thoughts on soulcycle

On Friday, my girlfriend and I decided to do some "fact-finding" on the fitness industry, so we tried out a SoulCycle class at W77 St. Here are some initial impressions:
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• Introduction and First Impression
  • The space was clean, bright, and modern. In the half hour before the class started, people began to filter into the front reception space, placing their things in the provided lockers and talking to one another. The furnishings were sparse: some merchandise for sale at the front, a water dispenser for bottles tucked at the corner, and a wall of lockers. The center of the space was a "restroom module" with two well-appointed restrooms, with soaps, scented candles, and various amenities.  
  • As the location was on the Upper West Side, in Manhattan, the class goers was mostly young professional women, with some guys sprinkled around. My feeling is that this demographic is generally the same across many locations in New York City. 
  • I told the front desk that this was my first time at SoulCycle. I was promptly provided a health waiver form to fill out, as well as some personal contact information. We selected the open bikes we would use in the space, then we were provided with the specially equipped spinning shoes.
• Class Preparation
  • We got to the class late, so we were quickly ushered into the "cycling space", a dimly lit room in the back. The room was packed with spinning bikes, with a head instructor at the front stage, and theatrical lights and speakers spread throughout. We were helped onto the bikes, and got our shoes fitted to the pedals, by the front desk clerk. 
• Actual Class
  • Once the class began, the lights were immediately dimmed, and the music was pumping. It was a "club atmosphere", and all I could really make out were the brightly lit red exit signs scattered all around (and multiplied by the mirror). All the attention was directed towards the instructor, who was shouting out some commands that were sometimes difficult to follow. 
  • The music was LOUD - at least, that was my feeling. Perhaps it was because I was in the back of the room, and my bike was positioned directly below one of those pumping speakers. I found the audio to be sharp and screeching at times. The playlist, pandering to the millennial crowd, was a series of "power rock" songs from the 90's and 00's - a lot of Blink 182, with some Train, The Killers and Avril Lavigne throughout. 
  • Initially, I was very skeptical; the music and setup were stressful. I wasn't in control of the experience, and there I was, somehow strapped to the spinning bike with nowhere to go. However, as the songs progressed, I found myself bopping to the Black Eyed Peas and synchronizing my spinning movements to the beat. My bike was at the back of the room, so I really couldn't see or follow the instructor at some moments. Because of that, I just pedaled at my own pace, trying to spin to the music.
  • Throughout the 45-min workout, the instructor sprinkled through some light upper-arm workouts with small dumbbells, and various "movements on bikes", such as shaking side-to-side and lunging back and forth. Because the class was geared so specifically to spinning, there wasn't much flexibility inherent in these non-bike workouts. 
• Post-Workout & Summary
  • When the class ended, I was happy to exit the dark and loud spinning chamber. Although it was a fun one-off exercise, I couldn't see myself going to the classes regularly. 
  • In general, SoulCycle is a great "gateway" workout for people who hate going to the gym. Once you are in the "spinning chamber", you are essentially trapped on the spinning bike for the entire duration of class. There are no distractions, and there is a room full of people doing the same thing, so you are more motivated to keep spinning at the same speed as your trainer and peers. And, at least you are not sitting on the couch at home. 
  • Beyond this, however, I think SoulCycle hits a brick wall. In trying to "Make Gyms Great Again" by combining a club atmosphere with spinning, it fails to do either of those things well. For me, the music was piercingly loud, and the spinning wasn't very rigorously planned. Spinning felt like something to do, and the music was just another layer of spectacle on top of it. 
  • Most importantly, SoulCycle wasn't a creatively fulfilling activity, and I'm unsure if the exercise is even THAT effective as a workout. Because of the lack of data or information on the spin, I'm not sure how far I biked for the duration of the class, or my calories burned. There was no real-time feedback on the activity in the room, only a vague sense of "fun" and "sweat". As such, there is no information as to whether my spinning would improve the next time. In that way, SoulCycle spinning can be a passive, isolating, automatic, and almost artificial activity, with a low barrier of entry. Compared to dance, rock climbing, or boxing, there is no true creative fulfillment involved. I'm not really learning a new task, or targeting different muscle groups. I'm only there to complete this "spin" in this dark and loud environment, and pass the time with "fun". 
  • Looking at SoulCycle cynically -- the spinning class makes working out an extension to work. Rather than being chained to a computer and a desk, I am chained to a bike, with another fellow group of strangers also chained to a bike. Rather than executing the commands of my boss or manager, I am executing the commands of the instructor -- with the same group of fellow strangers. I didn't find the classes to be creative or intellectually challenging, but I'm sure it is doing something to my body, just like how a 9-to-5 job pays the bills at the very lesat. But, my gut feeling is that people are smarter than that, and they are demanding more than just a passive activity to pass the time. People want autonomy, mastery, and learning over their work and their life, not just a room full of loud distractions to get over the painful-ness of "high energy cardio" (maybe sometimes). Once you leave the claustrophobic confines of the escapist spinning chamber, what then? In this New York lifestyle of professional job, it can be easy to profile young professionals as folks who eat Sweetgreens, drink Starbucks, and work at a fancy co-working space, and who can only carve out 45-minutes a day to go to SoulCycle for their workout with their work friends, paying $40 per class. I would like to think that this is a very shallow snapshot, and people don't actually do that every day. SoulCycle is much more of a fashionable trend that people try once-in-a-while, amid a larger Rolodex of other fun gyms, like rock-climbing and yoga.