There is no such thing as the best kind of exercise…but when it comes to cardiovascular training indoor cycling comes close.
With a good instructor you’ll get an awesome cardio/aerobic workout helping you burn enormous amounts of calories, and that helps you control your weight and body fat. You will strengthen unarguably the most important muscle in your body; your heart. That’ll keep you alive. It will improve your lung capacity so you don’t get winded going up a couple of flights of stairs when an elevator is out.
There’s more benefits, too. Unlike a 1 mile (or longer run), cycling can incorporate anaerobic training. Anaerobic training uses different sources of energy and challenges the skeletal muscles of the legs and hips to a far greater degree than aerobic training is designed to. This builds true muscle tone and strength creating shape. And that shape also enhances your ability to generate more power to go longer distances at lower levels of intensity and to overcome obstacles like hills and rough terrain along the way, or going up those two flights of stairs with a couple of heavy grocery bags, too.
Spinning and other indoor cycling programs give you all these benefits. Running and other forms of aerobics can, as well, but because of the pounding impact of jogging, running, and other aerobic type classes you also dramatically increase your risks of injury.
You can find me at the new cycling boutique studio in Forest Hills: SUN CYCLE Studio Tuesdays at 6am and 6pm, and Saturday at noon and as always at New York Sports clubs in Forest Hills, Rego Park, and Manhattan locations at 38th & Broadway and 23rd & 8th. My schedule there has not changed.
Join me and all the other great instructors for a great indoor cycling ride.
Come get the ride of your life, and get in the shape you’ve dreamed about.
Fitnessgroan's Blog 
Two questions. The first is where can find a good calculator for figuring out the approximate number of calories cycling uses? I’ve gone to two different places and the second one had twice the number of calories per hour than the first one. Both asked my weight, age, sex, etc.
Second, how would you compare spinning to being out on the road?
T
Ahh. What a tough question. The most accurate algorithms available outside a laboratory will be found in the high end of Polar and Garmin GPS heart rate monitors, or multiple sport heart rate monitors like my Polar FT 80 that allows me to input specific activity. Short of that, the best explanation I’ve found is here:
http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/08/fitness-trackers/
To your second question…no substitute for the road. But spinning is the best simulation you’ll ever get.
I think spinning is better than the same amount of time on the road. My reasons are: 1. I can push all out in a spin class and not worry about having enough energy to make it home. 2. The hills in nature are not designed to give me the maximum workout but the ones in class are. I have to stop at lights and slow down for bad roads — obviously I don’t in spin class. The people for whom I can see the road being better are the ones that go for very long rides or are so lazy in spin class that keeping the bike vertical on the road requires some degree of effort. What would make the road better than spin class for the same amount of time?
Those are good points, but the other advantages of outdoor riding includes those unexpected occurrences that force you to suddenly maneuver and swerve, or even unconsciously react to changes in road conditions or wind resistance, etc. and of course, on a real bike, you have to balance; something that’s completely removed from the indoor equation and cannot be simulated with resistance changes.