They are very boring!
wow, those are some pretty fancy schmancy bikes! the gym that i used to belong to actually did have a treadmill class. they had it during the week mid morning and just reserved most of the treadmills for about 45 minutes for the class. at first i thought a lot of people would be annoyed by this, but then i realized that the gym did a really good job at making it aware to everyone with signs and everything that the treadmills would be reserved during that specific time slot. i never tried the class out, but it looked fun!
I tried spinning a few times while in college and I wish I’d done it more – luckily I’m going back to college so I’m planning on giving spinning another chance!
when I was reading your post yesterday I was thinking, oh golly, the comments she’s gonna get 😛
I exercise at home, but when I’m on vacation I do appreciate the fancy-smancy exercise equipment.
never taken a group exercise class before, just short freebies. For me it would be more about the right price than the right class.
ha! apparently i should’ve been a little clearer!
I think you were pretty darn clear Julie. God it must be so tiring to always be conscious, and aware of every little thing that you may say that may offend or confuse someone. It seems like you can’t engage in a decent conversation topic without the haters trying to bring you down. It’s so sad. But please don’t stop!
I thought it was a brilliant post, and you used good examples, which are no doubt quite applicable to many of your readers.
P.s the caption for Sadie is PERFECT 🙂
Those bikes are awesome! Whenever I go to a spinning class I’m always curious about how far I’ve biked and I can never figure out the correct RPM’s. I’d love to go to some sort of adult gymnastics class. I know that’s not technically exercise in its truest form but I think it’d be so much fun!
I took a class through http://www.orangetheoryfitness.com/ and it got us on treadmills with heart rate monitors strapped to us and then there was a tv monitor around the room that let you know what “zone” you were in. It was pretty awesome to understand that how hard I pushed myself on my own was not even close to how hard they could push me.
Those bikes look awesome! And I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to have a group exercise class focused around treadmills! So funny that you mentioned it!
I finally quit my membership after not using it for a year, because about a year ago I signed up for an AM boot camp that runs M-F, and incorporates every exercise under the sun mixed with some running. During the summer months, you have the option to do “amphibious” boot camp, which is two pool workouts a week and three land workouts a week. I LOVE it. And on the side, I’ve been going to a dedicated spinning studio 1-2 times per week for some straight up cardio (though they do offer spin + weights and spin + barre classes) that I started through a RueLaLa deal and now are completely free thanks to a work/trade program. It’s so freeing to not have a gym membership and be trapped into whatever the gym offers (which would decrease monthly), though I’m not sure what is offered in Ocala for you. You should start your own boot camp!
they have those spinning bikes at my gym too and i love it! 🙂