Fitness Fridays: I tried FlyWheel

This post is the Friday, January 8 post that I missed.

My knees are not good. 

I always tease my mom that she put me together wrong. I have "Q Angle" knees, which is a fancy way of saying my legs are crooked from the knee down. This means that not only do I look goofy as hell when I run, do yoga, stand...when I do anything, it also means that pressure is put on my knees in places that shouldn't receive pressure. I'll definitely have knee surgery in my future, but for now I just deal with the pain. 

I'm supposed to stick to low-impact exercise (i.e. yoga, barre, some lifting) but I'm quickly learning that spin class is not as low-impact as it likes to insinuate. FlyWheel destroyed not only my cardio system, but also my knees.

When I think of spin, I think of resistance and RPMs. I do NOT think of standing up and pedaling that way. Turns out there's a lot of that, and if you have bad knees, it's a recipe for pain. A lot of pain. Every time she yelled to go to third position and stand, I got frustrated. I was the only person unable to stand and pedal like that, and while in yoga I'm confident in my knee modifications, I've not done enough spin classes to feel comfortable being the odd guy out. 

It definitely was a good workout. Megan loves spin classes and if my knees were better, I would too. It works your entire body and is an amazing form of cardio. But I definitely don't recommend it for those with knee issues.

Would I do it again? Maybe with Megan! But of the things I've tried, it's definitely not my favorite.

Check out FlyWheel here, and Soul Cycle here.

--B