Gold's Gym, home of the muscle-bound, chest-thumping meathead. A coworker of mine, V, has been regularly attending Saturday spinning classes there. Now that I've started indoor cycling, he suggested that I try it.
V was late so I went directly to the cycling studio to set up my bike in the front row. When V showed up, he introduced me to the instructor, Linda, who immediately suggested that I go to the second row. Why? In case I fall behind and get dropped? How rude.
Then she proceeded to talk to V about me as though as I wasn't there, asking him questions like "How fit is she?", "Have you seen her in action?", "Will she be able to cycling standing?". Lady, I'm standing right in front of you. If you want to know something about me, ask ME. V must have mentioned that I do triathlons because she boasted, "Well, Ironmen have come to this class and can't keep up."
The next hour can only be described as how NOT to teach a cycling class. These are the things she did:
- Stand for the vast majority of the class
- Spin quickly while standing (insufficient resistence to support body weight)
- 2-count and single count jumps
- Bounce shoulders forward
- Did the same three exercises for the entire class. BORING
Aside from the music, I can't recall a single positive thing about the class. No self-respecting roadie would bother going to that class a second time: you'd develop incredibly poor form following her moves, and have a much greater chance of wearing out your knees prematurely.
I felt so strongly about what a poor class it was that I called the gym to ask what cycling certification Linda held because I suspect she didn't have one. Surprisingly, I was told that she is Johnny G spinning certified.
I also spoke to the group exercise director to let him know my concerns. He seemed to take me seriously, and offered to give me another guest pass in case I wanted to try out another cycling class.
No comments:
Post a Comment