Do you SoulCycle or something?
We can’t say they did, but we can say they tried
How it all started:
Felix Mercado, the Varsity Men’s and Women’s Water Polo coach, approached me about teaching a SoulCycle-inspired cycling class to the men’s team. He said he saw me dancing on the pool deck after my swim practice one night (I am on the Varsity Women’s Swim and Dive team), and had overheard me raving about SoulCycle.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity for cross-training,” Mercado said
SoulCycle is a type of indoor cycling in which you ride (or dance, whichever you prefer) to the beat of the music, always on the same foot as the people around you. It is addictive.
I told Felix I would absolutely love to teach a class to the guys; anytime, anywhere, I would be there, except during swim practice hours because I can’t miss those.
We decided on a date. Thursday, October 8th. The plan would be that Felix would tell the team to be prepared for “dryland” practice, a term water athletes use for any land activity they may partake in, at 7am. Our SoulCycle-inspired class would be a total surprise.
The class:
That morning, as I waited in the Nelson Fitness Center cycling studio with Bailando por Ahi by Juan Magán blasting through the speakers and the lights completely turned off, 18 water polo players walked into the room. Needless to say, they had complete confusion written all over their faces.
They got on their bikes. “We have three positions that we ride in — first, second and third,” I explained while demonstrating the positions, adding that “we do pushups in the middle of the handlebars, keeping time with our dominant foot.” Pushups? Tap-backs? Obliques? Crunches? “What has Felix gotten us into,” most of them probably thought.
Before they had any time to react to what I had just said, the music changed to Skrillex and Diplo’s Where Are Ü Now, and it was time to ride.
When the beat dropped, we dropped … our elbows, that is.
Then we tapped it back to Can’t Feel My Face by The Weeknd, did some pushups to Jauz’s Rock The Party, ran in third to Five More Hours by Deorro x Chris Brown and danced to so many more songs to complete the 45-minute class.
Time flies when you’re riding your bike while dancing AND singing:
At 7.45 am, it was all over, and most of the team had their moves down pat. Although there were a few who struggled, everyone had a great time singing to the music and dancing to the beat.
“I have never done SoulCycle before, so the experience was pretty interesting, but very fun! It was great to see all the guys going hard in a different environment. It was also pretty comical to see massive water polo players sitting on tiny bikes sweating more than they probably have in their entire lives,” Will Klein said.
Coach Felix got in on the action as well.
His teammate, Tommy Bush, added, “The class was really cool. It was the first time I’ve ever worked out on a stationary bike and it was hard work, but doing it in conjunction with the music made it a lot more bearable and fun. Next to swimming, it was probably one of the best full body workouts I’ve ever done.”
And the reviews kept on coming, with Adam Hersko-RonaTas saying, “While definitely unexpected, the experience we had that morning turned out to be a blast. Jamming out to tunes and getting into a rhythm made me appreciate SoulCycling as a creative and interactive form of cardio.”
Thanks for cycling your souls with me!