Spinervals Competition 3.0 - Suffer-O-Rama

Troy Jacobson
Year Released: 1999

Categories: Indoor Cycling


The spinervals videos are really geared specifically for athletes and not really set up to give ideas to instructors (he doesn't use catchy or popular phrases that spinning instructors or students use although he does use similar concepts and a bit of visualization technique but not like Johnny G for instance). I would think the Keiser or Johnny G videos would be the best for that so if that's what you are looking for, these videos are not for you. The instructor, Troy Jacobson, is a serious triathlete so his videos are specifically geared for the athlete...i.e. a no frills hard core workout...although the set and music is really pretty good I think. You also have to realize they are using real road bikes on stationary trainers which would translate differently as far as gearing/resistance on spinning bikes. I use a Schwinn Spinner and it works just fine for these videos. Once you learn which settings on your spinning bike match the intensity of their bikes , it's very easy to use these videos. This is a 54 minute workout with 11 serious triathlete's.

Here is a breakdown of Spinervals 3.0:

Warm up - 4 minutes soft peddling

First intensity drill - 5 minutes - 30 sec. on - 30 sec. off......meaning you peddle hard for 30 seconds and then recover by peddling soft for 30 seconds.

1 minute recovery

Next intensity drill - 10 minutes - 1 minute on - 1 minute off.....this is an all out effort during the 1 minute on and then you recover for 1 minute doing a total of 5x each.

2 minute recovery

Next is a 5 minute steady state tempo effort. You do 10 seconds seated and alternate that with 10 seconds standing. You stay in one gear the whole 5 minutes.

2 minute recovery

The next high intensity interval is 45 seconds on and 30 seconds off meaning you go all out for 45 seconds and you recover for 30 seconds. This drill will help you build anerobic power. This drill is done a total of 5x each.

2 minute recovery

Next is another Tempo effort - 4 minutes total - 15 seconds seated alternated by 15 seconds standing - you stay in one gear the whole time.

2 minute recovery

Next is another high intensity drill - 30 seconds on alternated by 30 seconds off. This one you do for a total of 5x each - 5 minutes.

1 minute recovery

For the last all-out effort you peddle hard giving 100% for 20 seconds and you soft peddle for 40 seconds so you have plenty of time to recover. This drill is 3 minutes long.

5 minute cooldown

If you're wondering why you have so many recovery phases, believe me, you will need them. When you are working at an all out effort, you need the recovery phases to help your heart rate return to normal before starting another drill. You will see a graph at the top of the screen showing you how hard you are to be working during each phase. At the bottom left had corner of the screen you will see a clock running down, starting at 54 minutes and constantly going down to show you how much time is left in the workout. I love spinning and I have a lot of spinning videos, but none of the videos I have motivate me like the Spinervals videos do. I feel like a serious athlete when I train with these workouts.

Dawn Henson

06/18/2001