If you read my post on my experience at Recycle Studio, it’s no surprise that I’m a big fan of indoor cycling. In fact, I don’t know if I can go back to regular spinning. I love the experience that indoor cycling classes bring: loud music, crazy good energy, great choreography AND the addition of weights for some upper body work and sometimes even core work. When I workout- unless I’m planning to just do lower or upper body or core workouts- I like to leave the gym or studio feeling like I had a total body workout. I feel like indoor cycling accomplishes that far more than just a regular spin class. It’s more bang for your buck (and that’s necessary when you’re dropping $$$ on boutique studio classes) and I’m all about that.
With that said, it was a no brainer that I wanted to go to a blogger event that was being hosted at Flywheel last weekend. I’m on a serious “boutique studio” kick, whether it be barre, yoga, indoor cycling, bootcamps (you get the idea), so having a chance to try out a “new” studio without having to pay the hefty class fee the boutique studios charge was pretty awesome.
Anyway! I headed to the Prudential Center at 1pm last Saturday for the event. I love blogging events because it’s so fun to meet other bloggers and hear about what they blog about and to make that connection with each other. I was stoked to see Stacey and Sarah, as well as meet a bunch of new ones (Lucie was a total sweetheart and I want to have her do fitness photos of me!).
I was surprised to see how big the room was! I feel like boutique studios are often on the smaller side and space seems to always be limited (I had to sign up a week in advance for a class at Recycle!), but I think Flywheel had over 40 bikes set up in a stadium seating manner and I can only imagine what the energy would feel like if the room was packed- I love that!
I was a little nervous going into the event because I heard that they post your speeds up on monitors… ummm, while I am very competitive, I wasn’t stoked about this because spinning/cycling isn’t my thing and I didn’t want that type of competition to hinder my experience. The instructor did use the monitors, but I liked that she only displayed our speeds when she wanted us to push ourselves. It really does serve as great motivation and I’m happy to say I didn’t get caught up on the rankings! My legs were beat from having taught kickboxing earlier in the day, so I knew I wasn’t able to give the ride my all and I was ok with that.
Flywheel was different from Recycle in that the rides were not as choreographed at Flywheel as they were at Recycle. The rides at Flywheel were more interval based, which was a nice change and they definitely pushed my boundaries and forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I loved that the bikes had little screens so you could see your level (torque), RPMs and power. I’m a big numbers person, so being able to know where I should be level and RPM-wise helps me pace myself and push myself.
We used weight sticks for upper body strength training for 1 song and I loved it. My arms didn’t burn as much as they did during Lindsay’s arm song in her Recycle class, but it was still a good burn. We didn’t incorporate any core or chest exercises at Flywheel like we did at Recycle, but I think that’s the difference between the two: Flywheel is more interval based and Recycle was more total body/choreographed… or at least that’s how it seemed to me based off of my experience at both.
What I love about Flywheel is the fact that they offer a “first class free” pass, which I think is SO important at these boutique studios. Classes are expensive and I think a lot of people don’t even try it out because they don’t want to drop $25-$30 on an hour long class (which I totally get, I’m just a sucker for new fitness classes and know (hope) that the classes will be worth the money… which they usually are!), so offering a first class free option is a great way to get people in the door!
All in all, I loved my experience at Flywheel and definitely look forward to going back, maybe with my sister since she’s been spinning lately and would love to take advantage of a free class pass!
Also, big thanks to Jessica for setting up such a fun blogger event! And big thanks to City Sports and all the other vendors who provided the best goodie bag treats. I’m a sucker for free things AND treats, so goodie bags are like my favorite things 😉
So, if you’re looking for a fun place to workout and get an incredible workout (seriously, my quads were BURNING and I was soaked by the end!), definitely head on over to Flywheel and you can snag your first class free!
Questions for you: Have you been to Flywheel? What’s your favorite type of spin class? Intervals/Endurance/Choreographed/Song Tempo? Are you a sucker for giveaways?
Burpees to Bubbly 