Spinning… a LIFESTYLE that I embrace with full passion and love…(yes, you could call it an obsession!)  I know you all feel the same way!!  I give spinning most of the credit for changing my life in so many ways.  Being a mother of 4 kids all under the age of 6, you can imagine how great spinning is for me.  Spinning makes me happy and in turn allows me to be the best person i can be for my family and everyone around me.  I call that spin room my “sanctuary”.  I look forward to it every day.  It is that one hour that I can be in the moment and let go of all my thoughts and inhibitions, get out of my head and just go!

Getting into the music in class is the most motivating part for me.   Spinning + Music = ME.  

Music is a huge part of my life.  Playing several instruments and creating music fits right into it all.  It is also the one thing that everyone in the entire world shares the same love for. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love music.   There is nothing more motivating  than amazing music  in spin class that creates an energy in the room that is truly unexplainable.  You know,  when you hear that beat..the bass..you focus on the rythym, the lyrics, the energy it gives you, the emotions it creates.  Your pedal strokes start to match the beat..you challenge yourself to stay on the rythym and it takes you further and longer than you ever thought you could go.  Then the climax of the song comes..your heart is pumping in your chest and you use all your momentum and hit those pedals with a powerful burst!    There is NOTHING like it!!!   It is so freeing!  

I always encourage everyone in class to just “LET GO!!”.  Give yourself that one hour to stop thinking..and just ride.  Free yourself of that voice in your head that keeps telling you “I can’t” and let the music drown it out.  Just breathe, relax.. and get moving to that amazing music.  Tell yourself before every class, “This is ME time” and enjoy it!  It’s a beautiful thing when a group of seriously hard working riders come together, feed off of each other’s energy in class and get so into the music that it turns into a  big calorie burning, mind-freeing party.  No one’s thinking about “who might be looking at me” or “what do i have to get done after this”….we are just one powerful body riding together, generating insane energy and giving it our very best.  Talk about an endorphin rush!  When you get to experience this, it is life changing.  You become more confident, reach more goals, you make yourself a priority…and everything else in your life is positively affected by it.  What a beautiful and powerful thing Spinning is.  Once you hit that door in spin class, leave everything outside it..get on the bike, feel the music and let’s just ride!  

Gayle’s  Favorite Post Workout Recovery Shake Recipe:   Pina Colada

• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup Banana/Pineapple mixture (chunks of frozen banana and pineapple)
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (for healthy fat)
• 2 Scoops vanilla protein powder (preferably made with pea protein)
• 1-2 teaspoons of my new favorite product, Paleo Greens by Designs for health.  (4 servings of veggies in one scoop!)
• Lots of Ice

Blog Post by Sweat Shoppe Instructor, Gayle Bassett

Gayle’s Teaching Schedule:

Tu, Th @ 8:30am, Fridays @ 6:30pm

Spinning.. Oh how it was my saving grace! I tell this story all the time to the girls in my class, to the mom’s for sure, and even to some of the guys…  I start off by saying, “If I can do it, you can do it!” As long as you apply yourself, a difference can be seen because a change has been made.
    I was turned onto spinning about five and half years ago shortly after having my second child. Boy, what a treat he was to our family, but having him in spring also meant that summer was shortly approaching.  Next I add the line… “I gained 70 pounds!  Yep, by the end of my pregnancy I had me some junk in the truck! Maybe even a little “baby got back” and I repeated that pattern of gaining 70 pounds two more times.
    Now I’m a proud mother of three. I have a girl who’s eight, a boy who’s six, and our youngest who’s four. It wasn’t after having my first child that had me so motivated to move, for I had her in November, summer was roughly seven months away. It was my second child that was born in March that had me on a focused and driven path. I was determined to get my body back! I could hear the comforting words of my girlfriend, who wanted nothing more than to ease my frustration, “It takes nine months to put on, it just might take 9 months to take off!” The problem was… I didn’t have nine months!! And so on a mission I went!
    The mouth is a very powerful tool and that’s precisely how I found out about spinning. By WORD OF MOUTH! Spread the news my friends! If you know of something that proves to show results, share it with the world! I had belonged to a very diverse moms group, women in their late 20’s to mid 40‘s. The one thing I had noticed with these women, whom spoke about spinning, were a few strong common denominators.. They were fit! They were energetic! And they were happy!.. Three things I was really needing to bring back in my life! It’s not easy having one child but then introducing another child in the mix. Definitely a bit challenging but I wasn’t about ready to forget about “ME” because I had become a mom for the second time!
    And so I quickly jumped aboard the spinning boat! Apprehensive you ask? Not so much because I had seen such an unbelievable transformation with these women! If anything I was slightly jealous! :) I, too, wanted to be right there with them feeling healthy, feeling refreshed, and feeling confident! So I took on the challenge!.. I’ve always been a firm believer that exercise should be fun and challenging! To achieve optimum ability of the mind and body, my fitness training needed to cover an intense cardio workout combined with weight training, while never finding the exercise to mundane. Spinning encompassed all that!..
    So I booked my first class and found my bike allll the wayyyyy in the back of the class!.. I found jumps to be quite challenging.. Hills to be intense and sprints to be my arch enemy! But I wasn’t gonna let it bring me down. One of the greatest perks of spinning is that you can set your own pace, meaning your workout can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it! Again, I’m always up for a good challenge and I knew I didn’t want to waste the instructors time nor did I want my goal to get squashed, so I cranked up that resistance and pushed until I had not nothing left to give.  And slowly BUT surely, I found my way to the head of the class! Jumps no longer got the best of me! I found myself lost in the music when we were climbing hills and as funny as it may sound, sprints are now my all-time favorites!
    Spinning, as I said in the beginning, was my saving grace. It burned the unwanted “goo” that had welcomed itself during my pregnancy. It definitely helped build and tone my lower body, gaining strength in my calves, buttocks, (oh yea!), my quads (cha ching!) and all the muscle tendons. It truly is a full body workout… building, toning, strengthening and burning. And as for the mind, spinning naturally releases those feel-good endorphins. They help suppress any anxiety or depression that often comes along in post-pregnancy.
    It all made sense now why the women of my mom’s group were glowing with life! Because they were being fulfilled in the mind, the body and the heart!. It’s quite a touching moment when you look into the eyes of a rider and see excitement, belief, passion, and determination for this sport. Precisely why I became instructor! It fills me up with joy to help others and to be there for them as a Friend, as a Rider and as a Trainer!

Blog Post By Sweat Shoppe Instructor, Melissa Lau

Melissa’s Teaching Schedule:

M & W @ 6:30pm, Saturdays @ 8am and Sundays @ 5pm

I always liked moving and playing.  I wasn’t good at sports, too competitive, it made me nervous, but I enjoyed swimming and running, riding my bike, hiding my roller skates (yes with 4 wheels) in the bushes outside our house, and then roller skating to school.  I found out years later that my mom knew I hid them and spied on me to make sure I didn’t fall and hurt myself!  Anyway … then around 20 years ago a friend talked me into trying a spinning class.  She thought I would like it because it would kick my ass and it wasn’t competitive.  I went.  It was Johnny G.  Yes, that long ago!  The headphones came down from the ceiling.  The class did kick my ass!  It also pissed me off.  I couldn’t make it through like him or my friend.  That was it.  I had to go back.  I loved it and I went back all the time.  My friend knew I would love it because I’d be competing with myself not with anyone else.   Spinning does that.  I eventually was asked to be a teacher and the rest is history.  There was something about the feeling, the ride, and the sound of the flywheel, the music.  It was contagious.  The feeling in the rooms, I loved it.
I still have the same experience today, whether in a class I am leading or in someone else’s class.  There really is nothing like for me.  I love the whole process, from meeting new people and welcoming back friends. I love creating the playlists; there is a method to the whole experience that is just fantastic.  I am very passionate about spinning; I have been leading classes for over 20 years now.  I love it!  It’s fun, it’s hard, it’s freeing and we laugh, a lot!
It’s for everyone. I’ve welcomed seasoned riders to teens; people rehabbing injuries, new moms, AIDS teams.  
It’s the journey, a journey.  It’s one step towards a better mood; towards accomplishing something that you never thought you could do or feel.  If you are trying to move towards a goal and are starting to run out of energy, breathe, regroup, change your thinking, get out of your head, tap into your enthusiasm, and that will move you forward.  Stop over thinking and enjoy … life.

Blog Post By Sweat Shoppe Instructor, Mimi Z. Adams

Mimi’s Teaching Schedule:

M, W, F @ 9am