Indoor cycling may be my workout of choice, but it's certainly an indulgence in New York. At nearly $40 a class after tax, it's rare I'm able to do it regularly in the city. However, when Flywheel reached out [1] to see if I wanted to test out its at-home bike and streaming service, Fly Anywhere [2], I used it as an opportunity to see what would happen if I hopped on the bike every day.
So I took a Fly Anywhere class once a day for a full week, and my butt and hamstrings are still on fire. Here's what else happened during this cardio-centric week.
I Had the Chance to Try Different Classes
Since I was planning on riding for a full week, I had the chance to try out a variety of classes not only in length, but also in level of intensity. And since I was riding with Fly Anywhere, I had a ton of options: I tried the more intense power classes for 30 minutes (Power 30), the standard method ride (Method 45 and Method 60), and Tempo 30 (riding to the beat of the music). I could mix it up depending on how I was feeling and how intense of a workout I wanted that day.
I Quickly Found My Favorite Instructors
After trying out a few different instructors, I quickly realized the ones I preferred and kept coming back to. Of all of them, Dionna Littleton [4] was my favorite. She was positive and motivating, but also funny — her anecdotes about living with her 3-year-old son made me LOL. Plus, she had fun classes (such as Pop Princesses) and a variety of levels depending on how hard I wanted to be pushed that day.
I Made the Effort to Fit a Ride in Whenever I Could
Since I knew I only had the bike for a limited amount of time and I had committed to riding it every day for a week, I made sure to fit in a ride whenever possible. Since Fly Anywhere has classes that are 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, there was no excuse to not ride. If I slept in [5] in the morning, I made sure to ride after work, even if it was just 20 or 30 minutes.
My Hamstrings Got Super Tight
Flywheel is more challenging than any other indoor cycling class I've done, especially since it emphasizes turning up the resistance (or torq). Because of this, your hamstrings [6] are constantly being worked. After a few days of heavy rides, my hamstrings got super tight; so much so that when I met with a trainer, he specifically stretched out my hamstrings and told me to keep stretching them since they were incredibly tight.
I'm usually pretty lazy about stretching, so I made an effort to foam roll for about 20 minutes and it made a huge difference, but they're still tighter than normal.
I Challenged Myself to Do Better
I previously had only done Flywheel intermittently — a couple times a month, at most. After doing it every day, I became much more aware of my total power score and actively tried to beat it each time. I didn't always succeed in beating my previous day's scores, but it gave me something to strive toward.