Confusion during my spinning class (sorry; it's kind of long)

[Derf]

Let's face it, unless we live where there are huge hills and we don't have a triple... we are RARELY going to mash the pedals with extremely low cadence, sitting down. But, spin instructors tell people to do it all the time

Good point. I've started to ease up on that type of stuff since it's causing me pain in my right knee.