After my first foray in the world of Spinning (see yesterday's post), I jelly legged my way over to our exuberant instructor, Reign Hudson, "pronounced like a queen" to get the "skinny" on spinning and she's just charismatic off the bike as she is on.
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Adding Bliss: How long have you been teaching spin?
Reign Hudson: I've been teaching Spin for 12 years.
AB: 12 years! Wow. And is your background Spinning?
RH: No,Dance. I've been with Crunch for 15 years but I've been teaching Spin for 12. So, I have a dance background. That's my first love.
AB: What kind of dance?
RH: I teach African Dance and I teach Modern, but African is my baby.
AB: And you teach all of these classes at Crunch?
RH: Yes.
AB: So, what's so great about Spinning as an exercise?
RH: It's straight cardio. It could be two things: it could be cardio or it could be strength building. What I do in my class is both. There are some instructors that just do strength building, where they'll just turn the resistance up really high and just have you climb hills. I do a mixture of both, but mine is more towards cardio. So, sometimes it's 45 minutes, sometimes an hour and sometimes we'll go an hour and fifteen but inbetween those I'll give you a hill where you are burning, I'll give you two or three songs of that, but most of it's cardio.
AB: So what would you say to people like me, who have been avoiding Spinning for 8 years because they're just afraid to try it?
RH: Spin can be very boring. You need to get an instructor with good music, because you're on a bike for 45 minutes. You can only go up and down. There's only so much you do. It's not like a dance class, so you need an instructor with amazing music. And in the first ten minutes or fifteen minutes on the bike, you feel like,"What am I doing?! It hurts." (referring to the bike seat in the butt effect) That's why in my class I don't keep you on the bike too much. I bring you up "out of the saddle" so you don't feel that pain.
It's an amazing workout in 45 minutes you can burn from 560 to 650 calories. If we go for an hour you can burn like 700 and change, but you have to really, really go. But even in a 45 minute class, even if your not going the same speed as the instructor you can still burn 450 to 500 calories. There's no way you can sit on that bike and not be burning.
AB: Because you're always moving. You never stop, even when you're "resting" you're still pedaling. So what's your teaching schedule? Do you only teach at this Crunch location?
RH: I'm on Facebook, Reign Hudson and my website is ReignFitness.com (going through maintenance at press time). I teach at Crunch locations all over the city. I'm around.
AB: What else would you like our readers to know about Spinning?
RH: If you're trying to lose weight, mix it up. Don't just do Spin. It is a total body workout, but it is more lower body. We do a couple of presses with our shoulders, but it's not really an upper body experience. You should do 4-5 spin classes a week, but the key is the music.
AB: The key is the music.
RH: The key is the music. Because even if you don't want to go any faster and you're dying in the middle, you'll hear a song that will make you go, "Oh! That's my song!" Then all of the sudden you'll just get this energy. Then you'll say,"Okay. I'm dying. The next song I'm outta here." Then you hear the next song and you'll say, "That's my song!" So, the music and the instructor have to be incredible, because if not, it's going to be the worst 45 minutes of your life.
Another thing too, even as a beginner, if your not going as fast or even if you can't do the jumps, you're still working out, you're still on that bike. If you're in another fitness class you might stop. Even if you slow down on the bike, you're still moving.
AB: Because you're strapped in. You're part of the machine. You're not...
In Unison: Going Anywhere!
RH: So did you like it?
AB: I loved it! It doesn't seem like it would be appealing, but once you're in here you get swept up in the mob mentality. You don't want to stop. You want to keep going. You want to scream and shout and really get into it like everyone else.
RH: That just what I was saying. Myself & Douglas Johnson, who is another instructor at Crunch, we put a lot of time into selecting music. We don't want you to think you're working out. We want you to think you're at a club. So that's why I play the Calypso. That's why I play the Reggae. That's why I play the Hip Hop. So you're not thinking, "Damn! I'm working out." You're thinking, "Hey, I'm having fun!" And then after you say,"Sh!t, I burned x amount of calories." I don't want you thinking about that then, I want you thinking, "Let's Go!"
It's a lot of fun, but you gotta get the right groove. You gotta get the right music and the right instructor and you'll be great.
AB: Well, thank you so much.
RH: You're Welcome.
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Reign also teaches teaches African Dance at Crunch Fitness
Wednesdays at 6:15 pm at Fort Greene in Brooklyn
Thursdays at 9:45 am at Park Slope in Brooklyn
Fridays at 7:00 pm at Park Slope in Brooklyn
I wonder how many classes I have to take before I look like this. Maybe, I should have asked that.
That's all for now.
Thanks for tuning in.
Until Next Time...
Keep Adding Bliss!
Michelle
