In April, the Her Campus at Drexel team took a group ride at SoulCycle Rittenhouse Square. We planned the trip months ahead and the whole team was really excited to go. Most of us had never been to SoulCycle so it was a great opportunity to try something new with girls that we rarely get to see out of writers’ meetings. I, for one, am not the type of girl who cycles. I like to do my cardio on a treadmill – it’s familiar and I can keep track of my speed and how many calories I burn. I always assumed that indoor cycling was for the girls who have the confidence to work out in spandex and sports bras. Therefore, you could say I was a little intimidated since I’m the girl who wears leggings and a huge T-shirt to the gym. I’ve never done SoulCycle before, so this was a completely new experience. To say there were some mishaps along the way is an understatement.
Image courtesy of Buzzfeed
Immediately when trying to get on my bike, I faced difficulties. For those who don’t spin (AKA me), you have to wear cycling shoes that clip into the pedals so you don’t fall off the bike. I was unable to hook my shoes in for about four minutes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it 15 minutes before the class (the recommended amount of time for newcomers) so I wasn’t able to have an employee talk me through the bike setup. However, I got there early enough that they didn’t start class without me.
The resistance knob, which is also the emergency brake, is located between your legs on the center of the bike. However since I missed new rider set up, I was completely unaware of this. In the beginning of our ride, we were sprinting on a flat road, meaning there was only a little resistance on the bike in order to move quickly and keep up with everybody. Unbeknownst to me, my resistance knob had quite a bit of weight on it, presumably from the previous class. So, for about five minutes I was trying to sprint up a huge incline. I looked around and was so confused as to why everyone else was barely breaking a sweat and I was dying. Whoops.
What makes SoulCycle stand out compared to other indoor cycling classes is that they combine weight lifting, abdominal workouts and a little bit of dance into the ride. After my legs were completely dead, we moved on to the weights portion of the ride. I’m good at lifting sine it’s fairly easy to comprehend, but lifting and cycling at the same time? That was a challenge, even though we turned the resistance up to slow our legs down. Clapping my hands and high-fiving my neighbors and doing crunches while cycling? Almost impossible.
As we finished up our ride, I’m not going to lie, I felt great. However, when the lights came back on I realized that I had one more problem. I couldn’t get my shoes out of the pedals. Luckily, I was able to undo the velcro and walk out in my socks.
Despite all the challenges and mistakes, I still had a lot of fun. I was exhausted, sore and so happy that I went. SoulCycle was a great experience, I was able to hang out with our team, get a great workout and try something new. What made SoulCycle different, if not better, than any gym or cycling class is that everybody in the room was in sync, almost as if we were working together. Having the lights off with great music and the instructor cheering me on helped me look past the fact that I really had no idea what I was doing.
Any of the problems I faced could have been fixed if I did some previous research, went cycling beforehand or showed up earlier to class. But, my lesson has been learned so don’t make the same mistakes as me! Be sure to arrive 15 minutes before class in order to sign the necessary waiver form and get set up on the bike by an employee. Also, make sure that your resistance knob is turned completely to the left before starting. Finally, don’t feel bad if you can’t unclip at the end of class, it’s hard (and it’s totally okay to slide out of the shoes and leave them on the bike).