Hilary Morgan loves to exercise, but like many others, she’s always looking for something new to break the workout routine.
C-Cycle Studio did that for her.
During her first workout on the RealRyder Indoor Cycles at the new Lexington exercise center, the Gilbert resident was feeling a different burn. Muscles in her legs and torso were being stretched in ways they normally aren’t during her frequent gym workouts or even when she finished a recent marathon.
John Halferty, right, Denise Jackson, and Sally Kutyla workout during a RealRyder Indoor Cycle class at C-Cycle Studio in Lexington. RealRyder Indoor Cycles are exercise bikes with frames that allow for road-like tilting and leaning.
- C. Aluka Berry /caberry@thestate.com
- C-Cycle StudioA new type of exercise facility in the Midlands.Where: 711 East Main St., LexingtonWhen: Classes available Monday-SaturdayPrice: First ride free, then $17 per class, $75 for five classes, $130 for 10 classesInformation: ccyclestudio.com or (803) 609-9490
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“Halfway through the class, I could feel it,” Morgan said. “It works different core muscles.”
That’s one of the notions behind the RealRyder exercise bikes. RealRyder CEO Colin Irving came up with a flexible exercise bike that closely resembles leaning and steering on the road.
But the intention isn’t so much a road-like experience as an experience unlike other exercise bikes. In the spinning classes so popular these days, leaders instruct participants to adjust an exercise bike’s tension or pedal faster or slower. In a RealRyder class, leaders do the same, but they have the added dimension of tilting.
That’s why Morgan decided “to give it a whirl. You can steer them. It engages more of your body,” she said.
After studio owner Cesar Leon’s first workout on a RealRyder at a gym in Miami two years ago, he was exhausted and inspired.
“On a normal exercise bike, your body wants to move (from side to side) but it can’t,” Leon said. “This mimics a real bike.”
With his love for exercise and his background in retail in the Columbia area, Leon envisioned a new type of exercise facility for the area. His C-Cycle Studio in the Old Mill facility on Main Street in Lexington is the first RealRyder studio in South Carolina. (There are four in North Carolina and five in Georgia.)
“I saw a niche that needed to be filled in Columbia,” he said.
He happened to run into the owners of Crossfit Iron Mary’s, an exercise facility in the Old Mill that had more space than it needed. He jumped at the chance to open C-Cycle Studio in the small room that appears larger because of the mill’s high ceilings. The studio, packed with 25 RealRyder bikes, opened in early April. Clients can sign up online for classes directed by one of the six instructors specially trained to get the most out of the unusual bikes for $17 per class or less if bought in multiples.
The early classes will feature simply the leader’s instructions and music to keep the pace flowing. Eventually, C-Cycle will incorporate its two wide-screen monitors to show videos of actual rides. A class could mimic a tough section of the Tour de France or an easy ride through rolling hills of Northern California.
“We could show a video of a tour through Napa Valley vineyards, then go next door (to one of the Mill’s restaurants) after the class for a glass of wine,” Leon said.
