Spin Class, My Take

This is an article by one of our newest contributors (known as “the part time athlete’).  It’s a great read!

Spin class

By The Part Time Athlete

Hot girls in spin class, that is what it's supposed to be right?

Because we are both cheap, my girlfriend and I are using the trial gym memberships we received in the mail—mostly to take advantage of the unlimited free showers. However sometimes we go and work out, and last Sunday that involved my first ‘spin class’.

We arrived 30 seconds prior to the class, not realizing that it would take at least 45 seconds to reconfigure our bikes into the proper setup for our body type. In my case I’m guessing the previous rider was growth stunted 9 year old amputee (who probably rode it better than I could have). The class started with military precision, and I was forced to ride the bike lurched over the handle bars like I was about to do a sommersault. I noticed an odd grinding/squeaking noise coming from deep within my bike, the culprit was a bent crankshaft…which often threw me into speed wobbles whenever we ‘sprinted’, which happens quite OFTEN in a spin class.

Then there was the reoccurring problem of banging my knee into the resistance knob—often when I was out of the saddle, hunched over at 70% resistance, giving everything I own to charity. I would be then thrown into a free spin with a bent crankshaft, forcing me to look like a walrus trying to skate on one leg.

Dylan was our _______? I actually don’t know what the guy facing you is called, but I can tell you this: he is not human. Clue#1 He does not sweat. Clue#2 he doesn’t even sweat when wearing a track suit jacket. Clue#3 He does not appreciate any communication e.g., “Dylan…I can’t breathe and my heart has exploded, is that ok??”. Dylan actually made us stay on the bike for the full hour. I signed up to the spin class 10-11 thinking we would get underway around 10:15 after talking about each others feelings, then have a nice pedal for 15 min, water break and stretch, 15 more minutes then call it a day, so we could go enjoy the steam room as a team. Nope. Dylan was hired to torture people in one hour intervals and that it what he does.

Despite all of this I survived, I lost a lot of good sweat though. Dylan if you’re reading this, rematch next week…different bike.

the part-time athlete