Fresh spin

MOSES LAKE — Sometimes, you learn best by doing.

“I had never taken a spin class until recently,” said CyclePath Spin Studio owner Rita Morfin. “But it was something that I felt like the community needed. So (I thought), ‘If I build it, they will come.’”

And they have. Morfin cut the ribbon on CyclePath Spin Studio Monday and opened fully Tuesday, and already she has five teachers with classes lined up.

Spin is basically an exercise program carried out on stationary bikes, Morfin said, but it encompasses a lot more than just riding. There’s a whole routine, she said, with hand motions, presses, standing and sitting and sometimes even lifting weights. The whole workout is done under a teacher’s guidance with music on speakers in the background.

“They base their workout on beats per minute,” she said. “Each instructor has their playlist and they work out choreography, movements that go with the beat.”

The studio is part of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce’s Catalyst Center, the program that gives fledgling entrepreneurs discounted business space and help with their first few years of growth.

Spin classes look simple, but they can be a great exercise regimen. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2018 suggested that indoor cycling and strength training made it possible to lose weight without changing dietary habits, and a 2017 study in the Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation showed that a group of middle school girls derived more exercise from spin cycling than from riding an actual bicycle. A single spin class can burn 400-600 calories, according to the health and fitness website Healthline.

“You are definitely getting a cardio workout,” Morfin said. “You are toning muscles by doing some of the moves that the instructors give … (For) people who aren’t weightlifters, people who don’t have that discipline to go to the gym but still want to do something, this is a great alternative.”

CyclePath has 14 bikes, all assembled and maintained by Morfin’s husband Pete Morfin. That’s as big as Rita Morfin expects the business to get right now. There’s still space available in classes, she said.

And the name? If you say it quickly, “CyclePath” kind of sounds like somebody you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. But it’s all good, Morfin said.

“(The name) is fun, catchy,” she said. “We’re crazy about riding.”

Class schedules and membership information can be found at www.cyclepathspinstudio.com.

    Guests check out CyclePath Spin Studio after its ribbon-cutting Monday.