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We've been trialling Digme at Home for the past 12 weeks. Here's what happened
I've always been someone who prefers to work out from the comfort of my own living room, but in recent months, it seems the world has joined me in a love of home workouts. That said, a year into various lockdowns, I felt like I was in a bit of an exercise rut - I was still running four to five times a week and doing the odd strength session on my yoga mat, but I felt sluggish and a little bored of my schedule.
Enter, Digme at Home. With over 100 on-demand and live classes to choose from, Digme's at home offering promised to 'take [my] home workouts to a whole new level'. Known for their range of spin classes, Digme gives home users the option to rent or buy a Keiser m3i lite Bike (which starts from £36 a month) to join their classes, but if you don't have one, a turbo trainer will do. There's also strength sessions, yoga classes, run classes and HIIT workouts available on the platform.
Testing the bike
The first point to note is that the Keiser bike is not the most compact on the market. At 44 inches tall, 26 inches wide and 51 inches long, it took up quite a bit of my one-bedroom London flat. Unlike other options on the market, there's also no option to fold the bike away and you'd have to be pretty strong to wheel it from room to room (the bike weighs 40kg). That said, if you've got the room, you'll get a spin-class style experience from the comfort of your (sizable) living room or spare bedroom.
The V-shaped frame is designed to accommodate riders of all body shapes and sizes and the seat and handlebars were easy to adjust in an instant, meaning my partner and I could both set the bike up in seconds. The magnetic resistance made spinning silent - perfect for using early in the morning without waking everyone up, or at lunch, without disrupting a Zoom call. There was also rear-wheel protection, which is designed to keep the bike safe from sweat and corrosion, but also meant the bike was safer for use around my 8-month-old puppy.
Like the exercise bikes in the Digme studios themselves, the resistance level could easily be controlled using the lever on the Keiser bike (no more forgetting how many times you've turned the dial), plus, as a Strava-junkie, I liked how the Bluetooth connectivity allowed me to upload my rides to the platform once I'd finished.
The bike doesn't come with cycling shoes, but the double-sided clipless pedals mean you can use your cleats if you have them. If you don't the toe cages mean you can safely cycle in your trainers.
It's also worth noting that there's no screen on the bike, but there is a tech holder. You'll ideally have an iPad to watch the Digme classes on, but as I left mine on a plane years ago, I made do with my iPhone, which was fine, however, a larger screen would have made the spin class less of a sight test.
The at-home workouts
As well as yoga, strength and HIIT classes, the Digme app has three different categories of spinning classes - 'Ride' is the classic spin class you'll be used to, 'Rhythm' focuses on keeping to the beat of the music and 'Perform' really drills into your technique on the bike and improving your fitness. There are live workouts that you can book onto, as you would at your local studio, or on-demand classes, that you can take any time of day or night, should you wish.
The joys of working from home meant I was able to sample both types of classes - for me, booking into a glass meant I felt accountable and didn't snooze my alarm, or come up with an excuse. At the same time, on busy days, being able to select a 30-minute spin class on my lunch break was a real plus.
One of the best things about Digme at Home is the trainers - I absolutely loved RoRo's Rhianna ride and the 45-minute Greatest Showman ride went by so fast I thought my phone had broken. There's also a 30-minute Glastonbury ride that's well worth taking, for those missing festival season. What's more, for the real cycling pros, the virtual FTP test is a great way of measuring your fitness and really seeing improvements.
How much does it cost?
If you're buying the bike, it will set you back £1,550, which definitely is a real investment, although if you can afford it, this is one of the quietest bikes I've ever cycled. Digme also offers a number of rental packages for the bike, starting at £39 for 36 months. All of the rental packages include a Digme at Home subscription, allowing you to enjoy unlimited live and on-demand cycle, HIIT, yoga, strength and run classes.
My verdict?
In the midst of a pandemic, Digme at Home gave me that group atmosphere my workouts had really been missing - I pushed myself harder knowing there were other people cycling along with me, albeit virtually.
After twelve weeks of regular spinning on my recovery days, I definitely felt like I was running stronger, but also that my technique on the bike had got a lot better. I felt much more confident climbing standing out of the saddle and the higher cadence parts of the ride felt more manageable.
If you've got room, this a truly brilliant way to keep fit at home.
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