Spinning Playlist #3

*Disclaimer: While these playlists are labeled as Spinning playlists, they also make awesome workout playlists! 

1. Puppet by Karmin - warm up song. Go over bike positions, safety, and overview of class.

2. Get Up by Ciara - turn resistance to 6/10, jumps from 1 to 2. Increase resistance twice.

3. Cyclone by Baby Bash - Seated climb. 8/10 resistance. Turn resistance twice. 

4. Revolver by Madonna - Standing climb. 9/10. 

5. Excuse My Rude by Jessie J - Rolling hills. Flat road during verses, increase resistance to 8/10 during choruses, jump to 3rd and add a pedal stroke. 

6. Show Me Love EDX Remix by Sam Feldt - Recovery song. Seated flat to standing flat. Add resistance in twice to 7/10.

7. Beggin' by Madcon - Jumps from 1 to 3 with 7/10 resistance.

8. Bonbon by Era Istrefi - Flat road with 10/10 resistance and acceleration during choruses (seated sprints)

9. Lose My Breath by Destiny's Child - Jumps from 1 to 3 with 8/10 resistance. 

10. Pure Grinding by Avicii - Sprints on a hill. Low resistance in 3, then add heavy resistance and add a pedal stroke in 3.

11. Jungle by X Ambassadors - HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY seated climb for half, standing climb for half.

12. In My Room by Yellow Claw - Rolling hills, resistance at 10/10 during hills and maintain pedal stroke. 

13.  All My Friends by Snakeships - Cool down song.

14. Needed Me by Rihanna - Stretching song.

You did it! 

Spinning Playlist #2

I don't know why, but I love this playlist way more than my first one. Maybe it's because I subconsciously made the whole entire first half of it be dominated by the queens of pop music who slay consistently, mixed in with just enough sprinkles of stank face hip hop and poppy electronic doo-dads. Either way, the class was feelin' me and I was feelin' them.

1. Sweet Lovin' - warm up song. Go over what a seated flat is all about, how to add gears. Mid-song everyone joins in standing flat. Explain this position, all the weight over your feet. Near end of song everyone joins in 3. Explain this position - flat feet, booty up, chest up, core tight.

2. Burnin' Up - standing flat until second chorus - add a gear and join in 3. Seated climb after chorus. Running w resistance in 2 during hook. During next chorus add a gear, 3. Running w resistance in 2 for the rest of the song.

3. Team - seated climbs, interspersed with standing "attacks"

4. Countdown - Anddddd the crowd goes wild for old school Beyonce. This song was super fun. Moderate resistance on the wheel to start. 2nd for verses, seated and ADD ADD ADD resistance for the countdown part of the chorus. So you'll have 10 seconds of heavy heavy seated hill pushing through that resistance for each chorus. Then take some off when coming back to 2nd. Woohoo! 

5. Water Dance - Rolling hills! Heavy in the saddle and attacks in 3rd on choruses.

6. Overload - Recovery song! Flat road in saddle for mos of song, add some resistance and switch between seated flat and standing flat. 

7. No Mediocre - 8 count jumps from 1 to 3, adding gears gradually.

8. Prima Donna - heavy resistance for alternating between seated and standing climbs.

9. Dangerous - heavy resistance. Seated climb for half of song, standing climb for second half. 

10. Don't Tell Em - moderate/heavy jumps 8 count jumps. Take only 1-2 gears off, jumps from 1 to 2.

11. Dessert - Rolling hills! Flat road with the heaviest attacks in 3rd ever(!) during the choruses.

12. FourFiveSeconds - cool down song. Flat road, upper body stretches on the bike, lower body stretches off the bike. 

You did it! 

I don't know why I ended up loving this playlist much more than I thought I was. I usually find it pretty difficult to pick good hill climb songs. And those hill climb songs are baller, man. 

If you have any Spinning song suggestions, please please please leave them in a comment! Or just your favorite song in general right now, that'd be pretty cool too. 

Spinning Playlist #1

Yesterday I taught my first Spin class, EVER.
It was a little bit scary but honestly so fun. I just hope that I gave my students a good workout and they liked my music and walked away thinking, "Hm, I might come back next week!"

I practiced my playlist yesterday afternoon, so needless to say I was completely physically drained by 7pm, but found the energy to teach and jump around on pure adrenaline alone.

Here's the profile I used. I found that it's really hard, has not too much recovery time, and a lot of sprints. Oops! Way to kill 'em your first class, Danielle.

1. Black & Gold - During the warm-up song, which has a really great beginning section for talking and explaining safety precautions, we began in the seated flat. Then added light to moderate resistance and I demonstrated second and third position while the class followed along

2. Light it Up - Jumps from first to second position during the verses, seated acceleration while adding in resistance during the chorus.

3. Alive - First climb of the class. Add a gear every time the music gets more intense. First half of song seated climb, second half is standing climb.

4. Hands to Myself - 1 min. of recovery in seated flat. Jumps from first to second position during the song, adding in resistance while in second position during each chorus. 1 min. seated acceleration with heavier resistance during the very last chorus (it feels intense!)

5. The Right Song - Seated for verses, moderate to heavy resistance in second position for the chorus

6. Temperature - Jumps! Take two 8-counts to travel from first, to second, to third, to second, to first. Add in a gear in the saddle occasionally. Cut jump time in half to one 8-count midway through song.

7. Renegades - Gear training. Put three gears on, take two off. Repeat 3 times.

8. Something About You - Heavy climb. Add a gear about every 30 seconds for a total of 8 gears. First half of song seated, second half is standing climb.

9. Work - Jumps from first to second position during the chorus, standing flat for verses. Light to moderate resistance throughout.

10. Get Ugly - Seated with moderate resistance during verses. Seated climb with acceleration during chorus.

11. Wildest Dreams - BIG FINISH. 1 min. seated flat. Add in resistance as music builds. Sprints during the chorus, pop out to third position to gain momentum and back down to seated, peddle it out. Meet in second position to run up hill during first sprint. Second sprint is all out in the saddle until the end.

12. The Morning - Cool down song. Seated flat with upper body stretches while in the saddle and lower body stretches off the bike.

* I meticulously searched for the clean versions of these so as to not offend anyone in my class since I wasn't sure of my demographics yet.

For a first class, I think I did pretty well!
I do think that some things I could probably work on would be:

• Talking too much
• Being sure to clearly explain the different positions at the beginning of class
• Trying to get off the bike more
• Speaking more clearly since the mic SUCKS. 

I'll be posting all of my playlists here as they accumulate with descriptions of the actions for each song, so stay tuned! 

What to expect at your Spinning certification!

Yesterday I went to Spinning certification class with two of my fellow coworkers!
Brief background on my Spinning experience:
I started Spinning in April 2016, so not long at all now, and before that, I was TERRIFIED to start. But the gym I work at started offering it, so I technically had to take it in order to know what I was talking about when I was recommending it to gym members.
And it was so much fun!
I mean, after getting over the initial feelings of probably-going-to-die, might-throw-up, and why-did-i-do-this-to-myself.
But honestly, it's one of the most gratifying feelings to finish an especially challenging Spin class, like a runner's high (which I've never actually experienced since I hate running).
So to expand our own knowledge, and start teaching these awesome classes ourselves, we decided to get Spinning certified!

We drove an hour and a half for our class in Newburgh, NY which was the furthest of anyone in the class! We are crazy! 

It was a long, exhausting rewarding day. Here is what to expect if you go to class to get Spinning certified: 

1. Bring like seven water bottles. No joke, I'm a fish so I probably needed more. It's such a long day and you'll be so dehydrated if you aren't constantly drinking water.
2. The first part of the day will be a lot of demonstrating bike set up and safety. A lot of people were pedaling on their bikes through this whole thing. OMG your butt will start hurting so badly. It doesn't make you look cooler to keep pedaling through this. Just sit on the damn ground.
3. Bring like a hundred snacks. Unless your MI (Master Instructor) is super strict, there will be plentyyyy of opportunities to eat snacks. Fuel that body, it needs those calories so much today.
4. Your first ride is demonstrating all the different movements in a Spin class and it's probably not going to be to music and it's probably not going to be fun. It's purely informational. But you will sweat soooo much during it.
5. BRING EXTRA CHANGES OF CLOTHES. After your first ride, you'll have a lunch break, a LONG lecture, and then another ride. You'll want an outfit for your first ride, one to change into after that, and then one to change into on your ride home from the class itself. I cannot stress this enough unless you love sitting in a puddle of your own sweat.
6. Try not to fall asleep during the lecture portion. Your body is going to start going into sleep mode after that effort during the first ride and after your lunch break. SIESTA MODE. I could barely keep my eyes open. I don't have any advice to help with this besides just to be aware this is when you gotta try to keep your eyes pried open.
7. During the lecture portion, you will learn SO MUCH. Don't try to take notes on everything, just things your instructor says that resonate with you about making a profile or music choices or transitions. There's time to read the whole manual cover to cover when you get home (or before the class if you're that extra).
8. You will think with every fiber of your being that there's no way you can do a second ride at the end of the day, but you somehow will anyways. It will be painful, euphoric, and exhilarating when it's finally over. You'll be so damn proud of yourself! I had the WORST stomach cramps during my last ride, and had to keep repeating this mantra to myself, "Pain is temporary, greatness is forever". Dramatic, I know, but it worked. 

Before: 

 After: 

After an eight hour day, we still had a two hour drive home, during which I quickly popped two Advil. I was so exhausted I honestly felt like my body was shutting down. It was one of the most tiring experiences OF MY LIFE. It'll hopefully be so worth it though, to share Spinning and the rewarding experience it carries with all my future Spin students!