Fit Friday Class Review: Flywheel in Buckhead Atlanta

Happy Fit Friday!!! I hope you all have had a marvelous week and made ample progress towards your fitness goals. I have been traveling like crazy this past month and while most people let vacation hold them back and use it as an excuse to skip their workout, I have had the best workouts ever this month! As I said in a Fit Friday post a few weeks ago, working out on vacation is by far one of my favorite things to do (read why here!).

This week for Fit Friday I am sharing my workout experience from Flywheel in Buckhead, Atlanta. When traveling to Atlanta a few weeks ago, it seemed as though Flywheel was all the rage and everyone’s favorite workout. This was no shock to me as indoor cycling is obviously taking the world by storm and Flywheel is a majorly popular spin chain spreading across the nation. 

Having gone to Flywheel in Boca Raton, Florida before, I knew what to expect when I signed up for Melissa’s Fly45 and Erika’s Barre Class. Flywheel was created by one of the former SoulCycle founders looking to add some friendly competition to an indoor spin workout by using a ‘torque’ board. This Torque Board is essentially what Flywheel is known for. Majority of the class is focused around how much power you are producing, and have produced throughout class, by combining your resistance and speed to get an overall ‘torque’ score. This board and score creates friendly competition and pushes their clients to improve and increase their fitness with every class while motivating others in the room as well. 

What I loved about Flywheel:

• The friendly competition makes for a fun ride
• If you are one to slack off, as soon as you decide to cheat on the resistance or slow your speed a bit you and the entire room will know. The board holds you accountable. If you need that, Fly is the workout for you!
• I adored the Barre Class. It was so fun, upbeat, yet super hard! I was definitely sore after. I liked the fast paced movements, the loud and up-beat music, the energy…it was very different than your average barre ! I thought it was fast, effective, and super fun. For 45 minutes, it definitely got the job done! 
• Music was upbeat and good!

What I didn’t love so much..:

• I can’t deny, I am way more of a Soul person. I don’t believe in boards; I don’t believe in numbers when it comes to fitness; I believe in health, happiness, listening to your body, and gaining strength with every pedal stroke. I love the feeling and atmosphere when a whole spin room is riding to the same beat, in a pack, as a cult, encouraging and pushing each person in the room. A number does not define you. If the person next to you has a higher torque, they may weigh more and their body can push heavier resistance, they may have been spinning 10 years longer than you have, or they may do a double regularly but that’s is okay! Your workout is for you; your energy is for everyone else. In SoulCycle, energy is focused on riding to the beat, everyone is fighting for a common goal not only for themselves-but for each and every other person in the room and I think that’s magical. In Flywheel, I felt as if everyone was only out for their own torque. People skip weights to get ahead on the board, turn their resistance up far higher than the rhythm, and I did not necessarily feel the same sense of ‘community’ you feel at SoulCycle. HOWEVER-if you use the torque to promote healthy competition and if you are a person that will easily slack off when given the chance, Flywheel is AWESOME and could be the perfect workout for you!
• The studio had a bit of a warehouse feel to it..sometimes when the instructor would walk around the room it was hard to see her unless she was directly in front of you (again, it didn’t have as much of a community atmosphere) 
• No one was rude to new riders in any way shape or form, but they weren’t nice either. The instructor did not ask mine, my sister’s, or my mom’s names even though we were all new riders to her class and Atlanta Flywheel. You also check in on an iPad and the front desk did not talk to you unless you talked to them.

I hope this this post was helpful ! As I said, I love Flywheel and would definitely go back-but I am a slightly more Soulful person and would definitely pick Soul if given the option. Where is your favorite indoor spin studio? Comment below!