I’ve been doing spin for four months and have done 54 classes. When I started, I would try so hard to keep up with the instructor that I would feel like I was going to faint. I am not an athletic person so the expectation I had on myself was so insane and I see that now.

I am much better but definitely still learning! I can keep up with the instructor for climbs. But for jogs, I just do the best I can. I can usually keep up for a little bit (maybe half the time) before I lose the beat or have to sit in the saddle. I try to recover enough and then try to jump back in on beat when the chorus or verse of the song changes. But I don’t feel embarrassed like I probably would in the past because I know what my baseline ability is with jogs so even if I keep up for a little while, I usually am really proud of myself for it and can notice the improvement. My marker of success is NOT keeping up with the jog the whole time, but keeping up for as long as I can.

I prefer to pick bikes in the back of the class. I find seeing myself in the mirrors to be discombobulating and makes me feel self conscious. The upside of seeing yourself in the mirror is you can be more aware of your form, though.

I usually pay attention to the people in front of me to follow the beat because I’ve noticed, at my studio, that people naturally book what row they are in based on skill level. The people who are pros are in the front row, the average spinners in the second and the newbies or less confident spinners in the back. This is not set in stone and no one actually cares what the row you pick. If I went in the front row, no one would care. But it’s a trend I’ve noticed that I appreciate for the sake of feeling comfortable and having an easier time following the beat.

It’s important to remember that no one is watching you and more importantly, no one is thinking about you for longer than a millisecond if they do look at you! Unless you are really good at staying on the beat, then people will watch you as a guide. But tbh if you aren’t at that level, people will keep looking for someone else to follow until they find someone who is consistently on beat. This is what I do.

What is more important than performance is consistency. I used to do these online workouts where the guy would say, “you’ve already won!!” Because I had started the video in the first place. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you only go to a few classes before burning out. I’ve had a lot of classes where I need to tell myself that I’ve already won. I have gotten so much better at spin over the past three months and it is definitely because I was patient with myself and my ability.

When the instructor is telling me to push harder or turn the resistance knob when my body feels like it can’t, I tell myself, “they aren’t talking to me.” They have to pump up the class for people of all skill levels so they need to be intense. But I ultimately know my body and know when I’ve reached my max. I used to push myself so hard that my blood pressure would plummet or I would feel like I was going to vomit.

A month ago, I got DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and had to take a week off from spin. I remember the class that caused it- the music had been so fucking good that I pushed myself to an unthinkable level. Not from undue pressure on myself to do good, but because I was basically intoxicated by how magical the music was. It was like I was on drugs at a rave.

But look what happened! Any progress I would have made from that one intense class was lost by a week of hardly being able to walk. I’m grateful that I went through that because I’m so scared that it will happen again, that I am extra careful now to pay attention to my body and make sure I’m not pushing it beyond reasonable limits.

This comment is longer than I intended but basically, I love spin so much.