The lights go down and the music cuts. All you can hear is the soft whoosh of the wheels of 65 spin bikes and heavy breathing. The instructor’s bike is lit up by a single candle; messiah-esque.
We are all waiting for the beat to drop. And for some reason, it feels emotional.
This isn’t your average spin class. This is SoulCycle. It’s the launch class of their new studio in Notting Hill, the brand’s second London location, and the energy is palpable.
You’ve probably heard of SoulCycle. It launched in London earlier this year, but it has been going for years in the States and has developed a dedicated and borderline-obsessive cult following.
‘Moving your body and working your mind changes your Soul,’ reads the website. The whole concept is about taking indoor cycling to a spiritual level. You connect with people in the room, it has a collaborative vibe, you high-five your bike neighbours, there’s a crystal that the instructors bless before every session.
It probably sounds like your idea of hell.
That’s because here in the UK, we tend to have an entirely different approach when it comes to fitness.
We Brits are far too reserved to indulge in any needless whooping. The idea of clapping mid-spin feels more hazardous than anything. And we most certainly don’t want to make eye contact with anyone else in the room.
It’s a cliche sure, but there’s some truth in it. So many of us treat fitness as a chore or, worse, a punishment. Something to get through, something that has to feel unpleasant, another tick box on our endless to-do list.
Maryam has been going to spin classes twice a week for almost a year now.
‘Pain is gain, but it is quite an intense session,’ she tells us.
‘It does sometimes feel like we’re only there to keep our heads down and cycle for 45 minutes.
‘Even the instructors – it’s always like; “keep going, don’t stop”, one guy even said; “I don’t care how you feel, keep peddling”.’
Maryam says she would look forward to her sessions more if there was the option to be a bit more sociable and engage with other people. She also thinks it wouldn’t hurt if the instructors were a bit more empathetic.
‘I do think we need to change the perspective we have of exercise of having to grind our bodies to the death. I think it should be more about doing the best we can and feeling proud and excited.’
So maybe there are lessons to be learnt from the SoulCycle way of doing things. Maybe we can adjust our mindsets to give ourselves a more positive relationship with the gym. And it doesn’t have to be cringe.
The 45-minute session combined speed, strength and weights to target every muscle in your body. It was about hitting the beat of the track and finding the rhythmn, but it was definitely less prescriptive than other classes – you had more autonomy over how fast you want to pedal, how much resistance you want to add, whether you want to be seated or standing.
The different vibe of the class didn’t come so much from the exercise itself, it was more in how it was framed.
Right from the off, we were all encouraged to match our pace to whoever was riding next to us, the instructors kept asking us if we were ‘feeling it’, we clapped after certain songs. It was the most interactive spinning class I have ever experienced – and you couldn’t help but be dragged in.
The soundtrack helped. The songs were base-heavy, hip-hop beats, songs you absolutely have to sing along to.
They dropped three tracks from Beyonce’s live Coachella album just as we were powering up a particularly nasty hill – and it was the vibiest climb ever. The pain in my quads forgotten – I was too busy channeling Bey.
One of our instructors, Lauren, has only been a spin instructor for a little more than a year. A native Londoner, she joined SoulCycle when they launched in the capital earlier this year and is convinced that Londoners will get on board with the touchy-feely stuff.
‘It goes so dark, the lights go out, there’s nothing fancy to distract you, it’s just you in the dark, and a pack of you riding together,’ Lauren tells Metro.co.uk.
Lauren says it was challenging to get Londoners to open up and let go when they opened the Soho studio, but she thinks the key is finding balance.
‘I did my training in New York, and people are so much more receptive there,’ she says.
‘Londoners tend to be much more like; “no, shut up, I just want my workout.” But slowly people are coming around to it, and realising that actually, it’s OK to engage with emotions and feel things.
‘If you cry on the bike, then you cry on the bike. I never though that would be me – but it’s been me a few times.
‘Working out should be fun, you should want to show up – you’re paying money, it shouldn’t be a chore or something that you don’t want to do.
Lauren has her a few tricks up her sleeve if she’s faced with a doggedly silent class.
‘I tell the class that they can shout at me and scream at me. If I’m doing something really hard I’ll say; “guys, is it hurting?” If you ask little questions and keep prompting them, eventually people free themselves up and start responding.
‘If the person next to them starts shouting and engaging, then they will feel like, they can do it as well – it’s pretty contagious.’
It feels like SoulCycle is taking a softly, softly approach to introducing Londoners to their overwhelming brand of schmaltzy fitness positivity. There was no energy crystal, no blessings, and the whooping was definitely muted.
When it comes to interaction, Londoners are like skittish deer – easily startled, keen to retreat to our skeptical shells of isolation. But, by the end of the class, the whoops and shouts weren’t only coming from the instructors who were dotted among prospective new customers.
Looking around, I could see plenty of smiles. Walking back to the showers, people were talking to each other about the playlist and the bits of the workout they loved. That doesn’t happen at my normal spin class. Something in us had unlocked, slightly.
Studies have found that exercising in a group provides way more health benefits than working out alone – and this is the first spinning class that has actually felt like a genuine, group activity, rather than 40 women cycling alongside each other, but not together.
The class isn’t perfect. There are 65 bikes packed sardine-like into a medium-sized studio. I bumped elbows with my bike neighbours a few times during the weights section, and it makes getting to the bikes at the back feel like a weird contortion challenge.
At £24 for a 45-minute session (new starters can buy three classes for £50), it has to be one of the priciest spin classes in London – which is sure to generate a typically homogeneous customer-base (the class was notably devoid of diverse clientele).
But these are issues that the fitness industry is facing across the board. What SoulCycle does offer is a fresh perspective on fitness that could help to change the way we workout for the better.
As we slowed down after a particularly ferocious sprint, Lauren told us to take a moment to be grateful for what our bodies can do.
‘Thank yourself for dedicating this 45 minutes to yourself this morning,’ she said. I whooped. Not quietly.
If we drag ourselves out of bed at 6 am and make the effort to push our bodies out of their comfort zones, we should at least try to enjoy it.
SoulCycle is a reminder that fitness shouldn’t be a punishment – and we can enjoy the process of actually doing it, as well as the smug feeling we get when it’s over.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/22/soulcycle-thaw-cold-dead-hearts-11200314/
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