26. January 2021

no excuses

at a ladies lunch i was very lucky as i was seated next to a friend of mine - michaela cordes. back then, she just opened the doors of her glamourous hicycle studio. brand new kind of sports interpretation on the german market and above it brand new to me, too. she said i have to try it and as i am a quite nosy person - i did what she said. did not think of dressing me any differently than when i go to my regular pilatis lesson - big mistake as when i entered the room - against all others - looked like a granny somehow - but then the amazing instructor came over and showed me how everything works - how to fix the bike, how to click in and out etc. … then the light went down and the music got louder - loved it!

after approx 10 minutes, i thougt i might get a heartattack in there and paused for a little while - then went on - totally motivated by the others and of course the instructor, the worst ever happened: i clicked out at max speed and fell over and i felt multiple embarrassed about it, as everybody saw it. btw very hurtful, but tried to play it down a little. i am just a super clumsy person and these kind of things always happen to me. next time i went to the hicycle class - only about two days later - i was really short of time and parked my car somewhere… after about 15 minutes the light turned on, the police came in and they asked for me (using a micro) - again totally embarassing - but still - i won't give up hicycling... maybe the universe just wanted to test my already grown addiction to hicycle?

so i am a massive fan - the athmosphere, the classes, the effect, the feeling after lesson - simply amazing! you all should try it out - but better we warned: you'll get addicted! and there is no excuse cause they are offering online classes, too.

 

Q: once you told me, that your idea for hicycle was born back in your ny-years, how did it feel to bring the whole spirit to germany?
A: i had lived in nyc until 2012 and was addicted in the best possible way to the „dancing on a bike“-concept of soulcycle in manhattan. when i moved back to hamburg, i missed my daily workout badly. most, because i had finally found a workout that was actually fun and i never forced myself to go and look for the time to go by. i searched around in hamburg at the time to find something similar, but when i realized that nothing like this existed, i decided: i should open my own version of it and this is how hicycle originally started. next thing i knew was hunting for the right space in my close neigborhood! at the time - you need to understand - the concept of boutique fitness did not exist at all. so in the beginning when we opened in may 2017, we needed to explain a lot: from why there are no memberships but instead we use a credits system which allows you to control yourself what classes you pay for and use, or that you only need to bring very little to class (only your leggins, top and some socks) because we provide all the other necessities in studio like cycling shoes, towels, water, shampoo and conditioner etc...

Q: how did the first contacts respond on your idea?
A: hicycle was instantly received with a lot of applause! but as with many new innovative concepts it was the very young crowd - young women from teenagers of 16 to 24 year old - that fell in love with our workout from day one. to a point that when i got invited to dinners in the early days i was asked by women my age: „but why is hicycle only for super young women?“. i only then realized that i could not target my own age group via instagram and facebook - because they were not using it. until then hicycle’s main marketing tools. only after we realized that costumers from 34 years and older were not as active on these channels yet, did we invested a big campaign in out of home posters and adverts and since then have catched up big time on our main traget group: women from 34+. but lately we have become also very popular with men!

Q: how do you keep the amazing spirit during these days?
A: as every crisis holds also an opportunity, we needed to react very quickly when covid-19 hit last spring. a challenge especially considering that we were doing so extremely well until we had to close our studio doors in march 2020 due to the outbreak of the pandemic.at the time we were catering to more than 220 costumers per day in one studio.  but within only two weeks we rushed and completley turned our concept into an online business and introduced hicycle  online: as a first step we rented out the 40 studio bikes to loyal costumers who begged us to give them one of our bikes. and 2. we turned the cycling room into an online studio from which we streamed live classes twice a day into the homes of our costumers. as the demand quickly grew and more and more clients of ours were asking desperately for a online bike, we created a hicycle home bike with stages and offered a branded bike with ipad and all additional accessories (shoes, weights, bottles) via our new created hicycle online shop. today we have over 150 hicycle home bikes in homes of loyal costumers. 


Q: due to covid the whole sports industry changed - homeclasses are also served by hicycle - how do people respond on it? 
A: they love it! the beauty of the online business is that we have been able to expand hicycle far beyond the city of hamburg. we have sold the hicycle home bike to new and devoted clients in other german cities like berlin and cologne or düsseldorf and what is even more impressive into countries outside germany like austria, italy and switzerland as well! to our astonishment we have gained an incredible following and response in which we receive emails from clients who thank us to keep them fit and happy during the pandemic. what i love personally is that as a company we are constantly forced to improve our experience. so in the beginning we started by offering two live classes per day only. today in addition to the 2 daily live classes our clients have access to 200+ on demand classes which they can access very easily at any given time of their day via their hicycle account.


Q: which music is your personal fav during class?
A: i am personally very grateful that hicycle online exists and am pleased with the response we are receiving! but i have to also admit: i miss the hicycle experience in our studio - badly! dancing on a bike together with 39 other costumers, sweating and enjoying the movement in tune to the rythm, feeling the fantastic energy of our trainers in person, in a crowd of 40 people is just the best! music wise i personally love r&b or house playlists that take you into other spheres and totally transport you away from your daily life. but i also have to admit i am also a sucker for great commercial artist (i personally love to listen to rihanna, katy perry, beyonce, black coffee, coldplay etc etc...) and good remixes of known songs.

Q: after sports beauty routine? 
A: the very best and most rewarding moment after a good workout for me is the shower after! super hot then followed by a super cold one - no matter what the season. it helps my immune system and is also more effective as a wake up than an espresso (as studies have shown!) i personally believe a good cardio-workout is not only great for your cardio-vascular-system, but it also has an amazing effect on your skin altogether. so i always use a facewash right after my hicycle class to keep my skin clean. after trying out a lot of brands, i am super happy and can highly recommend dr barbara sturm’s cleanser for daily use - and once a week her really amazing enzyme cleanser. if i have time i follow up with a mask, but mostly only put on her facecream right after. after my hicycxle workout its also great that i rarely need to put on any makeup: my face usually beams super healty right after. we call it the hicycle glow!