This week, I’m back in Los Angeles and at the spin studio with the Tri It Out series.
Say hello to ……….Flywheel.
Flywheel is a cycling studio with multiple locations across Los Angeles as well as nationally. The particular studio I attended was in Larchmont. {Side note: Larchmont is a cute little area nested in Los Angeles with a bunch of cute restaurants and shops. If you ever find yourself in this area, if not for an awesome ride at Flywheel, make sure you stay for a bit. They also have a great farmers market.}
The Studio:
Upon walking in to the Larchmont location of Flywheel, you are greeted by the friendly front desk staff that will help check you in and get ready for your ride. If you don’t have spin shoes, Flywheel offers them to you, complimentary. To the left of the front desk is a lobby-like space, where you can shop their retail, relax on the couch or chat with other riders before or after your ride. Walk past the front desk toward the back of the studio and you’ll find lockers, a water station (on tap- cold and room temperature), bathrooms and changing rooms. When the spin room is ready, a staff member will open the door and you will be allowed in. Find your bike, set it up (staff members are available to help) and get ready for a 45-, 60- or 90- minute (depending on the class) sweaty, fun-filled ride. Flywheel offers Fly45, Fly60, FlyBeats and Themed rides to their customers. Flywheel’s bikes are exclusive to Flywheel. Similar to most spin bikes, you will find a knob that controls the resistance. Attached to the bike you will also find weighted bars for the arms portion of class as well as a TechPack. This helps track your efforts and your RPMs throughout your ride. The TechPack is connected to the TorqBoard, which is also exclusive to Flywheel. This is located above the instructor so you can compete with your fellow riders or against yourself- you can always opt-out if you’re not feeling competitive that day. The data obtained from your ride including your speed, RPMs, Torq, calories burned and distance will be e-mailed to you after class as well as available to you on your Fly account. As for pricing, Flywheel offers single rides, packages and regional memberships. They also participate in classpass!
The workout:
Depending on the ride you’ve signed up for, get ready for a 45-, 60- or 90-minute sweat session. The Flywheel instructors cultivate their playlists to help motivate, inspire and give you the best experience throughout your workout. Steve was my instructor this day and his up-beat music, encouraging words and playful personality made this ride an enjoyable one. We rode to the rhythm of the songs, increasing speed and resistance when instructed to do so, changing positions on the bike (standing, seated, jumps, tapping back) and pushing ourselves to maximum efforts. At some point during the ride, we were instructed to pick up our weighted sticks located on either side of the front wheel for the upper body portion of class. I must tell you; those “light” weight sticks are very deceiving. After what seemed like 10 minutes of strength work (I know it wasn’t that long), my arms were on fire, but in a good way. After 45 minutes of heart-pounding work, I was happy to dismount the bike, wipe my brow, freshen up in the changing rooms and grab some coffee at a local coffee shop down the street. Almost immediately after leaving the studio, I received an e-mail notification with my stats for the ride…….maybe even a scone was earned to go with that coffee.
My Thoughts:
I had a great member experience at Flywheel. The knowledge and friendliness of the staff was amazing. The space itself was quite large and clean and the ride was inspiring and such a good workout! The fact that there are multiple studios located around Los Angeles is a plus, giving clients many opportunities to get on a bike and give it a try. See you on a bike!
