Ain’t no joke!

This morning I took my first spin class EVER! I decided last Friday that I would take one of my gym friend’s classes. I’ve been thinking about it for quit some time, but for whatever reason I have been a little nervous about trying it.

I walked in at 8:30 this morning and Denise, spin instructor, got me fitted and situated on my bike. Luckily, I wasn’t the only new person in the class so I felt a little more at ease that I would be experiencing the first time with a few other newbies.

The class was about an hour, maybe a little longer. It was one of the most challenging things I’ve experienced in awhile. We did a lot of jumps which are movements from sitting, standing, and squatting low; lots of sprints, up and down in tension, hills…. Forgive my lack of “spin lingo,” I’ve got a lot to learn.

I was a dripping, sweaty mess throughout the whole class. I made sure to drink lots of water. I think there was a time that I had to will my legs to pedal faster. They felt so tired and heavy, but I managed to work through that and was back up to speed. Denise continued to remind us throughout the class to keep our knees in and pedal down with our heels. No pedaling on your toes, with your toes as it strains your knees. Also, keep the butt/hips back. This was definitely way easier on my knees than running.

The class was great, I really enjoyed it! Denise asked me what I thought when we were finished and all I could say was, “this ain’t no joke!” LOL!

A few things I’ll do differently next class is not put lotion on my hands before I workout. My grip was a bit slippery on the handle bars and I had to keep wiping my hands on my towel. I think I’ll have to do that anyways because I sweat a lot, but the lotion didn’t help matters. I will also bring a skinnier water bottle. Mine was to fat to fit in the adjustable holders on the side of the bike. Luckily nobody was on the bike next to me so I balanced my water bottle on the other bike’s drink holder. Whenever I needed water, I carefully leaned over to grab it. I will also bring another shirt to change into afterwards, mine was so sweaty. It was a bit chilly doing a small ab workout while marinating in my sweaty top. Lessons learned :)

I’m looking forward to going to more classes and incorporating spin into my workout routine.

On a side note, I was able to get a few workouts in this past week in spite of all this snow we got. Two days were spent shoveling which equaled about 1.5 to 2 hours at a time. I also made it to the gym before our second round where I ran a quick 2 miles and than did 20 minutes on the stair climber.

Happy Friday!