A new study aims to identify the health and fitness benefits of group studio cycling classes for overweight adults.

Scientists at Loughborough University are working with Les Mills International – provider of the 50-minute indoor cycling class to music, RPM – to establish the effectiveness of the programme and its implications for weight loss and reducing the risk of developing diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes.

Researchers will monitor 20 recruits over an eight-week period as they take part in RPM three times per week.

Principal investigator Dr Steve Faulkner said:

“Indoor cycling classes are a popular form of high intensity training, which emerging research suggests has many positive health outcomes.

“We want to understand the benefits this type of group training, which is available at gyms throughout the UK, can have for overweight people who do little or no exercise.”

Dr Faulkner and colleagues are calling on non-smoking men and women aged 18-50 with a BMI of 27 to 35 to sign up to the study. Volunteers should currently exercise for less than 60 minutes per week.

Participants will be required to make three pre-study and two post-study visits to Loughborough University and will need to be able to attend three RPM classes per week for an eight-week period at the Nuffield Health Centre in Leicester.

To sign up, or for more information, contact Steve Faulkner on 01509 226 324 or email s.faulkner2@lboro.ac.uk

The study is being conducted by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) in conjunction with Les Mills International and Nuffield Health.