Why SoulCycle Wasn't for Me.

Did I ride the Soulcycle wave? Did I like it? It's a stern no for me dawg! Ok here's my story. For several months I've been self-investing, which equates to me working on my fitness, eating more healthy and indulging in wellness activities. During my journey I've found love in HIIT and strength training. If you follow me on my Instagram and watch my inta-stories you may see the fitness studios I frequently go to. However, in order to change up the routine a bit, I purchased a Soulcycle class as a pre-birthday gift. Why? Because so many people LOVE these classes and it's apparently a "community" like no other. After searching for theme rides and locations that was suitable for me, I made a decision to go to a Hip-Hop Theme Saturday class. That particular Saturday came around and I was ready to go to do some Soulcycl-ing.

When I arrived at the location and opened the door to a sea of employees in yellow shirts in synchronization said "hello". I did appreciated the warm welcome from the staff, I gave that a strong thumbs up! One of the yellow shirt employee gave me the run-down of the procedures of the studio and the class I was about to take. I was given my bike shoes and was ready to go.



As I wobbled (walking in bike shoes are hard) in to class, another yellow shirt employee adjusted my bike to my height and give me a tutorial of how to put my feet in the straps and how to take them out. The instructor entered the room, introduced herself and ask the class respectively, "are there any newcomers?" I waved my hand and gave me a welcome in front of the class. The music started and I began to pedal my feet to the beat of the music. All was good and I was trying to keep up with the pace of the instructor. I would say after ten minutes of pedaling, my feet started to hurt. I guess my feet being strapped in those shoes weren't having it, with the pain, I continued to pedal and sweat to  the hip-hop music. Now here is where the confusion comes in, as the only newcomer in that class, I wanted and expecting more direction from the instructor. What I expect from the instructor is to inform the students the next steps or what will be ahead for the next phase of the class. I've visited different fitness studios where the instructor still took the time to explain the flow of the class even if 99% of the class are regulars.

Not in this case, several times the instructor shouted, "You know what to do".. As a first-timer I didn't know what to do or what the statement even meant. I was confused which made me look to the other students in the class on "what to do". I literally whipped my neck to left and right looking at the other riders next to me to see what they were doing. Are you wondering what the instructor was doing at this time? She was walking (yes walking in a spin class) around the class. Here's the thing, I didn't pay my money for a class to follow the other students. I expect the trained instructor to verbalize "what to do".

 Beside the walking around, and the ambiguous "what to do" statements, something else odd happened. There were three candles in front of the class, I was super confused as to why the candles were there. I was more confused when the instructor carried the candles one by one to certain students to for them to blow out. This was another confused aspect of the class I didn't quite get. Side note, I shared my soulcycle story on my insta-story and one of my follower mentioned that they too was confused by the candle-thing. Maybe someone can explain the meaning of the candles.
To finish off, I won't be getting into a saddle at Soulcycle anytime soon. I appreciate the cheerful enthusiasm from the employees but being confused by the terminology and phrases, is not my thing. The positive I did get from the class was getting a good sweat.