Quote Originally Posted by Funhog View Post

Jump Starts: there's lots of names for this, but it's starting at a high resistance from a total stand still, and then sprinting as hard as you can go. This could potentially be helpful for racers and power riders, but not for your general Spin class. The problem is these indoor bikes aren't designed for this kind of torque, and those crank arms can break. True story: an instructor I know told me of a large guy in class who was powering on his pedals, the crank broke, and it ended up embedded IN his calf.... ugh! I had a chain break on me one time while in a standing climb and I thank my lucky stars I wasn't injured...imagine doing something high powered like this and "crack"!

I agree with these points, but I wanted to highlight this one.

This is a good drill for racers on a bike outdoors (called standing starts usually). They aren't always done in a huge gear to start, but they often are. And guess what, they often hurt people's knees! Even with all the flex and swaying of the bike laterally under load, it's still hard. Doing this on a spin bike seems pointless. Plus, sprinting on a spin bike is so *easy* compared to sprinting on a road bike. There are other ways to work on power. Even doing a workout at Tempo works on strength with less stress on the joints.

Other peeves I have with some instructors:

Sprinting in reverse. One instructor I've had tells the class to crank up the resistance while standing and *then* sit and sprint. Um, what? No. Start bringing leg speed up while seated. Increase resistance as you increase leg speed to stay stable. Then if this gets tough at the end of the interval, stand and power it out. Or, increase resistance while standing for the final push. This is how you'd sprint in a race, right? The other method is backwards. This helps people actually sprint under resistance and so then more people could benefit from the high cadence work. Ok, yeah, spinning really high cadences with a flywheel generally doesn't do much. But if you can crank out the power (by increasing resistance without stressing joints or slowing down/messing up the pedal stroke), sprint intervals on a spin bike are quite good in improving aerobic recovery time and somewhat improves muscle recovery time. IMO, it can be a better strength builder for the quads than "climbing" on a spin bike. Still, it is not the same as doing intervals on the road bike.

I find "running" to be a good way to work on your pedal stroke. However, it's got to be done right, and really shouldn't be a harder interval like most instructors make it. Rather, it should just be a way to give your butt a break for a minute and working out some kinks. Riding a spin bike seems to be so much more quads-intensive, that standing under lighter resistance (under control with a fast cadence) can be a good way to stretch out and get comfortable. Just like standing periodically on a long ride when not climbing.

I also don't like how instructors will tell you to start a set at 60% of max perceived rate of exertion and then expect you to turn up the resistance a gazillion times yet only wind up at maybe 80% by the end. There are other inconsistencies with what "levels" they want you to be experiencing, and it seems each instructor has his/her own scale. There are other ways to describe where you want the class to be in terms of resistance and HR and effort that makes more sense with the rest of the workout.