With Soul Cycle classes taking over the world of fitness, there will be opinions. Everyone has an opinion on this $37-a-class workout, whether you’ve ridden before or if you’re looking into what makes Troian Bellisario so damn skinny. What makes Soul stand out from any exercise I’ve done (or at least have tried to do)? Take my opinion, one couch-loving, fry-addicted, fitness-fearing person to another, on Soul Cycle.
Whether we like it or not, breaking a sweat is a mandatory part in getting that Kimmy K booty. As a result, I’ve tried almost every fitness class on the face of the earth (goat yoga, you’re next) in the search of finding the one workout that I not only can bare, but enjoy. After weeks of my fitness-obsessed roommate begging me to join her (and finally bribing me by paying) at a Soul Cycle class, I caved. I was curious about all of the hype, and slightly hopeful that this would be the workout to suddenly turn me into Gigi Hadid.
So we head to the NoHo studio to attend the class of a former cast member of my childhood favorite show, One Tree Hill — I start sweating simply in the presence of a celeb, let alone working out with one. I wear a stained baggy t-shirt and yoga pants covered in dog-hair, feeling out of place amongst the sports-bra-wearing supermodel types.
I try to be body positive and already convince myself that working out is not my thing, that i can live a perfectly happy life from the safety of my couch, as I grab the two-pound weights and head to my seat in the back row. As the smoking hot Bevin steps on the stage and blows out the candles, the row of skinny blondes filling the front row start waving their sweat-rags in the air. Great, I’ve gotten myself involved with a cult. EDM starts blasting and all of the toned bodies start swinging around their bikes and I catch myself planning an escape route in case I vomit.
Since I was strapped into the bike, and Lord knows that I wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to detach my shoes on my own, I decided to make the most of the 45 minutes and try to get some use out of my friends 40 bucks.
So I tap it back. I listen to Bevin as she tells me to listen to the music. She tells us that we’re strong and beautiful and that this is our time. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror — she’s freakin right! I am strong and beautiful and it was, in fact, my time. I can’t tell you whether it was the vulgar words of Cardi B. blasting or the stunning woman before me telling me what I’ve always wanted to hear, but I felt like a boss ass bitch.
Before I could even realize the hair stuck to the back of my neck with sweat, or even the Liam Hemsworth-looking man on the bike beside me, the class was over and my workout for the day was finished. Not only did I walk out of class sore and sweaty, but confident and feeling better about myself than I had in a while.
So while I am aware that Soul Cycle is expensive and strategically excludes people by not offering membership packages, it has changed my life not only in the way that I workout, but the way that I think of myself.
My body is not for photos on Instagram or for fitting into the smallest size that Free People has to offer. My body is powerful and strong and beautiful and it allows me to accomplish my goals. With every Soul Cycle class that I take, I am bombarded with these messages. Working out is how I celebrate my body, and not how I punish it. And Soul Cycle has reminded me of how lucky I am to live in this abled and strong body.
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