My Unforgettable Experience with Soul Cycle

Exactly 2 weeks today!

Those of you who have been following my blog might
have noticed my strong love
for soul cycle, as it is one of Kelly Ripa’s (whom I like to refer to as
“my soul sista.”) favorite spots to break a sweat in. Moreover, the concept of soul cycle sold me immediately for I’m a person
who loves dancing and needs an exercise routine that keeps me motivated.
Soul cycle encapsulates all of that while simultaneously helping
rejuvenate the mind through positive energy and affirmations. And as
such, my dream was always to find time in my schedule to join this workout
phenomenon. In NYC, I had such a tight schedule that kept me saying ‘maybe next
week’. Next week would become ‘maybe next month.’ You know how that goes.
And being that my apartment was not conveniently located near a soul cycle
facility, made my burning desire to join even harder to fulfill. 

Fast forward a
couple of years later, business has brought us to the west coast for now and
last month as the hubby and I were walking to our car from dinner, he said:
“Look what’s coming nearby…soul cycle! Somebody looks like they’re
finally going to get to cross something off their bucket list.” In fact,
the workers and employees were still putting the finishing touches on the
doors and hanging up the fitness merchandise. I was ecstatic (and snapped
a few photos of the building and even shared it on IG and tweeter) as this location would only be
five minutes from our new place.

Days later as
we were driving by, we noticed it was officially open. Upon our
arrival at home, my hubby was all smiles as he excitedly sat at his
computer to schedule my first ever class at soul cycle. At first, he was going
to buy me a package and then he said: “hey, maybe you should try it out
first before we go ahead and buy you a whole package…just to see how you like
it.” I was like “sure, that’s a good idea! But I know I’ll love it, because it’s essentially
partying on a bike – what’s not to like?!” I was both nervous and
excited after the hubby scheduled my first class, because even though I’ve been
an athletic person and was into body building in high school pushing about
500 pounds on a leg press and ran track – at the same time, the last physically
strenuous exercise routine I did was Zumba, which was almost a year ago. So I
really didn’t know what to expect and what my stamina was going to be like for
those 45-60 minutes of peddling, including lifting 1 pound weights in
that class. All I kept thinking is “just don’t look like a fool…be a
champ…this is nothing for ya…” 

Well, the day
finally arrived for my first soul cycle class. Aaaah, I was like Julie Andrews singing
‘The Hills Are Alive…’  I was able to get myself out of bed and put on a
workout outfit to start on a new path that’s going to make me feel good! I was
beyond stoked. When I got into soul cycle, a class had just let out. It was
packed with lots of sweaty folks ranging in all shapes and sizes. I felt a
little bit intimidated, as I waited for my turn to be helped. Then I signed my
form, was given my shoes and was ushered to my locker room which
brought me back to my school years. I donned on my bike shoes and
went into the already dimly lit exercise room. One young lady helped me find my
bike. I knew from the moment I was neither able to get on the bike nor were my
feet able to reach the pedals with no one noticing me struggling to get on this
bike, that this maybe wasn’t going to be as fun as I imagined. As I flagged one
of the staff to help me get on and asked to lower the bike for my height’s
comfortability, she assured me that ‘it was fine because supposedly I needed it
for leg resistance.’ As she helped clip on one foot into the bike’s pedal
which took a while, she left and it was a long struggle for me to
figure out how to clip the other foot in.

Then the music
went on and the instructor started her routine. I attempted to follow
along but being that my bike’s seat was too high, I was straining to stand up
as everyone else was and kept falling back into my bike’s seat (which by
the way is harder than a helmet, so you can imagine the pain/soreness
in areas that I wasn’t even aware existed in my nether
regions). Anyway, class came to the cool down part which by now was the
greatest relief – but as everyone was easily popping off their shoes – click,
click, click to do the cool down stretches, I couldn’t for the life of me
figure out how to unhook those darn shoes off my feet. I had to just take my
feet out of the shoes themselves to do the stretches and by the time I did,
they were already almost done! I know, pitiful. Stop laughing.

When the torture routine was over, my legs touched the
floor, my thighs were like jello. I had a hard time walking to my locker as my
knees and legs kept giving out on me. I had to sit in front of my locker for a
while (and proudly tweeted about my first day at soul
cycle) just to let my legs regain some kind of strength so I could walk
out in a dignified manner, instead of like a clown that just got out of a
washing machine spin cycle. Over the following days, I was able to walk
less and less. I figured since it was a while I’ve been on a bike,
that the burning/extremely tight sensation I was feeling in
my leg muscles was to be expected. So the hubby and I went about our
business thinking this is going to pass after a couple of days and
headed out of town Sunday morning as planned.

Monday
morning, I woke up with thighs, knees, and ankles super swollen to the 
point that my thighs and knees were all the same size, like a tree trunk but
more so on my right side. Walking on my legs was excruciating, I was no longer
able to squat or even sit on the commode. That morning when I went to the
bathroom, my urine was the color of coca cola, which I didn’t give much thought
– I didn’t even mention it to my hubby. But that night when we returned to the
hotel room from dinner, I went to the bathroom and now it was super
dark…chocolate like. Now I freaked out, called the hubby to look asking if
that was normal. He said “hmmm, that’s not good…” and went to his
computer while I was taking my shower. He came back to me with panicked eyes
and said I have what’s called Rhabdomyolysis and
ran out to get me baking soda (which is equivalent to sodium bicarbonate that
helps clean out the system…*) to
put in my water as it was by now already past 11pm, and I was not about to go
to an emergency room in the town we were in. So little by little with the
constant consumption of water mixed with the baking soda and/or cranberry juice
my urine was clearing up, but the legs, thighs and ankles were still very
swollen and very difficult to walk on. 

Tuesday we arrived back home in L.A. I continued my abnormal intake of water
and cranberry juice thinking I was flushing out my system because my urine
was looking clear again. But by Thursday morning around 2am, my left arm
down to my finger tips was all tingly and started to go numb for a
good while. That moved us to go to urgent care where they ran a
urine and blood test. And even though at home my urine was looking clear, when
they did my urine test at urgent care they said that ‘I still had blood in the
urine.’ The next day, they called me with the blood test result confirming that
I had Rhabdo – urging me to PLEASE GO to the
emergency room because my kidney and liver enzyme levels were off the
chart high, which can cause kidney failure and liver damage. Being that I’ve
never been hospitalized in my life, I have a healthy fear of hospitals and
being self-employed, I know the astronomical cost of stepping foot in a
hospital, which made me/us super anxious and totally spiked my blood
pressure to an all time high.  Sure enough, I was brought into ICU. 
Now imagine my panic being the germaphobe that I am…if you read my process here, than you have an idea of my
level of anxiety being cooped up in ICU, where I think one guy coughed up a
lung and bloody gauze was strewn on the ground, which was just some of the
unmentionables I saw on my way to the bathroom.

Needless to
say, I lost the battle about leaving the hospital on the same day due
to their concerns with my enzyme levels being so high. Let’s put it this way,
normal enzyme levels range from 0 -145 according to the doctors – mine was at
51,000! They hooked me to non-stop sodium IV fluids for 2 1/2
days (about 20 bags or so) to flush out my system. Yes, I lived in
the bathroom pretty much the whole time. I have never been poked and prodded so
much in my life and still got black and blue marks all over my arms to prove
it. My levels went down, but are still higher than normal, so my cure isn’t
complete yet even after two weeks later. I still have a few more blood tests
and follow-ups to do in the next week. Swelling has gone down tremendously, but
not completely. I’m still advised to keep an eye on the condition of my
thighs as I could end up with what’s called compartment syndrome. My thighs and
knees are still very weak and have caused me to be laid up a lot more
than I would like. Imagine, if I
had never sought out professional help thinking drinking water with baking soda
in it was sufficient and that I was fine… I probably wouldn’t be here writing
this today. So, if you end up with Rhabdo, you MUST immediately go get professional
assistance.

This certainly
has been by far the most unforgettable experience in my life.  Now, I get anxiety just passing
by a soul cycle location. I feel it is my duty to share my story solely
for the purpose of educating, with the hope to possibly save someone else’s
life/legs. I’m so chagrined about the experience because honestly, soul cycle
is the most fun exercise I’ve ever done and really wanted it to be a lifetime
exercise routine for me. If you haven’t been physically active for a long
time, I would suggest building up your strength and stamina before taking a
soul cycle class or it could possibly take away your soul forever. Learn
from my experience.

If you have
experienced a similar situation, please share in the comment box below how
long it took to recuperate and when you were you able to start
exercising again. Because this is the first time I’ve ever heard of this Rhabdo
thing.

P.S. Sorry for the heavy post today in lieu of my
usual light Friday grateful moments. Unfortunately, life
sometimes isn’t always glamorous. If you’re still with me, I thank you for
reading. Please, share, tweet, regram the story because it can even
happen to those that are really fit as well.

*I’m not endorsing any particular treatment. Each
individual should carefully seek professional help.

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