For me, the most important part of a great spin is the music! The music you spin to, should not be chosen as a means to achieve a result. It should be what I like to call: choreographed spin instruction (CSI). I hope I don’t get sued! Of course, spinning by yourself at home is not for everyone. Some people need the motivation of an instructor and the shared experience of others in a class, and there is nothing wrong with that. My spin lists (I have over 100 and continue to add new ones) are designed and ordered in a way to simulate as closely as possible an outdoor bike ride on varied terrain. My lists include music from a wide variety of genres: Dance, EDM, Electronic, House, Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Soul, and some Classic Rock, with a noticeable preference for the first four genres! My pedal rotation and choice of tension (gears) are all governed by whatever song is playing and alters accordingly when the tempo/beat changes. I group songs in my lists to create a great workout and to simulate varied “terrains.”
To that end, I created a “Spinning Terrain Guideline” and “Legend,” which provide a graphic look at six different terrains (from flat to mountains) and the corresponding chain tension (C.T.) and pedal rotation (P.R.). These six terrains are labelled as follows: Quad Burners (Q.B.) – Hills & Mountains; Quad Challenge (Q.C.) – Inclines & Hills; Quad Fitness (Q.F.) – Rolling Inclines & Inclines; Quad Maintenance (Q.M.) – Rolling & Rolling Inclines; Quad Speed (Q.S.) – Flat & Rolling. They are grouped on the three dropdown pages as follows: 1. Workout Balance (Q.F./Q.C.); 2. Quad Burn (Q.B.); 3. Cardio Overload (Q.S./Q.M.). When I went through all my spin lists in order to assign them to the categories above and replace duplicate songs, I realized that the bulk of my lists were in the Q.F./Q.C. category as this is my preferred tempo workout and comfort zone. As I keep adding lists to the above pages, I will endeavor to add more lists to the other two categories. These guidelines and charts are merely suggestions based on my spinning habits, my age, my physical condition, etc., etc. Everyone will have their own ways of interpreting the music and adjusting their movement to it. But, if you are relatively new to all of this, the guidelines may be a useful tool. Each spin list you download will have a Terrain Guidelines chart with the song numbers plugged in to show suggested terrain, (C.T.) and (P.R.) to match the beat/tempo of the songs. Each purchase page will have the charts as downloadable PDF files.
One last thing. While the lyrics of any song are not what drives the motion per se, certain songs’ words can be a motivating factor. For example, one song I spin to aptly titled “Let the Music Move You” by The Nightwriters, has this to say: “When you start to move/And you feel like you want to dance/And you feel like you want to groove/Move your body across the floor/Move your body across the floor/Work your body as you want a little more/Work your body like you want some more/Let me take you to town/Let it take you to town.” Substitute “spin” for “dance” and this could be a spinning anthem! Yes, you will be spinning, but what you will really be doing is dancing on your bike to the music, not to mention having way more fun, and the spin list is your own personal D.J.
Below you will find three sample spin lists (one from each category) that you can download for free so you can see if this is for you. If you like what you hear, use the three dropdown pages as described above for more of the same at the paltry fee of $5.00 per list! The lists themselves are between 6-10 songs with 8 being the average, and between 43 to 48 minutes long. I’ve spent countless hours compiling these lists and editing them with replacement songs after spinning to them a few times, in order to get just the right combination of music for the best workout. All the charts are provided as a tool free of charge. Even if you do not buy any lists, you can download them to use with your own music. Of course, you can purchase the lists and ignore the charts; the choice is yours! I use my Apple Music subscription to create these lists so each playlist you download will have the link to a PDF file with the playlist and coded chart, as well as a link to the playlist in Apple Music! When you finalize your purchase, this is what you will receive:
For those of you with subscriptions to other music services – Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc., simply plug in the song titles from the PDF file into your music service and download.
The first links under the photos will take you to my Apple Music Playlists. The links above are PDFs of these playlists with the Terrain Guidelines attached.