For Andrew, Good Fun Leads to Good Health

-Dawn Wolfe

According to Andrew, he'd never really thought of becoming an indoor cycling instructor until his wife Jocie, who also teaches at RydeOn!, herself became certified through Madd Dogg.

“I had been doing spin training for a couple of years when Jocie traveled across the state to do her course,” Andrew remembered. “Then when she saw one that was just forty-five minutes away in Adrian, she said I should do it, even if I never used the certification. RydeOn! had been open for a few months by then so I decided to go ahead and get certified myself.”

“I hadn’t really thought about what instructors do to prepare for classes and I found the certification course very helpful in a lot of ways I hadn’t expected,” he added.

When it came time to teach his first class, Andrew said, “I LOVED IT! … I tried to make that first class interesting (musically and with the exercise choices) and fit a variety of fitness levels. The hour raced by, the class and I had fun and I was looking forward to teaching again.”

These days, Andrew leads classes at 5:45 am on Tuesdays and during alternate weekends in between his work as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist, acting as the primary caregiver for his and Jocie's four children, and training for races – Andrew will be attempting his first full marathon this month.

Asked his philosophy of exercise and fitness, Andrew said that is all comes down to having fun, “...because it makes the suffering seem less intense when you're smiling!,” he laughed.

My job at RydeOn! is to help our clients reach their goals (fitness, weight loss, stamina improvement, etc.) by making their hour with me as fun as possible,” he added. “Therefore most of my classes are interval rides with lots of tempo changes and different bike exercises. I feel that classes that ride together bond and then push each other along.” Andrew added that he has been slowly “ramping up” the intensity for his Tuesday clients and is inspired by watching as they make the new challenges look easy.

In addition to having fun, Andrew said that he draws his inspiration from the people around him.

“I remember meeting Brigid years ago in an indoor cycling class and was amazed at how she transformed herself, and her life, and yet I was unaware of her serious battles with cancer,” he said. Between Brigid, watching as RydeOn! University participants “graduated” with “A's” and the improvement among his Tuesday class regulars, Andrew declared that he has no problem staying excited about his own fitness journey.

In fact, Andrew said that he's enjoying indoor cycling even more now that he can pair it up with outdoor cycling – since the weather has warmed up, Andrew has been bicycling to and from the indoor cycling classes he's leading at RydeOn! – that's a thirty-five mile round trip, plus an hour in the studio!

Join Andrew for a Ryde! Register here to join one of Andrew's indoor cycling classes at RydeOn! either on Tuesdays at 5:45 am or on alternate weekends. Get fit, have fun, and RydeOn!