By Helen M. Ryan
Seven year ago, while still carrying around an extra 50 pounds (I lost 80 pounds total), I first stepped foot into a Spinning® studio. I don’t know what possessed me to try it. I’d only been mildly exercising for two months and wasn’t in any kind of shape. However, some invisible force pushed me towards that first Spinning class. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was luck, or maybe it was just an accident, but I fell in love with Spinning that day…and it changed my life forever.
Just a year after that first class I became certified to teach. I had taught group exercise classes in the 1980s but had taken a 15-year break from exercise to raise small children and run a graphic design studio. I put myself on the backburner, focused on other things, and somewhere along the way got sidetracked, gaining almost 90 pounds in the process.
So how did an exercise class change my entire life? By helping me reclaim who I had been before, and by helping me find myself again. Class after class I would climb hills, sweat dripping from my brow and my thighs burning. During each class I would discover new things about myself – that I was stronger than I thought, faster than I thought and more persistent than I had ever imagined.
Each month of Spinning the weight continued to fly off but I didn’t even notice because I was focused on something else: A newly discovered inner strength and newfound motivation to improve the rest of my life.
What’s magical about finding strength through exercise is what the hours of hard work teaches you. Whether it’s running, yoga, Spinning or Pilates, exercise teaches you patience, resilience, focus and determination. Most importantly, these activities show you that you can accomplish almost anything you set your mind to – if you want it bad enough.
Over the years since, I have climbed Mt. Palomar on my road bike four times. I have ridden a Century, falling and bloodying myself along the way but still finishing with respectable time. I became a certified trainer, built a well-respected little design studio, returned to my writing roots, and now even interview rock stars and shoot photographs at concerts.
Who would have thought that one exercise class, one attempt at something new, one step out of my comfort zone would lead to all this? And even better, who would have thought that one class would lead me to teach, coach and help others find fitness – and themselves?
Helen M. Ryan is a freelance fitness writer. She teaches Spinning locally at NC3 Fitness in Murrieta. Follow her on Twitter at @aspinchick.
