Spin Class Review- Carnival freedom cruise ship 12/25/12

I cannot get MY pictures to upload but these are the exact bikes that we used (image is from a cruise review board)-except they were very old and they were lined up in the open gym...

One of the first things that I did on the ship was to sign up for spin classes on our days at sea (2 days). I was a bit leery when I saw the bikes. But, I wanted to take class bad enough to make sure that I got some cardio in! It's always easier for me to get my cardio in during a class or a run outside ( not that easy to do on a ship. I cruise A LOT and some ships have space- others do not).

I got to class early and snagged a bike. Oh, maybe I should mention that the bikes were set up out in the open in the main gym with full lights on. My first bike had a pedal that was bent and turned in. I was riding with my knee turned and knew that wasn't going to work. I asked the instructor to help. He changed my bike out and I got on the new one and asked him to help me fix my handle bars. He was annoyed the I was holding up the class and couldn't figure out how to use the "special key" (wench) to adjust my handles up! I finally got on only to notice that the cage was bent again ! I told him and he said just fix the strap. I did and that was clearly not the problem. He went ahead and started anyway (awesome). I was left to figure it out on my own .

The ride was confusing, painful , easy and yet had moves that did not seem safe. I was annoyed at the people talking loudly in the gym, bright lights and the girl that randomly joined the class on the bike next to me with 5 minutes to go.

Needless to say- I left feeling unimpressed and missing my studio (fit girl studio) a lot!

One positive move I learned:
"Squats to hover"
--stay with hands in 3 and basically jump from 2/3 to a hover (hence the. "Squats") and then sprinting it out in a hover. We did a few rounds of this.

I tried to go into the class open minded. I got frustrated when I felt like I was going to get injured. Finally I realized though that I just needed to take it at my own pace and do what felt right. Many of the participants had never taken spin and didn't know the difference. For me, I knew that I was better off keeping my money and training by myself ;)