“So you’ve done this before, right?” asks U-Fit Fitness trainer Michael Partridge.
I shake my head.
“You must have tried spin?” Michael inquires, looking a bit more hopeful.
Again, I shake my head.
“Right then, just try your best,” the trainer tells me, looking slightly concerned.

With 2016 being the year of the Olympics and one of my New Year’s resolutions to be to really step up my fitness game, I decided to try an Olympic training standard HITT watt bike class at U-Fit Fitness.
Trainer Michael has raced all over the world and worked with many coaches who taught him an extremely high standard of training.
He has a British Silver Sprint medal and experience with the British sprint squad, making him the ideal person to teach this high intensity cycling class.
Developed with British Cycling for training World and Olympic Champions, this 30 minute blast claims to give you the chance to train like an athlete.

HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a training technique in which you give one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods.
This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time, making this class a much more intense version of regular spin classes.
High- intensity interval training is a training technique in which you give one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise
The class began with us cycling for 1k with low resistance as fast as we possibly could, we one minute break in between each of the five sets that Michael instructed us to do.
Being a bit of a cycling virgin I thought that the class setting would enable me to be a bit sneaky and not quite cycle as fast as Michael wanted us to do.
However, there was no such luck.
All of the bikes are plugged into a central computer, and the speeds that everyone is cycling at and the distance that you have left to cycle are displayed on a screen in front of the bikes for the whole class to see, leaving no room for cheating!
Although at first I hated everyone seeing how fast I was cycling, I eventually began to find this extremely motivating and it pushed me to work harder.
After cycling 5k, everyone in the class is glistening with sweat, and one woman is even face down on her bike.
But the class wasn’t over just yet.
After a brief rest, Michael told us to crank up the gears on our bikes and do five sprints, encouraging us to cycle as fast as we possibly can for six second.
Surprisingly, this was the part of the class that I enjoyed the most, as I really thrived on the idea that I only had six seconds to do my best.
Getting off my bikes, my legs feel like jelly, and everyone around me looks exhausted.
“Be careful down the stairs now! You’ll be struggling to walk for a bit,” a man advises me.
He was definitely right.
After all of the feeling had returned in my legs, every single muscle ached for a good two days after.
However, I think that this just shows that the class really worked my legs and pushed my limits.
Although the session only lasted for half an hour, it is definitely one of the most intense classes I have ever gone to.
After all of the feeling had returned in my legs, every single muscle ached for a good two days after.
I probably wouldn’t recommend this class if you’re looking for a fun way to lose your Christmas weight, but if you’re into cycling or really want to push yourself this is definitely the class for you.