Spinning: What's with the weird hand positions?

[han-grrl]

Hand position 1 is meant for warm up and recovery style classes. It is meant to be a relaxing position.

Position 2, should be the "normal" position to hold your handebars. Normally i tell people to close their eyes and go for their handle bars. that's their natural position

Position 3 is to be used in standing position only.

The hand positions were meant for the "spinner" bike. I am not a total stickler for the "exact" positions, except for hand position 3. some people like to use it seated but it is not ideal for the back, and tends to be used when they are feeling "lazy".

[anne_77]

I use very different hand positions in spin class than on my road bike because the spin bike handlebars are shaped differently and they hurt my hands (arthritis and carpal tunnel). So although I would never put my hands together in the middle of my handlebars on the road, I do sometimes in spin class when my hands/wrists get too painful. I'm also one of those shaking out their hands.

The problem isn't from putting pressure on the hands. I find it's actually due to the angle of the spin bike handlebars, which angle down from the center instead of lying flat across. I almost never have any problems on my road bike, which I ride for up to 3 or 4 hours as opposed to the hour long spin class, and when I do have problems on my road bike it's because my hands/wrists were bothering me before I got on the bike.

[VenusdeVelo]

I actually like the hand positions -- I always equated HP 1 to putting my hands on the middle of the bar (which I do when riding more upright and not in drops or hoods, or relaxing like han-grrl mentions), HP 2 was like riding with my hands in the hoods, and HP was more specialized, probably even closer to my mtn bike while hill climbing and my hands are on the bar-ends.

Your experience will certainly vary, esp for specialized situations like Anne mentions but if you ride on road or trail, I find you can align your positions to your normal riding style pretty well.