Men’s Fitness Australia – June 2017

72 MEN’S FITNESS JUNE 2017

This page: Marilou Daube/Aquastudio

FUN FACTOR★★| EMBARRASSMENT FACTOR★★★★| FITNESS/CALORIE-BURNING PAYOFF★★| CHANCE I’D EVER DO IT AGAIN19%

Underwater

pedal power

Yes, there’s actually an

underwater spinning class

in New York. Why, you might

ask? Good question! The

underwater spinning studio

Aquatoutsmoreresistance

(the bikes are waist deep in

asaltwaterpool)andless

impactandstressonthe

musclesandjoints.Youcan

hammer on the pedals and

recover faster, it claims.

The class itself was

ridiculous. Picture this: 14

people wearing swimsuits

camp. There was more

resistance while pedalling,

buthere’sthething:The

45-minute class wasn’t

that hard! I wanted more

45-second all-out sprints.

Instead, it was just a handful

of intervals and a bunch of

waving our arms around like

children wearing floaties.

Afterwards, a fit woman

in her late 20s echoed my

sentiments, telling me, “It

wasn’t hard enough. I got

pretty bored. I just wanted to

spin more!” But as men in the

locker room changed and

chatted,Igotthesensethat

people loved the gimmicky

workout. “I feel spent but

not sore,” one slightly

overweight guy in his early

AQUA SPINNING

After45minutes,

you may feel

the class

wasn’t really

challenging

enough and

a bit OTT.

40s who would not disclose

his name told me. “I’d do it

again in a heartbeat.”

So while I’d prefer to

just take my bike out on

the roads and hit some

big hills, it’s clear that

the novelty of Aqua’s

underwater spinning

with its supremely specific

offerings is resonating.

andwatershoeslinedup

on spinning bikes in a pool

while a ridiculously fit

Frenchman barked out

orders. I felt like I was in a

WesAndersonmovie.The

spinning part I liked — it was

thesameasalandlocked

SoulCycle class without the

culty energy. But in between

intervals the teacher had

us wave our arms around

underwater in circles, which

he said was for our core, but

I felt like I was at summer