Living in Huntingdonshire, it’s hard to escape the excitement and buzz around the Tour of Cambridgeshire which took place in June. Closely followed by the world famous Tour de France throughout July, it’s easy to see why so many people become so passionate about cycling.
The indoor cycling studios at One Leisure offer a fabulous opportunity for road cyclists and enthusiasts to train virtually with Cyclone or to join others for cycle led fitness classes. With lots of indoor cycling and Cyclone sessions each week, not only are you spoilt for choice, but you're also not going to be affected by the ever-changing UK weather.
Physical benefits of cycling
Cycling is great for your body because it uses all of the major muscle groups. It's good for increasing your strength, as well as building your stamina. It gives your heart, blood vessels and lungs a workout because it's an aerobic form of exercise. It's probably not going to come as a surprise that intense spin classes can be great for weight loss too. A 45 minute cycling session can potentially burn 400 to 600 calories, and also helps to speed up your metabolism. Indoor cycling is particularly great because it is a low-impact activity, causing minimal impact on your hip, knee and ankle joints, especially in comparison to running.
Mental benefits of cycling
You are quite literally pedalling towards happiness! As with any type of exercise, cycling can really help to reduce your levels of the 'stress hormone' we know as cortisol, reduce anxiety, and also encourage better sleep. Cycling gives you a rush of adrenaline and a release of endorphins, which are often referred to as 'feel-good' chemicals. They can relieve pain, make you feel happier, and enhance your body's immune response.
One Leisure
At One Leisure there are four different instructor led classes as well as the availability to use the facility outside of the scheduled classes. Popular fitness classes include Myride®+ Live, which uses forward motion video technology to ride through some of the world's most fantastic destinations and ICG®'s Coach by Colour®, which uses a rider's Functional Threshold Power (FTP) to provide an individually tailored ride, whilst connecting with the instructor and other riders to maximise the training experience and reach goals faster. In addition to the classes, the indoor cycling studio can be used with a virtual instructor to run a virtual cycling session. There's also an app to download and pair with the bike, to run a workout through the app as well as monitoring progress. So whatever your choice, there's a cycling session for you at One Leisure.
Fitness consultant Ollie Ritch is one of only eleven ICG® Master Trainers in the UK and is based at One Leisure, St Ives, where he and the team lead daily cycling classes in their indoor cycling suite. Having initially qualified in 2012, Ollie's passion for indoor cycling really took off in 2016 when he began to use the new indoor cycling studio to train for the Iron Man competition. Ollie states: "I use the bike studio to further improve my cycling fitness. In three years I have seen my fitness, which was already pretty good, improve by a further 10pc having utilised the Coach By Colour system. What I really love about teaching in the cycling studio is seeing our members learning and improving on the bikes, and the local community that we've built at One Leisure. I would encourage anyone to come down and have a go; One Leisure has something for everyone."
To find out about the memberships available at One Leisure, visit oneleisure.net. To book an indoor cycling session, or find out more about Cyclone, visit your local One Leisure centre, or call the team on 01480 388111.
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