has indoor cycling left out cyclists?
a controversial question :)
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we hear over and over is how indoor cycling has gotten more and more ‘crazy’. Super fast paces out of the saddle, more and more ‘choreography’ where people are taking their hands off the handlebars, doing ‘army crawl’ type moves, etc.
Cyclists avoid indoor cycling studios because it doesn’t mimic real cycling and many have shared that the ‘crazy choreography’ would just land them at the chiropractor.
At Ritual, our rhythm-based class, ‘The Ride’ incorporates some choreography but always with intention. If we’re dropping our elbows, it’s to strengthen our triceps. If we’re doing a push-up, it’s to strengthen our core, shoulders, and chest. If we're moving our hips backwards, it’s to train our core to activate when navigating over the saddle (similar to going downhill on a mountain bike).
Some non negotiables for us:
We never take our hands off the handlebars. Why? It doesn’t do anything productive besides open yourself up to an injury. Some may argue that your core has to activate but we’d rather you do a plank hold on the floor after class then move at a high speed with your lower body while your upper body isn’t stabilized.
We don’t move our upper body beyond the width of the bike. Why? Once you start to throw your upper body around on a lateral plane, you’re destabilizing the entire system — your knees will follow and once again, you’re putting yourself at risk of injury.
We don’t ‘run’ out of the saddle (light resistance) for more than 30 seconds or ever go past the beat without resistance in place. Why? Your knees. Although social media has made it super cool to go crazy fast out of the saddle, we can promise that it’s not helping your body and it’s way too much impact for your knees. Instead, we add resistance so that your joints are supported if we’re going to move past the beat out of the saddle. Alternatively, we encourage you to stay in the saddle and sprint instead of running out of the saddle if that feels best. Despite what is cool on social media, it’s far more effective to ride a bike with resistance.
If you’re someone who simply isn’t interested in all of the ‘choreography’, join us for our class called Alchemy - our interval and resistance training class with minimal to no choreography. Just you, the bike, and your power 🤎