Monday, February 24, 2014

Flying off the Handle Bars….My First Flywheel Class

It’s been on my 2014 Goals List since January 1st- get my body back in shape- the fact I sometimes huff and puff up the stairs from the T probably says a lot. So when I had the opportunity to join a bloggers event at Flywheel Boston with fellow blogger Victoria from LostBostBlog, I’d figured no time like the present to jump back into the workout scene.



Flywheel is new to Boston, located right in the Prudential Center right next to Crazy Dough’s Pizza & P.F. Chang’s, (I’m assuming this was done intentionally, eat then burn off the calories). I’ve walked by the place many times always taking interest in finding out what ‘stadium cycling’ meant. I got to find out as soon I was in the door. It was a little chaotic in the waiting area as people were coming out of class and we were preparing for our class. When I went to check-in, the girl at the desk asked for my shoe size; I stood there for a few seconds wondering: 1. why is she asking me for my shoe size, are we bowling? 2. what’s my shoe size? I admit, I got rather anxious when I saw the shoes that we were actually going to be strapped on the bike, (I can only imagine myself getting dizzy or losing my balance and half falling over in front of everyone stuck on the bike), but I told myself just to take my time and do the best I can since it’s been so long since I’ve done any sort of workout.



I was able to find Victoria in the crowd and we found bikes on the top level in the corner, (which was awesome in the event I was to be called out for going to slow…luckily, it wasn’t like that at all!), strapped ourselves in and began pedaling. Our instructor was Rachele, who introduced and educated us as to what we would be expecting- a lot of sweating and a lot of ass-whooping- bring it on!


As soon as Rachele finished explaining our workout segment, the room went dark, the music stared blaring and it was time to get the wheels grinding and off we went. I kept myself at a steady pace almost the entire time, but I did push myself a few times- couldn’t help it with the music going and the TorqBoard showing the progress of everyone in attendance…I think my bike number showed up there once, but it made me want to push harder.

As the tempo was going faster, and I was sweating more and more, I started to realize that my arms probably weren’t going to get a workout today, as this was a spin class. Oh, no, I was very wrong. During the class, Rachele told us to reach down and grab one of these baton type sticks that weighed only about 2-4lbs, not too bad, until we started to spin and do small arm lifts at the same time…the kind that feel worse than bench pressing 300lbs, since we were hitting all the small muscles that usually go unnoticed when exercising.

We did the baton lifts for about 5 minutes then it was back to just spin for one last hard push and then a cool down. (Phew)! When all was said and done, I was a little wobbly at first, but found my footing and was able to walk out of the class feeling hot, very sweaty but really good. It was nice getting back on the saddle and working myself like I used to and I really want to keep feeling this way, so I’ll be continuing to work my body.  The only downside to spin in general, at least for me, was the fact there were no butt pads that would be the only thing I would request before a spin class, it can hurt after a while!



As we were packing up the leave, we were given a great swag bag and asked to enter our names in for a raffle drawing…good thing I did, because I won a 5 Class Card…needless to say, I’ll be back for more spin!



If you ever wanted to try a spin class, there really is no excuse not to try Flywheel as your first class is F-R-E-E! Yes, free, so give it a try, what do you have to lose but sweat and more to gain when you exercise! 

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