Article Title: Getting Started with Spinning – How to Select Spinning Videos tailored to Your Fitness Goals.

The great thing about my job, a producer of indoor Spinning videos, is that I am constantly exposed to the success stories from many of my customers. Like Lance Armstrong, their experiences share similar events and health changes from near death upwards to extreme fitness that is race worthy. One individual was found in his car, near death after a heart attack, unconscious, over 350 lbs with a bag of Cheetos and a half eaten double Whopper with cheese on his lap. After being rushed to the ER and months of soul searching recovery, he motivated himself to make substantial life changes. Now, he is fit, strong and able to ride hundreds of miles and race with other strong cyclists. One of my best customers was an avid cyclist, and then had an unfortunate accident with a car. During her rehabilitation, and time away from endurance type exercise, she lost her desire to workout and turned into a true “couch potato.” During this spell, she gained over 200 pounds, lost her self esteem, became desperately depressed and decided that suicide was her best option. Her failing health and failing relationships led to the deterioration of her emotional health. Fortunately, her attempt at suicide failed. She decided that she would have to force herself to change her perspective on life, so, with therapy and exercise, she slowly rehabilitated herself. Now, she is a successful Spinning instructor with an incredible body! You would never recognize her as both her personality and her body has completely metamorphosed. She credits most of her rehabilitation to Spinning as this was a great way to enjoy the health perks from cycling while avoiding the dangers.

Not only can Spinning encourage positive life changes, Spinning is also an incredibly rewarding way to obtain fitness levels seen by the hard bodies on the covers of your favorite magazine. Spinning is a unique way to workout as it is one of the few disciplines which allow you to target multiple core muscle groups while allowing you to establish a heart rate that is ideal to a specific workout. Let me elaborate. Your body is an engine and like an engine, it has multiple gears and a gas pedal. Let’s assume, for this analogy, that you put your body into its biggest gear (say 5th) and floor the accelerator. The body will work slowly with a great deal of effort and your heart rate will peak quickly. Then, you put the car into neutral and take your foot off the pedal. Your body will stop moving and your heart rate will recover. If you did this over and over, this scenario would be akin to an interval workout which will burn fat, build muscle and test your pain threshold. But, how do you know when to start? When to stop? What is too much? Or, not enough to accomplish your goal to build core muscle strength? Instructors and coaches agree that a successful interval workout while Spinning has no predictable pattern to it. In other words, each interval set should be a randomly generated. In this tough Spinning workout, interval sets take you to the extreme in resistance and effort and are defined by the topography, not the clock.

Now, let’s say that you want a spinning DVD that won’t leave you sore and walking crooked for a day and is ideal for weight loss and recovery. Assume you’re driving along a country road with only a few small hills. You engage your cruise control because you want maximum efficiency (save gas). The engine only applies enough power to maintain a precise speed, no more, no less. This is a fat burner workout. Your heart rate should be fairly consistent in the aerobic zone (65% to 75% of max) and your legs should feel only small changes in resistance and maintain a consistent cadence of about 80-90 RPM. Occasionally, you might want to up your heart rate for short periods just to get your body out of its complacency. This Spinning Video provides an aerobic workout that is long enough and provides workout efforts ideal for weight loss.

This is just a quick introduction to Spinning and how an appropriate Spinning DVD can target specific health goals. In later articles, I will discuss how spinning will build core muscle groups, and how you can precisely fine tune your workouts to obtain your fitness goals by selecting an appropriate Spinning video or workout routine. When you first jump on your Spin bike, know what you’re doing, know where you’re going, have a plan. Don’t just pedal and think you’re getting healthy. Get a heart rate monitor, make sure the bike fits, have lots of water available, investigate spinning techniques and workout plans. CyclingVideosOnline.com has several workout programs to target specific goals, but, don’t stop there, learn all you can and get in shape! You may not have as far to go to get fit as some of the others in this article, so, indulge yourself with the sport of Spinning and watch your fitness levels go through the roof!