Rush Cycle Mission Valley

Rush Cycle is an indoor cycling franchise with locations in California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and New Mexico. The Mission Valley location is one of the franchise’s newer studios, having opened December 2018. Having a deep love affair with spin, our expectations were hi gh, but as with the other Rush Cycle locations we’ve visited, we were once again underwhelmed by both brand and studio. The experience at Rush Cycle Mission Valley wasn’t bad by any means, but it certainly wasn’t the epitome of why so many people have fallen head over heels for the indoor cycling trend. If you feel intimidated by the other big name spin studios in town with cult followings but are still looking to get in on the spin class trend and get a good workout in, Rush Cycle Mission Valley might be for you.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Rush Cycle Mission Valley’s signature class is called the Rush Ride, a 45-minute class the studio calls “a party on a bike”. It’s a full-body, beat-based workout on a stationary bike with both weighted and unweighted arm moves, fast and heavy leg work and plenty of moves in and out of the saddle to keep those abs engaged. The Rush Ride at Rush Cycle Mission Valley was certainly a sweat-inducing, heart-pumping workout for this spin class vet, but it lacked that extra something that takes a spin class from a workout to an experience. While the class had plenty of jumps, climbs and flat roads, it seemed as if each section was randomly pieced together, rather than following a well-thought out structure. We were surprised when we got right into sprints with little to no warm-up and felt there wasn’t a true peak and descent in the class. We still worked hard and got a good sweat in, but we’d prefer the experience of an expertly-structured class.

One thing we did love about riding with Rush Cycle Mission Valley was that their system automatically emails you a “Rush Ride Report” with stats from your completed class, including figures like calories burned, wattage, milage, and even your rank in class. We’ve been told that the data is calculated by pairing your height and weight from your online account with your bike performance in class. The stats are also saved to your online profile so you can access them at any time. We knew we worked hard, but we loved receiving the quantifiable validation of just how hard we pushed it!

INSTRUCTOR

Paulina was an enthusiastic instructor, but we felt there were many missed opportunities for her to truly be an excellent spin instructor. As a new studio, with likely many new riders, we found it strange that Paulina didn’t take a few moments at the beginning of class to quickly review how to use the bike, the flow of the workout, or how to the beat, etc. We don’t even think she introduced herself either. She did help a few people adjust their bikes while we were waiting for the room the fill up, but overall, it wasn’t a strong first impression in our opinion. She prematurely got us right into sprinting during the first song, before we really had a chance to warm up our bodies. It was often difficult to understand her cueing on the mic, both audibly and linguistically, an issue that was magnified by the fact that she spent a solid 50-60% of the class off her bike. We have to give her credit for trying to be our hype man, dancing around the room with lots of energy and words of encouragement, but it was difficult to feel as if we were truly riding as one team when our leader jumped ship. We also would have loved to see a bit more variety in her choreography (there were a lot of tapbacks and push-ups). Overall, Paulina was a fine instructor, but there are many areas of her instruction that need refinement for her to be great, especially in a competitive market saturated with fitness instructors like San Diego.

SPACE

Rush Cycle Mission Valley is tucked away in the back of the plaza, so it can be difficult to find at first pass. Make sure to drive all the way to the last parking lot, where you’ll see the studio hidden in the corner next to FedEx. This studio is one of the multi-state franchise’s newer locations and with newness comes improvements like new spin shoes, new bikes and a bigger space. It was quite refreshing to ride in a room where we didn’t feel as if we was going to knock out the person next to us during leans and pushes. The studio still uses the Keiser bikes though, which are among our least favorite in the industry due to the gear function and bare bones. Shoe rentals are complimentary for your first ride, but $1 to rent for every ride after that. The lobby area is large, with open-format cubbies to hold your possessions, restrooms (without showers) and a bar with items such as hair ties and ear plugs. They also have face refreshing sprays from Saje Wellness, one of our favorite essential oil and wellness brands, so this studio won a few bonus points for that. For the most part, though, the only luxury you can expect is a complimentary towel to use during your ride.