Yes, spinning is used by many runners to develop their running strength and capability and proved to be giving them positive results. This article then will try to explain how this happens. There will also be a sample spinning workout which you can use for your cross-training exercises.

Spinning Strengthening the Legs Muscles

If there is one obvious reason why spinning is good cross-training for runners is the fact that spinning makes the legs stronger than running itself. In the act of spinning, it takes a lot more effort and strength coming from leg muscles to spin the pedal than exerting muscle effort when running. (Though, running can also strengthen legs muscles especially when climbing up hill.)

When the legs are strengthened by spinning, this can lead to effective running economy, which is the ability to utilize air and oxygen efficiently. This can result for the runner to have improved endurance and speed. This conclusion is supported by recent studies that suggested that spinning/cycling helps in improved runners’ finish in 10K and 5K by about 9% and 3% respectively.

Spinning Trains the Aerobic and Anaerobic Systems

In a spinning session, the individual usually changes the intensity and cadence of his pedaling. He or she also makes a variation of his or her position such as sitting or standing while spinning. This mimics the challenges one normally experiences when cycling outdoors. During this workout, both the aerobic and anaerobic systems are trained and developed.

When the individual is spinning in a seated position, he or she is utilizing the slow-twitch muscle fibers while performing a steady spinning cadence. This make for the proper utilization of air and oxygen in the body which also makes for developing endurance. Likewise, when spinning in high intensity, the fast-twitch muscles fibers are utilized and the anaerobic system is also developed.

What this results to for the runner is that both their aerobic and anaerobic systems are fully developed. This makes him or her develop longer endurance when running in marathons where he or she can also finish strong and fast.

Efficiency in Pedal Cadence Means Powerful Running

Throughout the spinning session, the individual masters his efficiency in pedal cadence. When the session aims to mimic a hill climb, the practitioner goes for slow but powerful and intense spinning. Likewise, when the spinning mimics rolling hills, he or she spins steady. This efficiency in pedal cadence results to powerful running.

The explanation for this is the correlation of pedal cadence with foot strike cadence. The higher the former means also higher in terms of the latter. When this happens the runner improves his or her foot strike cadence, the runner then becomes faster and therefore gets less contact with the ground. This can only mean less impact for the runner while at the same time minimizing the probability of suffering from an injury.

Spinning Makes You Leaner

Runners are usually known for their fit and lean bodies yet this can come with difficulty for some, especially women who have problems with weight control. Hard that they may try to be lean and become faster, these women usually encounter trouble in this aspect. Spinning actually address this problem since pedaling will work the strong group muscles of the body. What happens from this is high calorie burn that lasts beyond the actual workout.

Spinning Cross-training Workout for Runners

We have already discussed scientific and personal testaments as to why spinning can be a great cross-training for running.  Now let’s look at how a spinning workout can be helpful to a runner. This spinning workout is primarily designed to mimic for hill drills, rolling hills, and flat road. This will strengthen the legs muscles while at the same time improve pedal stroke cadence which can assist you developing powerful running cadence.

• Intensity – moderate
• Equipment – a spin bike
• Total Time – 30 minutes

Conclusion

Given that spinning is great training for cycling, it can also be great cross-training for running. Numerous testimonial accounts from runners who used it as their cross-training.  Results from scientific studies attest that spinning indeed can improve runner’s performance. It is a fact that spinning makes the leg muscles stronger. Furthermore, spinning develops not just the aerobic and anaerobic systems of the body but also improve the foot strike cadence of runners. Any serious runner then should not hesitate to use spinning as their cross-training in improving their performance.

You're reading How Spinning Can be a Cross-training for Runners by Samantha, originally posted on SpinBikeLab.com. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Samantha on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+!

Do these movements have a strong foundation rooted in science as well as true indoor cycling experience? Unknown to many who get easily swayed by their instructors to lift weights, do squats, perform push-ups etc. while spinning, they risk of suffering injuries in their legs, shoulders, knees, and necks. Like many other sports, there are contraindication movements that are discouraged while spinning. Do these contraindication movements and chances are you will have to suffer an injury.

So what are contraindication movements in a spinning workout? This article will walk you through some of the most common contraindicated movements you would not want do while spinning. These movements are discouraged on the basis of known science and common sense in experiencing real outdoor cycling. Experts usually advise: “When you don’t do it in outdoor cycling, don’t do it in indoor biking as well”.

Avoid Unnecessary Movements While Spinning

Several of the contraindicated movements in spinning are done usually in the goal of strengthening the core. These are lifting weights, doing push-ups and doing crunches:

Lifting Weights:

Many instructors and spinning gyms incorporate lifting light weights while spinning on the reason that it would strengthen your upper body. Lifting weights while spinning can put risk in injuring your shoulders, spine and arm muscles. This movement would get you in a compromising position since your hands are busy with lifting weights. This also compromises your cadence that results to mediocre cardiovascular workout and strength training.

Doing Push-Ups:

Another activity that is a contraindication to spinning is doing push-ups. Performing this movement is similar to lifting weights as they stray your focus away from pedaling. Moreover, doing push-ups will only encourage excessive upper body movements that prove to be risky as they can affect your balance and throw you off the spin bike. Besides disrupting your balance, it also misaligns the body.

Doing Crunches:

Last of the activity spinners usually do unnecessarily while spinning is doing crunches. This movement strays too much on the experience of mimicking a real cycling experience. More than this crunches only promotes the possibility of you experiencing an accident as keeping the balance on the seat becomes difficult.

All of these can be avoided through simple steps:

• If you want to strengthen your core muscles, then do exclusive training for this purpose. You can dedicate a separate time for lifting weights, doing push-ups and doing crunches without having to do it while you’re on the spin bike.
• If you want to strengthen your core muscles, you should instead engage in other workouts such as yoga, ball work, and pilates.

Wrong Techniques in Spinning

There are also contraindicated movements in spinning that are usually done due to techniques in spinning. Even though you are just sitting and pedaling on your spin bike, there are many variations on how to do this, and sometimes, most of these are contraindicated movements:

Spinning With No Hands:

Likewise, spinning with no hands usually occurs when you are warming up and cooling down with low resistance on the flywheel. Though this is allowed for these purposes, this should not be done in order to strengthen the core in the midst of the workout. Spinning with no hands will only put stress on the back muscles and lower spine. This also makes it difficult and hard to pedal in smooth cadence as you are more concerned with balancing on your seat.

Spinning Backwards:

This contraindication movement is discouraged more so due to the reason that standard spin bikes are designed for forward pedaling. You should avoid spinning this way to prevent damaging the spin bike, especially the crank wheel. When you do these contraindicated movements, they more or less put the next user of the bike at risk of getting injured. This movement is only allowed if you have a spin bike designed to provide resistance for forward and backward pedaling.

Spinning in Aero Position:

Spinning in the aero position is usually practiced by triathlon athletes and should not be done with standard spin bikes. Triathlon athletes can cycle in this position since they have custom bike top tubes. On ordinary spin bikes, doing this position can compromise your back. This position also puts at a disadvantage shorter people.

Spinning with a Dropped Seat:

There are many instructors that incorporate in their spinning workouts dropping seats during the workout. This should at all means be avoided as you should have the ability to spin at your own pace. You should have enough time and the option to recover from exertion. Taking away the option of having to rest and leave you standing for longer duration of time can put a risk on your legs and foot.

You can remedy and avoid these contraindicated movements by:

• Be mindful of your form: When you noticed that you no longer exert the usual effort to put strength on your pedaling revert to the normal pedaling or spinning technique.
• Sometimes you just need rest: When you cheat on resistance or lean on the handlebar, for example – you may rest instead of cheating on your form.

Conclusion

These are just some of the movements to avoid in spinning or riding your indoor bike. The rule of thumb for proper spinning is don’t do any movement that you don’t usually do when cycling outdoors. Follow basic science, true cycling experience, and common sense when riding your spin bike. You also need not follow your instructors in cases when some of those mentioned. If you follow this, you can help avoid injuries when spinning.

You're reading Movements You Should not Do in Spinning by Samantha, originally posted on SpinBikeLab.com. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Samantha on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+!

This question keeps on popping in every spin-related conversation as there have been many testimonials about how spinning had made them fat and make their quads bulky. Why then when studies show that spinning can be a great workout in burning calories and fat many still argue that this workout has made them gain weight? In this article, we will dissect this old debate whether spinning can really make you lose weight or not.

What Some Other People Say

A common story of those who regret having spinned at all goes something like this. A person who is not in his perfect shape wanted to shed pounds and has chosen to spin as his choice of workout. This choice is mainly driven by the trend these days wherein almost every fitness buff is going to spin class. This person diligently workout three times a week only to see results that he or she could not fit in his or her jeans.

What happened? A popular statement from a fitness celebrity said that spin may burn calories in the short term, but if this is the only thing one does, it will only bulk his or her thighs. A scientific explanation on this according to her is that spinning only burns 300-600 calories but a pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. What this means is that there’s no wiggle room if you want to shed pounds.

Reason Why You Get Fatter

So why can spinning make you fat instead of shedding pounds as you intended it in the first place? According to a dietician, any form of exercise can actually stimulate your appetite. This is the reason why some spinners eat more than normal during the days of their workout. More than this, there is always this notion that one should reward oneself after having a great and awesome workout. So it is not uncommon to see these spinners, for example, heading for a dessert right after sweating during a workout.

Working Out is Not a Reason to Splurge in Eating

You must remember that working out is not a reason to splurge in eating. There may be the temptation of eating out since your appetite is really strong after a spin class. But less you forget that you spin with the goal of losing weight. This can be the culprit why you gain weight instead of losing it.

The temptation of eating out even gets stronger as you are not alone who is hungry after the workout. You will surely develop friendships with other fellow spinners and a good way to celebrate this friendship is eating out after each spinning workout. This usually happens especially if your workout schedule is in the morning. The lure of having a big breakfast is great and urgings from fellow spinner will make you succumbed to it.

The best way to approach this is to be mindful that you are working out to lose weight. This means there should be controlled eating on your part. It may be a good way to bring a properly prepared breakfast instead of bingeing eating in the cafeteria or gym canteen. Bring this along with your water and you surely will not get into the temptation of rewarding yourself with a sumptuous meal after every exhilarating workout.

Proper Diet and Alternate Weight Training Should Go With Spinning

What is the best strategy of really losing weight when spinning, if the aforementioned technique does not suit you? The secret here is getting a proper diet and doing weight training to tandem with your spinning workout. Spinning can actually make you slimmer and shed some pounds but the culprit why you get fat and gain weight is the fact that you don’t eat properly, especially after every workout.

The best way to really get yourself to shed pounds and weight is to go on a proper diet. You should watch your portion sizes. You cannot lose weight even though you sweat a lot during workout and burn 600 calories if you still eat as if you haven’t eaten for several days. Mind the portions of what you eat. If say you go for all super-sized meals, start avoiding this now less you want your effort to lose weight end in vain.

Get in a real fitness buff diet. You should start eating leafy greens, lean proteins, and whole grains instead of sugar, white flour, processed foods and trans fatty foods. Additionally, you should also get into strength training or weight training to further increase your metabolism and make your body leaner.

Conclusion

You have seen spinners whose bodies are all lean with toned muscles. Based on scientific studies and research, there is no doubt that spinning can make you leaner and scorch fat from your body. A spinning session, for example, can make you burn around 300-600 calories. Yet, why are there still talks about how spinning can make you gain weight?

A closer investigation on the matter has shed light that spinning, as a form of exercise, can increase your appetite. This then makes for the mistake of those who try this workout to reward themselves with eating foods that are not good for their goal of shedding weight.

A good way to address this is that your spinning should be coupled with proper diet wherein you go for leafy greens, lean proteins and whole grains. You should also include weight and strength training with your spinning workout to increase your metabolism. This way, you are sure to lose weight.

You're reading Does Spinning Make You Lose Weight by Samantha, originally posted on SpinBikeLab.com. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Samantha on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+!

Spinning Shoe Size and Breathability

Because spinning demands rapid movement without high impact, the excessive tightness of some of the common running shoes is not desirable here. Instead, the shoe should fit snugly with just enough room for the toes to wiggle when the laces are done at normal tightness. For this reason, many trainers suggest that users purchase shoes that are one half to a whole size larger than what they would normally wear. Shoes should also be good enough for the person to walk about normally.  So, choosing an excessively large size is not desirable.

Choosing a slightly larger size, on the other hand, also aids breathability. Breathability refers to the ability of the shoe to remove sweat and odor from the surface of the foot while allowing a little air to circulate around the foot. If the shoe is slightly large, it creates a minimal space around the foot that allows for quick removal of odor and sweat.

Such removal, of course, must be done by the fabric itself. While there is no single fabric that is more breathable than others, generally nylon mesh provides a decent amount of breathability.

Cleats: LOOK vs SPD

Cleats refer to attachments that interface between the shoe and the pedal. They allow the user to transfer energy onto the pedal quickly and efficiently. While it is entirely possible to carry out spinning classes with normal shoes, many spinners are shifting to special cycling shoes made for cleats. These cleats on the spin shoe must match the pedal. Since both the pedal and the shoe can be changed, we shall assume that the shoe will decide the type of pedal and not the other way around.

Cleats can be of two types – LOOK or SPD. Let us take a more careful look at each of them:

LOOK: Used more in road bikes than the best spin bikes, LOOK is known for being more stable and secure of the two. It generally requires shoes with protruding soles.  And this may make normal walking difficult and slippery using these shoes.

SPD: More common among spin bikes, SPD comes with recessed cleats that make walking easier. These cleats are screwed onto the shoe using screws generally provided with the cleat. This can be done with the correct tools.  Beginners may prefer to have these fitted by a bike shop.  This makes SPD a slightly more complicated choice for home use.  But the effort is worth it.

If you’re looking to buy shoes as part of following up on a spinning class, you may want to talk to your trainer to decide which cleat variant to get.  The spin bikes in the class may only be compatible with one of the two cleat types.

Spinning Shoe Soles

Whether you decide to use specific spinning shoes or go for normal sports shoes, it is vital that the sole of the shoe be stiff. A stiff sole ensures that there is minimal curling or folding of the shoe and all your leg energy is transferred to the pedals. Since folding/curling can lead to waste of energy and poor foot-pedal contact, a hard sole is necessary for maximum energy transfer.

Further, one should avoid soles that are too thick as this would increase the distance between the foot and the pedal. Thin soles with adequate reinforcement (to guard against wear and tear) are thus the best option for any wondering how to choose spinning shoes.

Socks or No Socks with Spin Shoes?

Like the shoe itself, the sock also needs to be comfortable without being too thick or too soft. Ideally, the sock should be reinforced at the toes and heels so as to protect against excess wear and tear. Such reinforcement would also ensure that the slight movement of the foot inside the shoe does not lead to any major dislocation of the foot.

Furthermore, the fabric should be such that moisture is easily removed from the skin. Stagnant moisture on the skin leads to an increased risk of skin problems like blisters, rashes, skin irritation, etc. Skin problems aside, moisture buildup can lead to excess friction between the foot and the sock/shoe.   With cycling being a fast-paced affair, such disruption can even lead to injuries.

Conclusion

While we have assumed that the choice of spinning shoe would decide the choice of pedals, usually the pedal has already been chosen. Sometimes spinning classes have their own rules regarding the shoes and socks to be worn and the type of cleats to be used. It is important to ensure that you check with the gym or user manual before investing in any shoes. On the other hand, comfort is equally important.  If you find that the shoes recommended by the manufacturer or instructor don’t fit you well, you may want to go through the above spinning shoe guide. Once the question of compatibility has been solved, there will be little standing between you and the perfect spinning workout.

You're reading Spinning Shoes – How to Choose Them Like a Pro by Samantha, originally posted on SpinBikeLab.com. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Samantha on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+!