A familiar story came my way today, and i’m sure some of you who have experienced it will feel the same way.
A lady i train wanted to get some extra training in at the weekend, so invited her friend along.
Her friend had recently joined a gym and had been telling her how much cycling she was doing, not traditioninal cycling as we know it but she was attending “spinning” classes and was raving about them constantly.
Let me point out straight away that i really congratulate anyone on going to spinning classes, and most i know will highly enjoy them greatly. Lets get that out of the way!!!
Well anyway, the two of them went for bike ride on the coastal path and got through approximately ten miles in total of cycling.
The lady i train was a little frustrated because she had to wait constantly for her friend despite her spinning experience.
The ten miles took not far off three hours, which is more than a little surprising.
Her friend was constantly complaining how hard it was, despite there being absolutely no hills.
This clearly shows the spinning classes didnt do a great deal compared to the benefits of “real” cycling!
I had another lady who used to train in another gym and the same thing happened. She claimed to be well versed in spinning and was looking forward to our outdoor cycling.
The results were more than disappointing and i frankly wondered what the heck she had been doing in these classes?
The bottom line is that you cannot beat real cycling in the outdoors, real running in the outdoors and not the treadmill, real walking and not the treadmill.
You should know by now that i am not a big machine fan, and i like to do things the proper way, i’m about hard work and no shortcuts, i’m about results and not about trying to fool you with false marketing.
Whenever you talk to your friends about training in the future, judge how hard they work by what they actually do, and not how trendy their gym is or how long they train for!!
