B-Tone Fitness Super Bowl Ryde with Melina

I had never been to the B-Tone Fitness Ryde classes and the Superbowl Sunday Ryde seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a try.

I arrived to class early-unlike my Friday happy hour tone class with Jody where I was late! I was really excited to meet the instructor Melina because I noticed she was “liking” some of my Little Miss Runshine Facebook posts!  Here we are posing in front of the bike that I spent the next 45 minutes on!

Whenever someone walked in, Melina asked their name and if they have taken any type of spin class before.  The follow up question was if the student has taken Ryde specifically since these bikes aren’t completely stationary-they move side to side.  I think almost everyone needed a little help setting up the bikes and she was more than happy to go over to help make sure everyone had the proper form and wouldn’t hurt their knees.

Before the official class started, Melina gave a little rundown of how the class was going to go.  This was helpful because it’s nice to know what to expect when you have never been before.  I also haven’t taken a spin class in over a year never mind a class where the bikes moved side to side so I have to admit that I was a little nervous.  We learned what each position was and what her scale of 1-10 meant.  A level 5 was a flat road with some resistance and higher levels meant more resistance or a hillier ride.  Even if you have been to spin, sometimes instructors have different definitions of levels so this was also good that Melina defined this for us.  One of the most important things she went over was how to move the bikes side to side.  Melina told us that it’s okay if you aren’t able to get the moves down yet.  I was glad she explained this to us because knowing me, I would have fallen off if I didn’t learn the proper method!

Something I liked about Melina was that she wasn’t going to scold you for not “trying hard enough”.  Her motto was that all that matters is that YOU feel like you are getting a workout.  Don’t worry-this didn’t mean that she was easy on you, it just meant that she was encouraging and not going to make you feel uncomfortable during class.  She understands that we each have our different fitness levels and even different days that we are aren’t on our game.  For her, this class is about getting in your zone,lost in the music and spinning to improve your fitness level.

Melina had actually mentioned that she had some requests for some more recognizable music in her class.  For yesterday’s class she tried to add some more pop but she also left in some of the music she likes. I actually really appreciated that she had a playlist with some non-radio music so I am definitely going to check out her Spotify playlists!  Did I mention that I’m addicted to Spotify and just started an “Old Skool” playlist.  After last night, I might have added some Destiny’s Child’s tunes…:)

Throughout the class, I pushed myself with resistance as much as I could. I found that sometimes I had to tone it down, but once I felt stabilized again I was sure to pick up the intensity.  I was literally dripping sweat at the end of the class thanks to Melina who did a great job at her FIRST FULL length Ryde class.  Prior to this she had taught for the Tone ‘n Ryde sessions where it was a shortened class.  B-Tone is going to try to incorporate more full Ryde classes (versus Tone n’ Ryde) which is good news because I realized how much work I have to do for the Pan Mass Challenge training. The course is pretty hilly and I want to be able to really enjoy the ride. My legs were a little shaky after the class but it felt good.

All I needed after the class was a bottle of E.T.C juice-the company started by Melina herself!  Unfortunately they weren’t in the studio this week but they should be this week (I think).  They are a little pricey but they are all freshly pressed and with fresh ingredients.  I will definitely try it at least once!

Do you spin?  What kind of instructor do you like?  

During one marathon training session I was spinning once a week.  For some reason, I quit that good habit.  I’m going to have to get back into it for PMC training!

I generally like instructors that have a healthy balance of encouraging and pushing your limits.

How did you spend your Superbowl Sunday? Did you eat any good foods?

Dave and I had one of those rotisserie chickens you get in the supermarket!  We went food shopping kind of late and needed something quick.  No parties for us yesterday because we had too much to catch up on!