Words By: Demar Jackson
Preparing for your first indoor cycling class can feel daunting, yet exciting. You have your essentials (towel, water bottle, spin shoes, etc.), you signed up for your class, you arrive early, and now you are on your bike. Before you know it, class starts, and the music along with instructor generates unparallelled energy that gets you and the crowd moving. The instructor has now said a flurry of instructional and motivational cues, and everyone is responding accordingly. You find yourself looking around doing your best to keep up. At this moment, you may realize that you are unfamiliar with the terminology that is being used by the instructor. In the indoor cycling community (rhythm riding), there will be common terminology to know and understand to further enhance your experience, and to ensure you are prepared. Each indoor cycling studio you may go to may differ in bikes, which as a result may slightly change how the terminology/choreography is instructed. However, there are still common terms to know and understand that can be applied in any studio.
Starting off with the basic layout of the bike, you have your saddle (or seat), handlebars, resistance knob/lever (depending on the bike), and the pedals which you clip into. Understanding the proper adjustments for your saddle, handlebars, and resistance options will now allow you to perform choreography if desired. Depending on how often choreography is utilized in class, this can be used as an experience tool that will create a uniformed and “dance” type of environment to the beat of the music.
Before jumping into choreography, there are different paces that will reflect the music that you may want to familiarize yourself with. An instructor may say hill (or climb), which will indicate that this portion is slower and will have more resistance. They may say, side-to-side, which is a pace that is moderate (medium resistance), not fast, but not slow like a hill. Then the pace may pick up a bit more, lighter resistance, and you will hear a jog, which are songs that are quick. Lastly, you may hear a sprint (or run, or seated flat), which is the fastest pace you may hear and the lightest resistance which you may feel. Additionally, if directed to push the pace, the instructor is indicating you as the rider to go faster than the beat.
Within choreography, instructors may use the term Pushups (also known as press, push press, chest press), which you can do by placing your hands on the handlebars, flexing your elbows so that your torso comes towards the bars then straightening your arms out again.
Tap Backs are used when you are out of the saddle, and the instructor wants your hips to pull back towards your seat and then coming back to its original position
Jumps is a term used from getting out and back in the saddle. You rise out of the saddle for a certain amount of “counts” within the beat, and then you come back down to the saddle for a certain amount of “counts” within the beat (as directed by the instructor). This move can be used at any of the paces above, but more commonly performed at a faster pace.
Isolations is a term used to establish a still position when you are out of the saddle. Your upper body is not moving, you are not bobbing up and down or side to side, you are simply holding your upper body still by focusing more on the lower body and core. This move is performed mostly on slower paced songs.
With pushups, tap backs, jumps, and isolations, this will help lay the groundwork for more moves to come. Depending on the studio/instructor, they may mention corners, low-high, sways, obliques/crunches, etc. Each of these unique moves will work the body in a different way if performed correctly. However, as long as you understand the common terminology, you will be able to adapt and expand upon that.
