Published: October 10, 2009 12:00 am      

Teen Talk: On the Go: Getting fit while going nowhere

I'll be the first to admit it: at first, I was a tad skeptical about Spinning. Rigorously riding a bike going absolutely nowhere in a dark, stuffy room seemed like less of a fun workout and more like a torture technique to me.

Boy, was I wrong. Yes, the bike remained stationary, and the scenery unchanging, but there were no pesky cars or pedestrians to watch out for. The darkness of the room was surprisingly calming, and settling into the groove of the background music that was playing was remarkably helpful in trying to ignore the pain in my hamstrings.

By my first class, I was hooked.

Spinning (also known as indoor cycling), is a form of high-intensity exercise using a stationary bicycle. The workout takes place in a sort of classroom setting, with an instructor leading the class through a ride filled with pedaling, sprinting, running "¦ etc., all the while on the bicycle. The class is not only an incredible workout (burning 400 to 600 calories in about 40 minutes), but it also allows participants to control how intense they want their workout to be.

If you find yourself being encouraged by your instructor that, "You're almost over the hill!" they are not informing you that you are almost middle-aged. Instead, they are most likely using the visual aid of a hill to get you to challenge yourself to increase your bike's resistance and pedal harder.

There's a resistance mechanism on the bike that allows you to increase the challenge, or decrease it, for that matter, should you choose to ignore the mental image and remain on one imaginary topography level.

But that's one of the best things about Spinning: the ability to control your own workout.

The more resistance on the bike, the harder it is to pedal, thus the more challenging your workout becomes.

Maybe you choose to stay on an easy resistance level and pedal as fast as you can, or maybe you choose to increase the resistance and really work your muscles to get those pedals around.

Either way, this exercise gets your heart beating and your blood pumping.

I blame Spinning 100 percent for my newfound taste in music. I guess I wouldn't so much call it a new "taste," but rather a new avoidance of songs that trigger painful memories.

For instance, there's a good chance I can never listen to The Who's "Baba O'Riley" without bringing back those painful memories of climbing up that "hill" in Spinning class.

You see, background music is often incorporated into spinning. The riders pedal in time with the rhythm of the music, thus encouraging a certain pace for the participants to keep up with.

Anyone who works out could tell you: synchronizing your workout with music gets you to work harder than you originally would have.

The merging of Spinning and music was what really sealed the deal for me. Personally, it's much easier for me to do things when I have a certain tempo to maintain, and it generally just made a tough workout more fun.

Spinning isn't only a great workout, it's almost like a personal form of meditation for me. Some people might be able to "meditate" and relax by being still and quiet, but let me tell you, that only serves to agitate me more.

In a Spinning class, though constantly pedaling, your mind is still quiet, with only the occasional interruption of self-doubt of whether or not your poor quads can make it through the last sequence.

Listen to your body though, if you're not Lance Armstrong (which I'm so not), don't try to be. You'll thank yourself later.

Spinning classes are offered at many local gyms, so why not check one out?

Adrian Adamo is a junior at Oneonta High School.