Originally Posted by IronGirl2011 .
I tried spinning as a lark (note: I'm a rather heavy girl. LOL) ... the first time I went it was everything I could do just to keep pedaling and not think about the damage I was doing to my unmentionables, even on a gel seat. Through the winter, our class tended to dwindle but once the weather started warming up and the days getting longer it was back to lining up at 7:30-7:45 am to ensure a seat in the 8:15 class.
Nine months later (and typically hitting maybe two spin classes a week in addition to other fitness activities) I can keep up with the rest of the class. It helped me prepare for road cycling to a far lesser extent than I'd expected (I cannot do a hill climb out of the saddle on the road to save my life. I'm sit and spin all the way) but it definitely gets the blood pumping. I'm less likely to ride with the padded seat for spin class now as well. (I bought padded shorts for road riding - I wouldn't have been able to do it again if I hadn't)
I too find it rather annoying when the instructor gets off his/her bike and walks around harassing people ... unless you see someone in a form so atrocious that they are assuredly going to injure themselves, stay on the bike, please? I also note that I had one instructor (a personal friend) whose class I will never attend again because she took it upon herself to adjust my tension during a class (my sister has done the instructor training course and she told me the first thing they tell you is that you NEVER adjust another person's bike.)
A lot of instructors are too busy worrying about moving between positions and doing rapid count jumps. I pay less attention to that and spend more time working on seated climbs at very high resistance because THAT is what helped my road cycling the most. (IMO)