Trying Out Some New Things

QUICK POINTS

1. Trying out new fitness classes. 
2. A quick trip to Philadelphia.
3. Joining a new running group.

1. New Fitness classes

Last post, I mentioned that I wanted to try some new things regarding my fitness and take could different classes at Crunch Fitness. So, here goes. Last week, I went to "The Acrobat's Workout"

I will say that the instructors were nice but I did not really experience much of a workout in this class. I would consider this more of a yoga type class. Well, I think that this type of class would be called "acroyoga." We did a couple of fun things in the class. We did something that is called "table top" when you stack yourself on another person's shoulders and legs. 

Doing the move above, which was the last thing we did in this class, was not worth the time to get there. I mean we could have started out with that move and been done with class in about 15-20 minutes. 

In terms out my body's response to the workout, I spent only ONE minute in my cardio zone, according to my Fitbit. That minute probably was the minute that we spent doing cartwheels. I think that I spend more time in my cardio zone dissecting mice. 

So at the end of the day I probably will not return to this class unless I have some time to kill and all of the cardio machines in the gym are taken. Do not get me wrong, some people may enjoy these types of classes (which is why Crunch Fitness offers them), but I like to be efficient with my time when working out. 

Perhaps, the designers of this class could incorporate some cardio in between the acroyoga moves to make it more of a workout. 

2. "Motown Philly"

A little random "new" thing. I have never visited Philadelphia in all 14 years of living in New York City. This really is strange because Philadelphia is only about 1.5 hours by bus away from NYC. This past weekend I hopped on a 10-dollar Greyhound bus and headed to one of the oldest and historical cities in America. 

It was a pretty cool experience. Come one I visited the room where the U.S. essentially was "born," which was an AMAZING experience.  I wish that I could have stayed longer, but I had to run a race on Sunday. The city is so full of history that you cannot do it all in one trip. Aside from a little Airbnb drama, I will be going back soon. Maybe in June or July?

Oh, and I did not have a Philly cheese steak but I did have a cheese steak omelet after hanging out on Friday night. 

3. New Running Group

Also, I "joined" a new running group that combines running with the love of beer (or other drinks). The NYC Fun Run "tribe" (I believe that there are other similar groups in cities around the country) meet up once a week at a bar, run 4-5 miles, and reconvene a the same bar for a few drinks.

For this event, we met up at Session 73 and did a 4.71 isn mile, In and out run to/across the 59th Street Bridge and back to the bar.

It was a nice meet up but it was kind of tough to talk to people because at guy singing covers was performing and it was hard to hear. Plus, I was ready to go because I was sweaty and cold and the music really loud. We will see if I do another run, because the event would have to be in or somewhat close to the UES.

That's all from me. 

Man, I Feel Like an Athlete

In a previous post, I mentioned that I would be checking out some new spring classes that will be offered at my local Crunch Fitness.

I decided to try the Athlete's Workout class and I have to say that class was TOUGH. Buuuuuut, tough in a good way because I like to do more in my high intensity (HIIT) workouts. Plus, I like doing HIIT workouts because they add a little more excitement than the standard cardio and weight lifting exercise. The instructor, Leidy, has you constant moving, sweating, and try surpass mental blocks for 45 minutes. Plus, her music choices are very up tempo so your heart is going to be pumping hard to keep up with the musical beats. This total body workout was so intense that my butt, arms, shoulders, back, and chest are still burning today. The gym should defiantly extend this class for 15 minutes in order to have a nice hour fat-buring HIIT. 

Here are some stats, according to my Fitbit Surge. 

One cool thing about this class is that I rarely make it into my peak zone, unless I'm during sprints. According to Active.com heart rate calculator, 85% of my max heart rate is 157 beats per minute. So, next week I will try to spend more time in the peak and cardio zones.  Usually, this is not a huge problem for me, but my back has been bugging me for the past couple of days.  

That is it for me. I think The Acrobat's Workout will be the next new class that I will try out. Hopefully, I will not break my neck. 

NYC Half Marathon Training Run (???/45)

The East side gets no love.  

4 mi; 8'21'' min/mi; 146 ave bpm; 5, 149 steps; 428 calories.  

After class on Wednesday, I decided to do a quick run up the East River greenway into Harlem. What a  bad idea because the greenway is closed (once again) at 79 street, so my run became a back and forth run. I hate changing my running plans at the last minute.  

The route ... Sorta  

The rant 

This supposed greenway has been "in progress" since I moved to NYC -BACK in 2002!!!  The West side has its nice greenway with beautiful sights into New Jersey and various activities and parks. Where is ours (although I now live in Brooklyn, I will always be an east sider at heart)? I firgure by now, 2016, there would have been a continuous greenway that would go around the entire island of Manhattan. This probably happen in 3019, if the island of Manhattan is not underwater by that time. But, I guess you gotta make lemonade out of lemons. 

What a beautiful site, huh?

Roosevelt Island ( "the little apple in the big apple"), the East River and the Queensborough Bridge. Hey, you can see my old apartment building from here. 

This was a quick update because the mobile app did not save the previous draft, and I did not feel like rewriting the entire post.  

Cross Promotion

I really was not in the mood to do interval runs yesterday so I decided to check out this fairly new class at Crunch Firness - Accerlation Powered by Fitbit. 

Basically, the class is chopped full of cardio units or segments that focus on you taking as many "steps" as possible. I type "steps" because we all know that Fitbit  (Fitbit Surge, in my case) uses arm movements as steps, and the class has a lot of punching and jabs. 

Steps or "steps" aside, this class was pretty fun. The instructor totally was energetic and super engaging. Also, her music choices really suited the class. 

For most of the class, I stayed within my peak cardio range and my Fitbit Surge say that I took 2,513 "steps" during the class. It seems that 4,000 "steps" may be a bit of a stretch. 

 I guess my goal for next week is to beat 2,513. However, I think that my real goal will be to stay in my peak cardio range longer than 17-18 minutes. 

A critique or two

1. I think that the class may have too many people in it. I say this because there are a lot of jumping forward, skipping, shuffling side to side, and running back and forth movements, which can lead to potential collisions. These can happen when as person next to you does not have a lot of physical stamina and have to stop during an exercise like suicides. 
2. I do not really see too much of the cross promotion. Crunch fitness (at least the one on 59th Street) started selling Fitbit Charges a few month ago. However, most of the people in the class did not have fitbit (perhaps they are fancy and own apple watches) or any type of tracker. To me, it does not make sense to say the class is powered by Fitbit. I think if fitbit and Crunch fitness (to some extent) should have some type of incentive for people to attend this class and buy Fitbits. Perhaps, making specific online Fitbit community group for the class at one or multiple Crunch fitness locations would get more people involved. I know that I am somewhat competitive and like to benchmarch my fitness progress with myself and others, so one could see how well he/she stacks up with other Crunch Fitness members. Just a thought. 

Postworkout

Since I was already trying new things, I decided to eat a Muscle Making Grill instead of the healthy Mexican grill, which usually sscrews up my orders, that I normally go to after the gym. This place prides itself on low carb, low fat, and high protein food options. I ordered the Arizona, which had grilled chicken, some chipoltle like sauce, brown rice, chives and tomato. I wonder if Arizona tastes like the plate?