SoulCycle Opens In London – I Went To The First Class

Unlike rival UK studios with RPM counters and instructors who are incredibly prescriptive about how much to turn your resistance up or down, at SoulCycle they encourage you to challenge yourself on your own terms. Sure, they give suggestions on how to adjust the resistance dial, but it’s encouraged rather than demanded.

The Soho studio – with 63 bikes obediently lined up in three rows facing instructor platform and a wall of mirrors – is the first of a handful planned to come to the capital. Inside, the room is dark save for candlelight, and some bright lighting around the instructors’ platform and there’s a strict no phones policy.

In fact, SoulCycle even discourages wearing a fitness tracker, to reduce the temptation to compare yourself to other participants. (If you’ve ever been to a spin class, you’ll know how demoralising it can be when the person in front is acing it and you’re covered in sweat trying to stick to the beat.)

To be honest, as a Brit I did find myself having to dig quite deep when it came to high fiving my neighbour and the crystal that “blesses” every studio –  but the banging playlist and energy emanating from the room helped balance that out. The class started with a remix of You’ve Got The Love, followed by Hello, Bootylicious – a bad playlist can make a spin class drag, but these 45 minutes went by in a flash. 

Veteran SoulCycle instructors Mantas Zvinas and Kendra Kemerly were full of the positive vibes you’d expect from US. Mantas started oddly half-rapping instructions at one point, but I found myself strangely into it, while Kendra’s breathy motivational speech about all 65 of us (63 participants + instructors) being a team stopped me from giving up.