Spinning Classes Per Week

[rockonspinfreak]

I am a cycling instructor going on 5 years now. I can tell you that 5 classes is a lot, but not too bad as long as those classes are not running down your hips. I have found that 5 or more high intensity classes per week can begin causing hip issues. Another thing you want to watch for is overdoing one type of training. 4 classes would be ideal with a mixture of medium to high intensity treadmill/elliptical/stair climber/recumbent bike/rowing machine/kickboxing... If you are doing a medium intensity workout on the indoor cycle 5x per week, just make sure you break it up and work your body in other ways just as intensely throughout the week.
Also, as one of the previous posters pointed out… spinning as your only means of cardio can imbalance the muscles and cause injury... I am a poster child for that. I am recovering from a knee injury that occurred because the muscles were very much out of balance because of spinning (I was teaching 5-6 spin classes per week-not anymore). After quite a bit of physical therapy and including a lot of Pilates/ kickboxing/ Ti Chi exercises into my routine, my legs are back in balance and I feel stronger than ever. When the muscles go out of strength balance it can do things like pulling your patella (knee cap) out of alignment so it doesn't flow the way it is supposed to smoothly within its groove... this can cause chronic pain and swelling which can lead to a quite bad case of lameness and ONLY time can heal it, that would mean no use for it. Make sure you balance your legs if you spin a lot. Do a lot of exercises that work the hamstrings, calves, inner thigh, and balancing exercises that work the stabilization muscles around your ankles and knees. Work on the Bosu ball (turned upside down so the ball side is on the floor and you are standing on the flat side) is a great way to strengthen and stabilize hard to work muscles. Good luck and keep up the good work!