Pure Gym | What to expect from your first spin class

 
Your arse will take a pounding and you may cry a little (a lot)

So now that you know I'm not going to sugar coat this 'what to expect from your fitness' post I can move forward. Very recently I started attending the spin classes at my local Pure Gym where I have been a member of for almost 2 years now and it has honestly taken me THAT long to build up the courage to attend one of these classes. When I first started going to the gym on a regular basis I would work out for a solid 30 minutes on the treadmills in front of a congregation of avid spinners, every night they'd come saddle up, sweat, screech and of course spin out their frustrations (which I imagined at the time they must have many) as the incredibly enthusiastic instructor would scream over whichever bass pumping track was playing that evening. The prospect of every joining this class terrified me, yet here I am, one of them, part of the screeching, sweat drippy spinners! And with that in mind I would just like to share the story of my first ever spin class, the good, the bad and the downright ugly!

When I first decided to go to spin it was after quite a long break from exercising, that was my first mistake. I had got it into my head that if I push myself really hard for say a week or wishful thinking, a few days, then perhaps I'll just fall back into it really quickly, unfortunately that was not the case. Surprisingly enough I set up my bike quite well and I didn't need any help, though my RPM monitor wasn't working but I just assumed this was quite a common occurrence, just for your information it isn't, and this was my second mistake!

One of the great things about the spin classes is that the instructor does it along with you so you know what you're doing at every step and stage instead of floundering a bit unsure, plus, and as said as it sounds, it feels like you're all in it together and there's a sense of,'ahhh we can do this!!!' My first clue to the difficulty of the class itself was when asked if anyone was new, I raised my hand and there were gasps, oh dear....The class started with a warm up which was more taxing than I thought and made me seriously rethink my fitness levels, just a word of advice, a towel is a necessity. The class I attend takes you through a serious of different speeds and resistance settings, usually going for a hill climb then sprints and we even work in some push ups and squats in there (on the bike might I add)

When it came to the sprints, this is where my RPM would have come in handy as I was pushing myself far harder than I really needed to through some bits and was totally burned out by the time it came to doing the sprints, ordinarily you aim to stay at about 100 RPM throughout the class and dip lower for areas of higher resistance and of course ones of lower resistance you can speed way up, to date I think the highest I have ever seen my RPM go was about 170 / 175. I have to be honest and say when I was doing the class I decided there and then that this was not for me, I would never get on a bike again, not just a spin bike, I mean ANY bike. My mind went through every emotion possible from oh my god I feel so emotional I may cry to, I'm going to throw up then die and circling eventually back to AAHHHH BEAST MODE. And as unpleasant as that all undoubtedly sounds the feeling you have afterwards can only be described as euphoria and I've really never felt anything like it or had such a satisfying work out.

Since doing spin twice a week my fitness levels have increased dramatically, I've noticed more of a difference in my energy levels and I just generally feel better. Though after the class walking home as such a sweaty mess has been quite an experience, you can guarantee that I almost always bump into someone I haven't seen for years and they automatically think I'm a hobo, just a sweaty, ginger hobo and you know what I don't blame them! If you implement one thing into your fitness routine make it spin, you'll want to hurt your instructor, crawl into your bed and sleep for the longest time but you will feel so glad you went.

I hope this has given you guys a bit more of an idea of what a spin class entails, specifically the spin classes at Pure Gym, though every instructor is different I'm sure the feelings are mutual! Do let me know in the comments below if you go to a spin class and what you thought or come drop me a line on Twitter if you have any fabby fitness tips to share with me. Or of course if you'd just like to see more of my sweaty, hobo face be sure to follow Granite City Girl on Bloglovin.

Until next time, spinning mad.

H.Elizabeth x