Ah, cycling. It's a killer workout that so many cardio lovers absolutely swear by. From what I've seen, you either love cycling, or you low-key despise it. But the people who love cycling know better than anyone that there are some classic struggles that never fail to come up during a class. Despite those struggles, though, these endorphin-seekers will always come back for more.
Indoor cycling is one of the most popular workouts in the fitness world these days, mainly because it leaves your endorphins buzzing, metabolism soaring, and a goofy smile plastered on your face, even hours after the fact. SoulCycle, in particular, has an almost cult-like following of cycling enthusiasts who never miss a class, because it just makes them feel that incredible.
Whether you're hitting up your favorite instructor's class at Soul, or you frequent the cycling classes included in your local gym membership, you probably know that some aspects of cycling can prove to be a struggle and a half, to say the least.
If cycling is your ride-or-die workout (pun definitely intended), then these 10 struggles are, without a doubt, so freaking real to you — but they'll never come between you and your beloved bike.
When you get to the cycling studio, you're usually not allowed to wear street shoes past a certain point, and you have to settle into your special cycling sneakers, instead.
Learning to balance in these bad boys is probably what it's like to be an infant taking her first steps. All I'm saying is, face-planting honestly wouldn't be a huge surprise here.
To me, adjusting my bike to match my height is legit harder than organic chemistry. How in the world am I supposed to know the perfect amount to raise this thing up so that the seat won't be stabbing me in the vagina?
If you feel my pain, girl, I have a really easy pro tip for you: Get to class a little early to give yourself time to figure it out, and don't be afraid to ask your instructor or another staff member to help you out. After all, they probably have the ~magic touch~ when it comes to things like that.
You don't even know who you are anymore because one minute, you're swooning over your instructor and their ability to make you feel like Superwoman, and the next, you're mentally willing them to die.
I mean, it all balances out in the end, right?
That moment when you feel like you may or may not pass out because your resistance knob is already turned up so high, and then the instructor says to crank it up a notch. Excuse me? I didn't realize we would be climbing Mount Everest today. Please send help.
Your eyeballs have become so accustomed to drowning in a waterfall of your own sweat, that part of you has actually kind of grown to enjoy this for some strange reason.
Luckily, it's dark AF in most cycling classes, not to mention the music's blasting, so no one can see or hear you as you huff and pant to the beat.
When you first start cycling, your ass is uncomfortably sore for days after just a single class.
But now, you are the proud owner of a tailbone of steel. Yeah, that's right. Throw all the uncomfortable sitting surfaces in the world at me — I'm a pro, buddy.
That moment when your instructor tells you to grab your set of weights for some bicep curls, and your arms start trembling uncontrollably as you realize you have wildly overestimated your upper-body strength.
Yeah, if you weren't pedaling your freaking feet off for an hour straight, you could probably handle these weights, but right now, it's sheer torture. But hey, there's nothing like more of a challenge after you've already cycled like 2,000 miles, right!? *Screams internally*.
Some instructors take those last few moments at the end of class when everyone's winding down from their workout to get deep AF for a hot sec. Some people may roll their eyes, but you may or may not have shed a tear that one time Carrie just hit you really close to home about "being your own hero," — damn you, Carrie.
And honestly, you both know it. When you start to get in the groove, you might casually question if the "human" next to you has some kind of superpower, because how the heck are their legs moving that fast?!
OK, this is a race now. It's on like Donkey Kong.
You will never, ever feel as clumsy as you do when you try to unclip your cycling shoes from their saddles. TBH, I've had more moments than I care to admit where I've decided to just take my shoes off altogether because I simply couldn't figure out that sh*t.
Totally worth it, though.
