Spin Cycle: How great is the cycling fad?

As I clipped into my bike before a cycling class this week, I felt the shade of a thousand weeping willows settle across the room.

“In this class, we don’t do any of those week-ass pushups,” the instructor said. “We don’t dance, we don’t sway to the f-ing music. We cycle. Because this is a cycling class.”

Obviously this was a not-so-subtle subtweet towards SoulCycle, the hugely-popular cycling studio that built its brand on a pyramid of loud music, mantra-spewing teachers, and (you guessed it) pushups, dancing, and swaying to the music, all while still peddling the bike.

I admit: I have attended two SoulCycle classes (hey, they were free!). While I enjoyed the motivating quotes and club-like atmosphere, I still walked away wondering how good a workout I was getting. Luckily, I’m not alone in my pondering. Thanks in part to SoulCycle and the various competitors imitating SoulCycle, publications across the country have asked this same question. Reading them, my suspicions were confirmed. While SoulCycle does provide a fun way to burn some extra calories, the pushups, tap-backs, and overall sporadic intensity found in the classes make it less of the hardcore workout many of its clients think it is.

One of the biggest criticisms of SoulCycle (or any spinning class like SoulCycle, of which there are many) is the way it incorporates upper-body exercises while bikers are still peddling. Based on the classes I went to, this involves anything from doing pushups on the handlebars to using small weights for a roughly five-minute routine working the biceps, triceps, shoulders, and back.

According to Jennifer Sage, a Master Instructor for Spinning with a degree in exercise science quoted by the Los Angeles Times, doing these exercises lowers your power input and decreases the calories you burn while also posing the risk of injury to your lower back and muscles and connective tissues in the leg. Once more, lifting such a small amount of weight (most people use one to two pounds) is only activating your slow-twitch fibers in your arms — to build muscle you need to activate your fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Beyond the upper bodywork, other people have found issue with the famous “tap-backs” that are incorporated into every class, where bikers rise out of the saddle and touch their bum back in a fast motion. In a post on the Indoor Cycling Association’s webpage, Sage said that this movement is potentially harmful to the knee and back as it tends to hyperextend your knee.

While I applaud any class that draws in the crowds for creating a fun environment to exercise, these articles gave me reservations. Perhaps I’ll stick to my trusty Schwinn and the great outdoors for my next endorphin rush.