What do you get when you fuse smashing music, interval training, sprints, hill climbs, epic mountain climbs and non judgemental camaraderie for one hour? An astounding workout, of course, topped with a good dash of mental therapy. RPM™ is an intense indoor cycling class formulated by New Zealand based, LES MILLS™. I've taken my fair share of stationary bike classes in the past, but there's no going back once you've experienced RPM™.The brilliance of RPM™ is in the unequivocal, rhythmic program lead by highly trained instructors. I love the certainty that I'm going to get an excellent workout every time I attend a class. There's something comforting in knowing, for example, that Track 5 is always interval training or that Track 7 is consistently a challenging mountain climb. Don't get me wrong, it's never monotonous. The upbeat and methodical music is the central component to the class which boasts perfectly timed choreography. LES MILLS™ introduces new music to the mix every three months, so the workout always stays fresh.
"RPM's™ benefits are innumerable," says Tamara Pitard and Linda McShane, RPM™ instructors and fitness gurus at Lynne Brick's in Baltimore, MD. "It provides you with a platform to train for anything from a marathon, mountain bike race to a triathlon. You can tailor your own workout, since you control the intensity. We have people that come to class to just lose weight, while others are more concerned about increasing their VO2 max. Whatever you need, RPM™ can deliver."
For me, RPM's™ intensity allows me to stay in shape by burning 500-900 calories in just under an hour. I would say, "that's a good bang for your buck." I absolutely love being able to squeeze that much intensity into such a short amount of time. RPM™ has become my time to decompress and get lost in the rhythms, comforting patterns and instructor guided imagery. Where else can you beat Lance Armstrong on a mountain climb or Tyler Hamilton in a time trial? Go ahead, get on a bike, even if it's stationary!
