SoulCycle Reinvents Indoor Fitness Cycling

SoulCycle believes fitness can be joyful. Through climbing, jogging, sprinting and dancing, cyclers break through boundaries together as a community. SoulCycle is indoor cycling re-invented. The 45-minute, fat-burning, cardio, full-body workout adds hand weights and core work to transform the way you look and feel.

The classes provide riders with inspirational instructors, candlelight, epic spaces and rocking music, allowing students to clear their heads and empower themselves beyond studio walls.

For the newbies, SoulCycle bikes are a taller, more upright version of the stationary bike in the past. The spin bike has fancy features and no brakes. From a knob on the bike, you can control the spin resistance, increasing resistance to mimic hill climbs or lower it to simulate the flats. Some of the bikes have light weights attached for added arm exercises. You do need specific spin shoes; some studios include them in the class, others you have to rent them.

Cycling is an excellent workout where you burn 500–700 calories in 45 minutes of indoor cycling. The full-body workout can create results in tighter abs, learner arms and legs and overall toning, as well as increased cardiovascular health. Your largest muscles, the quads and glutes, are activated in spin, and when you work bigger muscles you burn more calories — not just during the workout, but days after. Spin works fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch are the muscles used for explosive movements like sprinting, while slow twitch are endurance muscles used in long-distance running. During class, expect to alternate quick sprints with slow, steep climbs.

In Manhattan, SoulCycle charges $35 a class, plus $3 to rent the shoes to clip into the bike, with discounts to about $28 for riders who buy in bulk. Most of the prices are modestly lower outside of New York City and not every class sells out.