I’ve never identified as an athlete and I often feel like a stranger in a strange land in your average exercise-based environment. The emo night spin Class, though, at Hype Fitness in Silver Lake is not your average exercise-based environment. 

As a forever theater kid, a sensitive writer and a frequent cryer, I do identify as “emotional.” But to be honest, I’ve never been a Warped Tour every year kind of fan of emo music. In fact, I’m guilty of almost solely knowing the mainstream hits and big career-defining albums. To the hardcore fans reading this, I apologize for being basic, but I am a big enough fan that when I saw “emo night” listed as an option on a list of spin classes, I couldn’t sign up fast enough. 

The good news is that the instructor, Nicole Hanser, is a master at creating an environment where both the emo devotees and those that only dabble in the genre can all feel welcomed. When I asked Nicole to describe her class in three words, her reply was: “Rage. Fun. Repeat.” Yep! That just about sums it up. 

Emo night happens every Wednesday night at 7pm at Hype Fitness. There, Nicole guides 20 to 30 of us through fast sprints to Travis Barker’s drumming, lets us curse along to Fall Out Boy as we all trudge up a gnarly “hill” and gets us clapping along to fun faves like the All-American Rejects’ “Gives You Hell”—all while reminding us to drink water, listen to our bodies and keep pushing until we reach the end of the 45-minute ride. Singing along is also highly encouraged.

I asked Nicole how a class like this came to be in the first place. “When I began teaching, I was told not to overplay Blink-182 since most people don’t like working out to that kind of music—that I should stick to the Top 40 because that’s what sells out classes,” she says. “I was confused: How can anyone not get absolutely hyped listening to Blink-182? In the beginning it wasn’t easy. In true emo fashion I cried a lot. I hoped those who resonated with my music would eventually come. They did. Now we all cry together.”

For me, the sassy and confident Top 40 pop music that’s usually played during cycle classes doesn’t exactly hit. Cycling is an intense workout. I don’t really feel like a “Boss Bitch” or like Drake flexing on his enemies. I feel like I am doing something that is difficult. Fun, but difficult. 

I think the reason I love working out to emo is that it feels more honest. Instead of just trying to pretend that “I’m the world’s greatest,” when that couldn’t be further from how I actually feel. I like to indulge in the drama of the “suffering” I’m feeling from the workout. The scream-crying howls of an impassioned singer lamenting that they are in an emotional hell and there is no way out? Way more my speed. 

As Nicole put it, “Emo music is not afraid to get into the emotions we sometimes shy away from. Sometimes it’s silly, sometimes it’s nostalgic, sometimes it’s 100% drama, but that’s part of the appeal.” 

When you think about it, a cycle class isn’t so different from experiencing heartbreak for the first time as a teen. In both cases there’s a point when you think “I can’t do this! I can’t go on!” But then you keep pushing. You get through it. And you come out stronger on the other side. 

Prior to taking this class, I had never really, fully experienced the pure, transcendent feeling of endorphins from exercise. I’ve had oodles of fun in dance classes and a good hike always feels great and grounding, but I had never tapped into that high that people claim to feel mid-workout. 

The first time I went to emo night, somewhere around the third “carry ooooonnnnn” in My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade,” it happened. I felt this high that had previously only been a myth to me. It was the final song of my first emo ride class and this epic finale had gotten me there, where no other cycle class was able to take me. 

Emo spin classes take place Wednesdays at 7pm at Hype Fitness (1932 Hyperion Ave). Classes cost $28 and you can sign up online.