New Around Here?

The MINT Cycle team continues to grow! In an effort to offer you the best instructors in the city and expose MINT’s riders to diverse talent, unique coaching styles, new skill sets and creative formats, we are constantly working to recruit instructors to round out our roster. Have you checked out some of our newest faces? We encourage you to sample all of our class offerings – we have something for everyone!

Ori Korin Cycle Program Director
True story: Ori walked out of her first indoor cycling class five years ago midway through the second song. A couple years later, she gave it another shot and realized a good instructor, the right music, and a little perseverance go a long way. Her classes promise something for everyone, from the hard-core climbers to the wild speed demons, and her rides will help you leave the studio prouder and stronger than when you walked in. It’s a beautiful gift to have bodies that work…let’s celebrate them! When she’s not cycling, you can find Ori thinking big communications thoughts in the labor movement, trying to make sequins work-appropriate, and drinking obscene quantities of Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee.

Audrey Lamb
Audrey loves sweating, screaming and dancing in a dark room on stationary bikes. She has been leading spin classes around the DMV for over 8 years. A certified holistic health coach, her classes emphasize the mind/body connection and just how good you’ll feel after you walk out of her class.

Katie Frost
Katie started teaching cycling when she was 17 and taught for six years all through college and graduate school. After graduation, working in consulting pulled her away for a few years, but she returned to teaching in 2017, and she’s thrilled to join the MINT team. Katie designs each class around a goal: strength, speed, endurance, or intervals.

Julia Rodenas
Julia received her B.S. in Bioengineering at University of Maryland, studying topics such as biomedical technologies, biomechanics, and physiology. Before college, Julia was a competitive figure skater for over 10 years. Her rigorous training schedule required hours of training on and off the ice. This is where Julia’s passion for health and fitness first began, and it has transformed and grown since then.

Bethany Imondi
Bethany has been teaching spinning for more than five years. She loves to make themed playlists and choreograph her classes to the music. In addition to indoor cycling, Bethany is a four-time marathoner and certified group fitness instructor.
 

Sasha Whitney
Looking for a low impact workout after unofficially retiring from running, Sasha took her first indoor cycling class and was instantly hooked! Naturally, the next step from 3-5 days per week riding in the crowd was to hop on the podium and start teaching. In Sasha’s class, expect a high intensity and energy ride to hip hop, r&b, techno remixes, and a little trap with melodic hypnotizing beats that will leave you sore but wanting more!

Danielle Karst
Danielle is a fitness enthusiast who loves indoor cycling and group fitness classes. After years of attending classes in D.C. (and nearly every city she has visited), she decided to try teaching and loves sharing her love for fitness and music with riders of all levels. She uses a high-energy rhythm format to encourage and motivate riders. When she’s not cycling, you can find her working as a litigator, exploring the city, or traveling.

Allison Schacter
Looking for a way to procrastinate from thesis writing in grad school, Ally joined her friend for her first cycle class and was instantly hooked. She brings her love of music and excitement to each of her classes. When she isn’t in front of a class, Ally works as a public health professional by day and is an avid baker.

Amy Klein
Amy Klein is a certified Spinning Instructor who believes the best way to stay fit is to find activities you love to do! Amy is an avid indoor cyclist and is excited to bring others into the indoor cycling community through the creation of a fun, safe environment where participants of all levels can have a challenging workout while enjoying energizing music and the support and encouragement of everyone in the room.
 
Set Up for Success!
Whether you’re a regular indoor rider or new to the sport, proper bike set up is key to a great ride. There are several different types of indoor bikes that vary from studio to studio, but once you know your settings for MINT’s bikes, you can spend more time focusing on your form, your resistance and your cadence! Any MINT instructor is happy to help you with bike set up either before or after class, and if you haven’t checked your settings in awhile, it never hurts to check them again!

Here’s a great check-list and a graphic to help you:

✓ Seat height
✓ Seat fore and aft
✓ Handlebar fore and aft
✓ Handlebar height

Other good things to know:

✓ Resistance levels: MINT’s bikes go 1-20, but each instructor will use the scale differently. Listen up during the warm up to hear how the describe resistance, and if they use words like gear, tension, etc.

✓ RPMs: This is how many times your feet go around each minute – your cadence. How fast or slow you’re peddling is of course tied to how much resistance you have on the bike!

✓ Heart rate: Many classes at MINT will use our PIQ heart-rate monitoring system, which will show you which heart rate zone you’re in during class. If you use your own monitor, it can also sync with that system, or with the bike’s monitor. Depending on the class, your instructor may coach based on target heart rate zones as well, but if you prefer not to wear a monitor, you can always track your progress using your RPE: rate of perceived exertion, or how hard it feels like you’re working.

✓ Color mode: At MINT’s new Manhattan Laundry studio, our bikes utilize Coach by Color technology and a measurement called Functional Threshold Power (FTP) to help riders gauge how hard they’re working. Read more about it here.

Power of the Positive
MINT Cycle team’s own Colleen Daly is helping train other MINT instructors on the important of body positivity in fitness coaching. With help from research from Northwestern University’s Body and Media Lab, we’re working to make body positive fitness practices the norm, not the exception. Research shows that this coaching style improves retention, boosts the self-esteem and self-efficacy of participants, and improves fitness outcomes. Body positivity is an essential component in achieving important public health outcomes, and MINT’s cycle fitness professionals are committed to learning the science of body positive practices, and providing strategies to create healthy and supportive environments for all fitness participants to achieve their goals. Stay tuned for more information on trainings for members, too!

Have Something to Say?
Feedback forms, iPad kiosks and class reviews are always there for you, but if you have thoughts, suggestions or concerns, you can also email your MINT Cycle team directly! We often get the best ideas from our members, and we’re always happy to hear more. Plus, we find that most questions and issues can be addressed with direct lines of communication, transparent dialogue, and a mutual commitment to making sure MINT has cycling classes to suit as many members’ needs as possible. So whether your favorite class is always packed with a waitlist, or you prefer a smaller more personal ride, our goal is to offer something for everyone, and we hope you’ll join us on the bike soon! Reach out to Ori at ori@mintdc.com, and she can always forward it along to the other instructors too!