SoulCycle

Aspire to Inspire…that’s written in BIG OL letters on the studio wall at SoulCycle. At least at the studio I was in at their East 83rd location.

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The class I took was 45 minutes long and started out with a warm up followed by some hill climbs. After about 20 minutes we started with the hand weights. It’s hard enough to concentrate on the beat of the music when I’m just focused on my spinning. But throw in some hand weights and all coordination goes out the window. I was only using 2lb weights but boy they felt like 20lb. The weight work only went on for about 10 minutes. Then some speed work and eventually cool down/stretching.

I was disappointed that the bikes were completely bare bones as in no computer whatsoever so my Garmin was useless other than as a glorified HRM. Even if I had brought my foot pod, I’m not sure there’s any way to attach it to a cycling shoe. So boo for that. Also because this was an HBO’s Girls themed ride, I feel that the instructor was likely limited in her music choices. Most of the songs I didn’t recognize, not that that’s anything new. They seemed to be emo female artists or female artists singing emo songs. The only 2 songs I recognized were Single Ladies and Breathe (3AM). The music really did nothing for me in terms of getting me mentally into the ride. I much prefer the loud thumpa thumpa club music that was coming from the other, not free ride, studio.

I liked the instructor alright, though she was definitely no WIL. I told her before class that I was having some issues with my knee and may not ride out of the saddle the whole time. She said that was fine. She even announced before class that any time you need to sit down, please do so. You would never hear those words come out of WIL’s mouth!

There were points during the ride where I thought I was going to throw up, and other points where I was pretty sure I could have been doing more. I burned 291 calories in 45 minutes which isn’t quite the 400-550 they purport on their website, but I knew I wasn’t working at 100% either. I’m going to another class next next weekend with my friend Lara. This will be a 60-min class and hopefully no Girls themed emo songs to speak of.

While I enjoyed the class I took this morning, thankfully it wasn’t an OMG moment where I decided I need to sell all my belongings, including my body, so I could afford 14 classes a week. Truth be told based on this class I would take WIL over SoulCycle any day of the week.

15 Notes/ Hide

  1. benitle said: SoulCycle is ridiculously expensive! I went to their Union Square studio once and it was dark, smelly and overrated, imho. I’m just happy that my gym has an awesome spin studio that’s included.
  2. regainingmymoxy said: WIL would appreciate that. He hates Soul Cycle more than he hate slack asses in class…
  3. runningforme said: Try FlyWheel! There’s a studio UWS (83th and Columbus I think) and it’s cheaper! $32 for class, shoes, and water! First class is free!
  4. thisfearlesslife said: hmm…are these classes hard to get into? maybe i’ll try one when i visit!
  5. abitofsilliness said: Aw man, the music is the whole reason to go to SoulCycle right?!?!? That’s a bummer and a bad advertisement for them. Mistake!
  6. yogawarriornyc posted this