Guys, I am so sore. I don’t think I can clearly express this feeling. I am basically immobile. Here’s what happened: Tuesday, I was going to see a free movie pre-screening with a friend after work (shout out Fatima for the free pass, and shout out Ryan Reynolds for being so adorable). Since I knew I couldn’t go to the gym after work, I decided to go to a 6:30 am class that my friend Hannah was teaching. I used to teach this same exact class, Les Mills Grit, at 6:30 am on Thursdays. But then I found my sanity, realized that it did not make rational sense to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, and I gave my class to Hannah. She now teaches at that ungodly hour TWICE A WEEK. She is a stronger person than I am. In more ways than one. Anyway, I met her outside her apartment at 5:30 am, in the dead of night, and we took the subway down to Brooklyn. Les Mills Grit is a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout, and the strength version of Grit uses a barbell, weight plates, and body weight to improve strength and build lean muscle. In theory. In REALITY, what it does is KICK YOUR ASS. And your quads. Mostly your quads.
I actually used to teach this class.
Brooke and I taught Grit Cardio on the street once.
The fearless Dodge Y Grit instructors
Rep Your Country Les Mills Grit Release
Yesterday, Wednesday, I was incredibly sore so I went to Peloton (remember my blog about that place?) in an attempt to shake out my legs. I was planning on having terrible stats, since I could barely move. I actually ended up performing incredibly well, top ten in the class, and beat my personal best overall output. This was mostly because my legs were physically unable to move quickly, so I just ramped up the resistance. Today, my legs are EVEN WORSE.
Here are a few things I am unable to do, thanks to being a cripple:
Walk. Now it’s more like a wobble. Or waddle. I swear I used to be able to walk without looking like I was wearing a full diaper.
Use the bathroom. It’s going to be an uncomfortable week doing the pee-pee dance until it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Maybe I SHOULD wear a diaper.
Pick things up from the ground. If I drop something, I am considering it a “pay it forward.” Maybe I’ll make someone’s day. Unless It’s a dollar. Then I will struggle.
Stand up from a seated position. I need handicapped railings at my desk. STAT.
Bend or crouch.
So basically, all I can do is sit. And I can’t get up. I’m like the woman on that Life Alert commercial from days of yore. 1987 to be exact. If you need me, you know where to find me. Exactly where I was when you left me.
Hannah (right) kicked our butts. Chelsea (left) is the newest Grit instructor at the Dodge Y.
Peloton is my new spin-obsession (spin-session?) I have officially been teaching fitness classes for 11 years, and I don’t plan to stop any time soon. What that means is, I am VERYYY picky when it comes to the exercise classes I attend. Why should I pay $32-$40/class when I get PAID to do exactly the same thing? Plus, I have a gym in my building. This is especially true when it comes to Spin classes. You will RARELY see me pay to Spin since I teach 2-3 Spin classes a week, and don’t even get me started on SoulCycle and what a waste of money it is. So why, you may ask, did I drop $100 last week at Peloton, and attend 5 classes in one week in addition to my normal gym routine? Because Peloton is AWESOME. That’s why. Also, because I completed their Summer Fit List challenge and got TEN CLASSES FOR FREE. More on that later. But first, let me tell you about the bike, the concept, and the studio.
Peloton has their own bike, and it is a “cutting-edge” piece of equipment that “combines the very best of fitness and tech.” I stole those words from their website. But I can vouch for them, too. Each bike rides incredibly smoothly (made of carbon and steel), works with Delta-clip spin shoes (they are free to rent with each class), and there is a massive iPad-like screen on each bike to track metrics. The home bikes have huge screens, like a TV (photo below). They sell the bike to people all over the world, and it comes with a hefty price tag ($1,995 plus a $39 per month subscription fee). But then, you get access to unlimited live-streamed OR on-demand classes. When you ride in the studio, they constantly shout out to people who are “at-home riders,” and it adds a sense of larger community. Examples: “Hey Sven in Copenhagen!” “Alex in Moscow, congrats on 100 rides!” “Sarah in LA, Happy Birthday!”
When you ride in class, you have the option to ride as a guest or sign in. The iPad (a much smaller version of the big screen they have on the home-rider bikes) then tracks metrics such as cadence (revolutions per minute), output in watts, and resistance. Also, it tracks your total output in KJ on the leaderboard. The leaderboard shows how you are doing throughout the class, as well as how everyone else is doing throughout the world. My goal is always to be in top 15 during class, but I don’t always succeed. Also, keep in mind that hundreds of riders take the class after it is live, on-demand at home, so my ranking usually drops drastically afterward. I have mentioned before that I’m not so big on competition, but I do love seeing how I compare against myself, and sometimes, I can compare myself to others to give myself an extra push. You can always “hide” the leaderboard from your screen if that’s not your thing. The tracking is eerily accurate, unlike some other bikes. Also, after the class is over, you can log into the site and see all of your stats from past classes and compare your progress. Even my one class from 2015 is still up there. You can also follow your friends, like on twitter, and see their workouts, compare performances etc.
Some people argue that they don’t like Peloton because the instructor teaches to at-home riders more than riders in the studio, and I would say that is true, it’s usually about 70-30 or 60-40 depending on the instructor. It’s a personal preference, but I don’t mind it at all. In fact, I like that the instructor gives you guidance on where your cadence and resistance should be and then lets you get in your own zone with the music. Maybe it’s because I am self-motivated in my workouts, but I don’t need the instructor in my face the whole time. I like the idea of 40% guidance and a slammin’ playlist, and I can challenge myself for the other 60% just by looking at my own stats (or some light competition with my peers on the leaderboard).
Peloton is an international phenomenon, but they only have one studio, and lucky for me, it’s in NYC. And it’s beautiful. They have a clothing showroom in the front, plus a few bikes to try out, then you can check in, receive your free shoe rental (COUGH COUGH SOULCYCLE COULD LEARN HERE), and then you go into this beautiful lounge area. They have couches, a juice/smoothie bar (for purchase), water that is infused with different fruits every day (for free), and a relaxing spot to wait for your class that is not a gross locker room. Oh, also, they livestream the current class (if one if going on) on the TV, so you can see what the at-home riders are seeing. You can even hop on the bike and ride along if you’d like. Pretty cool. The locker rooms are awesome too. They have showers with all of the fancy products, and they have pretty much anything stocked that you may have forgotten, from tampons to deodorant to flip flops.
Beautiful studio in the heart of Chelsea.
Live-Streaming the class prior, you can even hop on that bike in the lounge and ride along!
Close-up of the bike with the big home-rider screen.
The classes are amazing, too. They have metrics rides, theme rides, intervals and arms rides, low impact rides, etc. Like any gym, people will have their favorite instructors. So far, my favorite has been Alex, but that may be because it was a Y2K Hip Hip playlist, and any class that begins with Pass the Courvoisier has got my vote. But sometimes you can also be surprised. I went to a class subbed by Christine that was actually a canceled DJ ride, so I didn’t know what I was in for. It turned out it was a pop interval class, with songs by Little Mix and *NSync. I could not have been more pleased. It was also my second-highest overall output ever. So much fun! I highly recommend theme rides if you know the kind of music you’re into. I’ve taken classes by 7 different instructors, but the playlist is still my biggest motivator.
Now on to this challenge I just completed. Every once in a while, Peloton comes up with incentives for people to work out in the studio, and it definitely worked for me. This year, the #SummerFitList consisted of a postcard you needed to get stamped 10 times, for ten different things. If you’re thinking, “wow, 10 classes at $32 a pop is a LOT!” You are right. But they weren’t all classes, and with some strategic planning, I was able to complete the challenge in only 4 days, purchasing 4 rides. The ten things were:
Take a 6 am class
Take a Live DJ Ride
Take 2 classes in 1 day
Post a picture on social media with an instructor, tag @peloton and #SummerFitList
Take an 8:30 pm class
Take a theme ride
Sit in the front row
Take a 60-minute class
Take a 20 minute class
Bring a reusable water bottle to class
Summer Fit List
COMPLETE!
Now guys, I am a penny pincher, so I tried to get my money’s worth. First, I went to a 20-minute class and brought a reusable water bottle. The 2:30 pm classes are walk-in only and they are FREE so I got 2 stamps, no cost. Then on one day, I did a 6:30 am class (check) and an 8:30 pm class (check), which happened to be a theme ride (check), and also was 2 classes in one day (check), and I sat in the front row for both (check check) AND then I posted a photo with Alex on my Instagram afterward, with all necessary hashtags (check!). That was 6 stamps in one day, and only paying for 2 classes! I was able to pull off all stamps by only paying for 4 classes. And what did I get??? 10 FREE CLASSES. That’s right, $320 of free classes. Written another way, I paid for 4, and got 14. Not too shabby. Were my legs (and something else) completely sore after? YES. Did I miss out on a lot of sleep? YES. Did I get incredibly sick after? YES. Was it worth it? YES!!!
Good news is, the first class is FREE. BETTER news is, if you want to sign up through THIS LINK and take 3 classes, I can get a free class too. DO IT DO IT! We can take them together!! More Peloton!! I’m serious, check out those exclamation marks. Let’s get fit together 😀 If you take one spin class in NYC, this is the studio I would recommend (after my own classes)! USE MY LINK!
Free 20-minute class with Ally Love and Fatima!
Me refusing to touch Christine after a VERY high-output class.
What’s your idea of a good workout? A combination of cardio and strength moves utilizing state-of-the-art treadmills and rowers, all while tracking your exertion and heart rate on TV screens? Burning more calories even after you leave the gym? If so, then Orangetheory Fitness is for you.
Orangetheory Fitness is an interval workout backed by science, designed to keep your heart rate in a target zone that spikes metabolism and increases your EPOC or afterburn calories. In theory, the more you can keep your heart in that zone, the more splat points you get (more on that later), and the more calories you will burn after the workout is over. It’s a little complicated, but that Wikipedia link on EPOC explains it pretty well. Nothing like citing to a good Wikipedia article. Erin Andrews (another wiki link) is one of their spokespeople, so obviously it works; look at her! Also, she’s a Gator so I’m biased. Throughout the workout, you wear a heart rate monitor, or you can choose not to, and you can track calories burned, percentage of max heart rate, and OTF “splat points”, based on the amount of time you spend in the orange HR zone. My favorite part of this workout is that the point is not to burn out and go “all out” in the red zone the whole time. You leave feeling like you got an awesome workout, but you don’t leave feeling like you are going to die, or barf in the lobby on the way out. This has happened to me before (cough cough TONEHOUSE).
Anyway, as I mentioned last week, I recently went to OTF with my brother when I went to Washington DC, and we had a blast. One of my best friends from college is a head trainer for OTF and now trains and manages the trainers of the region, so I knew I was in good hands taking her class. This was not my first rodeo, however. I had been to Orangetheory a few times before in three different states: New York, Virginia, and Florida. The cool thing about OTF is that every day, the workout is the same in every studio around the country, so it doesn’t matter if you are traveling often. But even better, the workout is different each day! I have been to a class where they had an endurance day, a class that was a sprint-based power class, and a combo day. I have never been to this thing they call “Tornado Tuesday,” nor do I ever plan to go, because I do not hate myself. HA. Reddit has a glossary of OTF terms if you can’t keep up. Anyway, point of this story is, even though I’ve gone 5 times, I have never been bored.
My first-ever time at Orangetheory, at the Chelsea studio in NYC
My second time at OTF in Arlington, VA
OTF in Boca Raton with my elementary school friend.
When I went with my brother, it added a competition aspect that I did not even know I had in me. My brother is incredibly competitive. I’m talking, “throw a tantrum and leave the table during a game of monopoly” competitive. Me? Not so much. In my 4 previous times at OTF, I had only worn the heart rate monitor once. It is interesting to track and see my statistics after, but it’s not too important for me to watch it during the class. For my brother, though, it was not an option. So I strapped my heart rate monitor on under the strap of my sports bra, and readied myself for a massive competition. My brother has literally run the length of Israel before, whereas I have run one half marathon and sprained my ankle twice in the past 3 months. I was prepared to lose. But I didn’t let him know that!
The workout of the day was pretty complicated to follow, but we warmed up on the rowers, then started with floor exercises, which were demoed on the screens. I mostly followed the screens, but called Julie over to explain a few times. She didn’t treat me like a complete idiot, so that was a plus. I think some other people were lost, too. There were 3 rounds of 3 exercises, and you could pick the order. We used dumbbells, a step, and the TRX to do a combination of moves working all major muscle groups. Then after 25 minutes, we switched to cardio intervals on the treadmill then rower. After the floor section, my brother and I each only had 3 splat points, and the goal is 12-20. As I said above, you get a splat point for each minute you spend training in the orange zone. Clearly we had our work cut out for us on the treadmills.
My brother stared me down from his adjacent treadmill with a look in his eyes that could only be described as, “you’re going down, bitch.” Or maybe it was, “you’re going down, sis,” but either way, he made it clear he was playing to win. And sure enough, I had my eyes on the screen tracking his splat points more than I had my eyes on the treadmill. Probs dangerous, in hindsight. Anyway, my brother skipped his second interval on the rower to add more points and stay on the treadmill, aka HE CHEATED. He swears he just read the workout wrong, which is possible, because, like I said it was pretty complicated, but I choose to say he cheated. Anyway, joke was on him because while he was slaving away on the treadmill at 12.0 MPH, I was at a casual 5.8, and since I’m such a worse runner, my heart rate was the same as his, and soon enough, we were neck and neck at 14 points even. With 2 minutes left of class, I was ahead 17-16, but he caught up with seconds to spare, and we tied at 17 splat points.
Overall, OTF is super fun. I love the idea of having a workout that changes every day because I have a bit of workout A.D.D. and I get bored quickly. Watching your points go up on the screen adds to the feeling of accomplishment, and even though I wish I had beat my brother, I still feel like I had a great workout and left completely sweaty. I worked off at least one of my post-workout-sake-bombs. It was extra fun to have Julie as our instructor because she grew up with my brother too, and felt comfortable egging him on over the microphone. Plus, she always has a fab playlist. I highly recommend checking it out. Most first-timers are free if you’re local. In Manhattan it’s $20 for your first class because everything in this godforsaken city is expensive, but what else is new? It’s $319 unlimited for a month in NYC, which is out of my budget, but if you go 4 times a week, it works out to less than $20/class, which is cheaper than any other studio in NYC. Try it out and see if you can beat my brother’s and my splat points!
This was clearly posed. I was not smiling IRL when I was on the rower.
COACH JULIE!
My bro needs to work on his chest press form.
WE SURVIVED! (Barely).
Arms shaking post-class, she thought we would drop her.
Last week I reviewed 305 Fitness, and now, I need to tell you all about my experience with The Dance, another dance-cardio class, emphasis on dance, no emphasis on eating.
My roommate from law school has been capital-O-OBSESSED with this class, and has been raving about it, swearing it’s the most fun and best workout she has had in a long time. I had to try it out, even though at $35/class, I knew it was probably a one-time-thing. It’s held in Studio B, on the third floor of Bandier on 5th Avenue. I was 30 minutes early to class, and having enough self-knowledge to know that I cannot resist buying when I’m around workout clothes, I walked straight up to the studio without passing go, or collecting $200 in debt by shopping in the store on the ground level.
Amanda Kloots, a former Radio City Rockette-turned Broadway performer, created The Dance, as well as The Rope, an all-jump-rope workout, which I was definitely not ready for yet. Amanda was a ray of sunshine from the moment she walked in the room. She is about 6’1”, all legs and abs and blonde fitness-model physique. And that Rockette smile training did not fail her. How intimidating. She was a ball of energy, and her smile was intoxicating #nohomo. I had scoped out her Instagram (@amandakloots) before the class to see what I was up against and what I should wear. Most of the people were wearing crop tops, which was definitely not going to happen after my #30Years30IceCreams binge last month, so I decided for the exact opposite: a not-so-subtle tank top I received as a gift, that said “I Run For Ice Cream.” Fact, but embarrassing.
When I walked into class, I realized my epic wardrobe fail. Not only did I look like I had eaten ONE HUNDRED ice creams on my way over compared to everyone else, I was advertising it on my shirt! I was pretty sure I was the only one who had eaten all day in that room. Oh well. I guess I should have expected it from my Instagram pre-research. My friend insisted that I not go to the back row, so I sucked it up (literally, I was sucking in my stomach as much as I could), and readied myself for some dance.
I will admit, I am generally pretty coordinated. Both of my parents dance (they met in an international folk dance troupe!), I took classes in ballet, jazz, tap and Irish dance from the age of 2, til I was 12, AND my favorite fitness class to teach is step aerobics. However, I would never consider myself a “dancer.” This class was COMPLICATED! She taught the combos quickly and assumed you would catch on. I later learned that she does a lot of the same routines over again, which made me feel better because I was wondering how everyone was so much better than me! I guess I will have to go back (and spend another $35) to hone my The Dance skillz. This must be how they earn their money! There was only one prescribed water break during the whole class, which meant the cardio kept coming at me!
In summary: this class was a BLAST. I got a great sweat on, I learned fun dances, I shook my butt to Bootylicious, and every time I caught my reflection in the mirror, I had a huge smile on my face. My self-consciousness was all in my head, and Amanda definitely made me feel welcome, despite the fact that I was the size of a Tonka Truck compared to her Hot Wheels car-sized body. She even came over after class and asked if I was new, introduced herself, and told me I was “cute” because I was smiling the whole time. I didn’t admit that half of the time it was because I was laughing at myself as I was 3 beats behind. I would recommend this class to anyone with impeccable coordination, stamina, and rock-hard abs. Or substitute the rock-hard abs with unwavering self-confidence, and you will be good to go. As Amanda would say, #JumpSkipSmile!
