4 New-To-Me Classes

Core Fusion Extreme @ Exhale Spa Flatiron

Not only was I excited to hear Exhale was opening up a studio not too far away from my apartment, but I was also ridiculously pumped to try their newest class “Core Fusion Extreme”. I will admit, going into the class I thought “pshhh how extreme can this be” and let me tell you, it lived up to the name.

The class is comprised of 5 stations with 2 exercises at each station. During a circuit you go through those two exercises twice before moving onto the next station (ya follow?). The exercises were a mixture of cardio moves and strength training– box jumps, tricep dips, TRX rows, thrusters, funky plank variations, and more.

Exhale may be known for it’s slow burn barre classes, but like I said this class lived up to it’s name and got me sweating. I may or may not have signed up for another class at another studio that day as well… and deeply regretted this decision afterwards.

My biggest complaint was that the entire class was just the circuit. We went through the stations twice meaning each exercise was done 4 times. Overall the class still offered a fantastic workout and I think Exhale is on to something good.

 

Tone House

I can’t remember the last time a class was as hyped up for me as Tone House was. Anytime someone from work took a class there they came back looking like they got hit by a bus. This is really only a slight exaggeration, and I swear everyone talked about how hard it was. Keep in mind I work with people who love going to fitness classes as much as I do…

I was legit scared before this class since apparently it’s the hardest class in Manhattan. The ominous music that played as we waited for my 7AM class to start sure didn’t help either (okay maybe that’s what they were going for…).

Is it the hardest class in Manhattan? Maybe. Or at least the warmup is. Owner Alonzo had us jumping over these mini hurdles in every plane of motion imaginable. I like to think I’m decently fit but this warmup made me suck wind like I was doing the mile run in high school all over again. The person behind me ended up cutting in front of me in the middle of the warmup, that  kind of bruised my ego.

The actual class wasn’t as challenging as  the warm up. Yes, we did get to use those super cool bungee cords shown above. We also used the TRX Rip trainer which I haven’t touched since I took the rip trainer certification course over a year ago.

What made the workout doable was Alonzo’s encouraging demeanor. His class might be terrifying but he’s incredibly sweet. It’s billed as a class for athletes and that’s absolutely accurate.

When a friend asked me about class after I described it as humbling and that’s just what it was.

 

Barione @ Bari

A class that has you dancing, jumping on a trampoline, and using bungee cords? Count me in. Barione is the prerequisite class you have to take at Bari Studio before trying out their other classes. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a prerequisite class and am happy to say it still packs a burn (and quite the sweat) while giving you a nice taste of what Bari has to offer.

I particularly loved the sweaty cardio dance warm up comprised of super simple dance steps strung together and repeated and of course loved jumping on the trampolines later in class.

 

Throwback Fitness

 

Why did it take me so long to finally workout with the Throwback Fitness guys? I met Ryan and Brian earlier this spring at a work event and fell in love with Throwback Fitness before I even took a class. The class is a mixture of a team workout and high school phys ed nostalgia complete with nerf guns and a dodgeball game. But of course there was a fitness twist to all the games.

The first half was a partner workout, while one partner rowed the other partner worked through a few strength movements before switching. Each pair was competing with the other pairs to row the most meters. I’m vaguely convinced that being short is a major disadvantage on the rowing machine…

Part two was dodgeball. In order to grab a dodgeball you had to perform a series of exercises– and if you got pegged you had to do push ups to get back in the game.

Truth, the only time I ever skipped class in high school was this one time senior year when I didn’t want play dodgeball in gym. Of course I ran into my teacher later that day and she asked where I was… I told her the truth and her response was “Oh I understand, I hate dodgeball too”. And I still got a perfect grade that semester- Bam.

Any who, I enjoyed this version of dodgeball a lot more that I did during my high school days.

My first thought after class was oh my god I need to bring my brother and boyfriend here, they would LOVE it. It’s a pretty awesome workout with a fun flair to it. Bonus points: The guys send a personalized email after class thanking you for coming. How’s that for customer service?

 

When’s the last time you took a new fitness class?