Back when I was blogging on a regular basis, I would set goals for myself at the beginning of every month. Looking back on my posts now, I had one similar goal every single month – to add more strength training into my exercise routine! For example, when I was setting my goals for August of 2011, I wrote:

Obsession, addiction….call it what you want but I just love intenSati so much! The only problem with this? I’ve really been lacking in my weight training and strength routine. I used to go to a strength class about three times a week. Lately, I’ve been going to maybe one strength class a week. I believe weight training is more important than cardio since it burns calories all day long after working out instead of just during that one hour of intense cardio. I see more results when I strength train and also feel stronger and more fit. 

I feel the exact same way five months later! I have a problem skipping intenSati for strength training so I end up not doing it at all.  Now that it is the start of 2012, I’ve decided to set the same goal for myself again. This time, I will go to a class called Refine Method at least twice a week. I will add a third strength class at Equinox such as 30/60/90 or Deep Extreme (both taught by intenSati instructors!) Let’s discuss Refine Method a bit more.

Back in September of 2010, I attended the Refine Method Launch Party. Dori is close friends with the founder, Brynn Jinnett,  so I tagged along to see the studio and learn more about the class.

Me, Brynn, and Dori...in 2010!

I took the class back then and loved it but got lazy and stopped going just because it was not convenient for me. I tend to only go to classes that are close to my work because I already spend long enough on the subway as it is. The studio is about a 40 minute commute from my work as well as from my apartment. I did not go for a whole year because of this which is pretty ridiculous considering how great of a workout it is. Luckily, I have Refine-obsessed friends that invited me to come to class last week during my vacation. Thank you Dori and Cameo. I had no plans or work for 12 days straight so I happily agreed to commute to the city to do Refine with friends! I am now hooked all over again and think the class is worth a little bit of extra time on the subway! But wait! I just got amazing news about ten minutes ago!

Refine is opening a second location in Union Square this Spring! 

This is perfect for me because I go to Equinox in Union Square almost every day and I can even walk there from work! Yes!

More About Refine (from the website):

Refine is a boutique fitness studio on the Upper East Side where small group classes are trained in our signature Refine Method. The Refine Method features a seamless circuit-style technique called Metabolic Resistance Training, utilizing our exclusive Refine equipment system. Our goal is to unite exercise science with the aesthetic objectives of our clientele.

Benefit from Cardio and Resistance Training Together: Through resistance training, we produce a cardio burn while building metabolically-active lean muscle, the antidote to traditional repetitive cardio and the most efficient way to change your shape.

I love that the class combines both strength and cardio into one hour. After a typical Core Fusion class, I still feel like I need cardio because I barely sweat. This is not the case at all with Refine! I am drenched after every class since it is very fast-paced and combines cardio intervals with challenging, full body strength moves. The class starts off with push ups and planks and is followed by three circuits which include strength moves using the pulley system as well as kettle bells. In between the strength exercises, there are fast cardio exercises such as sprints, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, etc. I went to class last night and we did squats, lunges, and more squats all while doing challenging arm exercises with the pulleys. Let’s just say I can barely walk today!  The instructors are amazing and not one class is ever the same. I know exactly why Refine was named New York Magazine’s Best New Workout of 2011.

The first class is free so I highly suggest trying it out for yourself! For more information and class schedules, visit http://refinemethod.com. 

I am very confident that if I stick with my goal and go to Refine two or three times a week, I will see results and will be in the best shape of my life.

Do you prefer boutique studio classes or a gym?

Related posts:

1. Refine Studio Launch Party and Margaritas!
2. Exercise Update
3. The Bar Method

I used to take spin class at least three times a week when I was a member of New York Sports Club. I took it more than any other class because I knew that it burned the most calories.  While I did feel great afterwards, it kind of felt like torture during the class! I stopped suffering through spin once I discovered intenSati. When I first tried intenSati, I finally realized what it was like to have a great time in a gym class. I now feel more powerful and positive as a result of the practice, and happen to burn the same, if not more calories in class than I do in spin. I’ve tried taking spin a few times at Equinox but always find myself staring at the clock and thinking very negative thoughts for the entire hour. I decided to give spin one more try last week after receiving an invitation to Flywheel Sports, a fancy spin studio in Flatiron. Holly Ringer, a spin instructor at FlyWheel, sent me a very nice email that really got me excited about trying her class.

Missy, I enjoy your blog and especially enjoy your motivational and optimistic spirit!  I have been using my life’s journey to help inspire and motivate people to acheive their fitness goals.  I am currently a spin instructor, personal traininer and group fitness instructor based in Manhattan.  I would love to invite you as my guest to one of my spin classes at Flywheel.

I tried a class at Flywheel last May and really loved the studio but was not a huge fan of the class. I had a feeling that I would enjoy Holly’s class this time around since she seemed very positive and inspirational just from the emails we had been exchanging. I walked into Flywheel on a Wednesday night and saw my coworker sitting in the waiting room. It was great to see a familiar face; and it made me feel even better when she assured me that Holly was the best instructor at Flywheel! I walked up to the desk and told the receptionist my name and that I was on the guest list. I definitely felt special when she said, “Oh, you are Holly’s guest!” She told me my bike number and gave me a pair of spin shoes to wear. She also invited me to a free apple or banana from the fruit bowl and showed me wear to pick up my complimentary bottle of water before the class. I felt very welcomed and of course, very excited about the free food and drinks!

One of my favorite things about Flywheel is the cool stadium seating.

Every bike is a good spot in class but I did find it nice that they placed me in the center of the room, in the second row. Holly came up to me before class, introduced herself to me, and helped me position my bike correctly. She explained the torque system to me as well:

Flywheel has a TorqBoard technology package that allows you to see your rpms, torque, and total power expended while you ride. There are also big screens in the studio where you can see your stats in comparison with other riders.

Holly had so much energy from the beginning of class to the very end. She was very inspiring and kept saying familiar affirmations that really motivated me to work as hard as I possibly could. She played really great music which is very important to me during a spin class. I loved that she did not just sit on her bike the entire class while giving us directions. Instead, she danced around the room, helped us with our posture, and yelled fun things like, “Yes! Let’s do it Wednesday night!” I could tell that she really had a passion for spin and fitness and loved every minute of teaching the class.

Photo Credit

I never felt the urge to look at a clock and the 45 minutes flew by! I loved that halfway through the class, we were instructed to pick up mini body bars for some arm exercises.

The bars seemed light but my arms were burning after doing several repetitions of the exercises. This was a great way to break up the class and made me feel one step closer to getting amazing arm muscles like Holly’s!! I felt great after the class and really worked up a sweat! I was excited that I actually liked a spin class again.

After the class, Holly and her assistant took some time to talk to me about the blog. They were both really sweet and invited me to come back again soon. I highly recommend trying Holly’s class if you ever take spin at Flywheel. Her positivity and encouragement made the class very enjoyable and fun. Holly teaches at Flywheel on Monday and Tuesday mornings at 9:30am and on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm. Check out HollyRingerFitness for details on her bootcamp and personal training packages!

Are you a fan of spin class? How often do you take it?

Related posts:

1. Flywheel Spin Studio
2. The Bar Method-Round 2!
3. Spin for Charity Event!

Wow, less than one week left in March! One of my goals for the month was to take four to five classes at The Body. I purchased a Groupon for a month of unlimited classes there and it expired yesterday! I will admit that I did not go five times a week because there are certain intenSati classes that I refuse to miss! I did go as much as my schedule would allow and would like to share my overall thoughts about the class and the studio.

The Body is described on the website as a 55 minute High Energy class consisting of a sequence of exercises at the Ballet Barre to transform Your Body to The Body.

The Body class begins with a warm up consisting of upper body strengthening with free weights, push ups, planks, and tricep dips to strengthen and tone all muscles of the upper body to Sculpt the Arms.
The class then moves to the Ballet Barre and by using your own body weight you will move through a sequence of exercises for an intense workout of your thighs, hips and gluts to create Long Lean Thighs, and A Tight Butt.
This is followed by an extensive core workout to give you Rock Hard Abs. The class ends with back dancing and stretching exercises to Lengthen The Body.
Throughout the class you will be motivated with fun, energizing music.

I was very excited to try this class again since I had not taken it since 2009 (with my mom who was wearing leopard pants). I am pretty in love with any barre method style class but unfortunately my wallet is not so in love with the price of these classes. Normally a month at The Body is $300 but the Groupon was only $99. I do think I got my money’s worth and would like to share the positives and negatives about my experience.

Postives

• The class itself was very challenging and an amazing workout! I was taking intenSati almost every day and started to miss the great feeling of strength training. I left every class at The Body not being able to walk up the subway stairs! I love when my thighs shake to the point where I want to cry!
• Every class was different from the next. Every teacher was extremely different and I never knew what to expect going into each class. We always did different variations of planks, pushups, gluteal and abdominal exercises. The class never got boring or predictable.
• Location. The studio is at Lexington and 62nd which is as close as I am going to get to Queens while still being in Manhattan. It is also right next to the F train. A studio must be right near the subway station or else I probably won’t go.

• Class size. The classes always contained about 3 to 5 students. I’m not sure if this is because of all the competition out there but it was nice for individualized attention (although I was craving more). The studio is pretty small so there was always plenty of room. When I went two years ago, the class was extremely crowded and there was no room to move.
• Abs. I have to throw this one in here. One of my favorite things about this class was that we never had to do  C curve to work our abs!! I love Core Fusion but I dread the  C curve at the end of every class. I just can’t get low enough and it bothers my back. The only time we did  C curve at The Body was once a week with one specific teacher. I will get into that later.

Negatives

• Price. As I mentioned before, a month of unlimited classes there is $300 a month. A single class is $33.00. Honestly, I have no idea where they get off charging this much. They only have one location, one type of class, and not enough class times. If I am going to spend $300, I will join Exhale Spa where I can take Core Fusion, Yoga, Core Fusion Cardio, etc….at any time of day, at several different locations!
• Class schedule. There were only two classes early in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. I would have liked a few afternoon classes. I also would have liked to go on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before work but there were no classes before 9am. If I am going to spend $300, I want to have access to fitness classes at any time of day!
• Variety of classes. There were only three types of classes on the schedule: Beginner/Open, Open, and Open/Advanced. I tried Open and Open/Advanced and could not tell the difference between the two. The website lists a few other classes such as BODY Stretch, BODY Teen, and Belly to the Barre Prenatal Series. I obviously don’t need the second two but I would have loved to take BODY Stretch. I am wondering why they don’t offer that class anymore.
• Personal attention. For a 3 to 5 person class, I did not get corrected nearly enough. Most of the instructors did the exercises in the front of the studio while we followed. I knew during some of the exercises that my form was not completely correct but I never knew how to fix it. I guess I am used to Core Fusion where the instructors walk around the entire time and help the students with the proper form and alignment.  The instructors at The Body also did not seem nearly as knowledgeable as those at Exhale. I really like to hear each moved explained to me but this did not always happen at The Body.
• Lack of equipment. I noticed that they only have about 5 or 6 playground balls there. There were a few occasions when there were more than 6 students so that meant we automatically could not use a playground ball in class that day. They also did not have 4 pound weights. I always used 3 and 5 pounds for arms but it would have been nice to have the option to use 4 pound weights.
• No receptionist. There used to be a receptionist back in 2009 so I’m not sure what happened. There were a number of issues with this one. First, I tried calling the studio for about a week to redeem my Groupon and no one ever picked up. I had to physically walk into the studio, unsure if the class that day would be full or not. Second, the instructor of the class acted as the receptionist. Every time someone from the next class buzzed in from outside, she had to leave our class to open the door. This usually occurred during stretching at the end. It is not very zen to hear a buzzing and have your instructor leave class in the middle of explaining the stretches! I also learned not to arrive at the studio more than 15 minutes before the class time. The instructors do not arrive early so I was left waiting outside a few times. One day, it was pouring rain and my class was supposed to start at 6:30pm. There were 4 of us locked out until about 6:29pm! This meant that we had to rush to change and also lost a few minutes of class. On weekends, I felt like I could not shower there because the teacher of the class would have to wait the extra 45 minutes for me to finish getting ready. I walked across the street to Equinox a few times and showered in their fancy locker rooms instead.

I have just a few more thoughts about my experience at The Body. I found it really interesting that a Core Fusion teacher from Exhale Spa worked at The Body as well. Her class was an exact Core Fusion class (the one night a week I did have to do the C curve) and she even wore her Exhale socks!! It seems like The Body might not be doing too well so you would think that they would do everything in their power not to promote their biggest competitor. I do think the classes at The Body were awesome but there are so many other factors that would make me not want to pay for a membership. I am happy I tried it out for a month and would definitely purchase another Groupon there. The studio has a lot of potential so I do hope they add more classes, and a receptionist one day!

You can try your first class at The Body for free! More details here!

Check out my first post on the NBC New York: From Couch Potato to Fitness Junkie

Related posts:

1. Core Fusion Challenge: The Results
2. Core Fusion Lean & Toned Review & Giveaway!
3. Fit in 5: Total Body Tone DVD Giveaway!

Happy Friday the 13th! I am excited to talk about my wonderful Core Fusion class from last night but first I will announce the Macaroni Grill Prize Pack winner!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random integers, generated with replacement:

33
Timestamp: 2010-08-13 15:10:14 UTC

33- Gina from The Candid RD!!

My favorite RD said, “Wow, these babies have WA TOO MUCH sodium! You know what I would do? I would just add more protein and/or veggies to the entree and only have a half of a serving at a time. It would still taste great! I would like to try the garlic shrimp scampi. Even though I can’t eat garlic,I would love to try it.”

Great idea! Let me know your address so I can ship out your pasta and serving dish!

Core Fusion

Last night Dori hosted a free Core Fusion class at Exhale Spa for 20 healthy living bloggers. Dori has seen some amazing results from going to class for the past 7 months and wanted to give the healthy blog community a chance to see what the class is all about. I was very excited to meet some new faces and to take the class with some of my favorite bloggers.

Some of us: Angela from A Healthy Fit, Rebecca, Ilana from HappyHealthyHottie, Me, Erica from Erica Miss America,  Erica from Making Good Choices, Dori from Dori’s Shiny Blog, and Maggie from Maggie Walks.

Most of the girls never took a live Core Fusion class before but everyone did really well! It was my first time taking Laurie’s class but it won’t be the last! She was hilarious and very challenging! I especially loved the extra long arms section!

A few pictures from class:

Thighs

Gluteals

Abs (that's me in the pink!)

More abs (ow!)

Round back

Dori and I are proud of this picture! It is tough holding your legs in the air like that! Extra props to Dori since she was not able to do this when she first started Core Fusion! It really does make you more flexible!

More round back!

Stretching feels oh so good!

The famous Core Fusion curl! Ouch!

Melissa Squared- both ready for drinks after an intense workout!

DRINK TIME!!

The class was really amazing. I am very sore today but it feels wonderful. Thank you to Dori for hosting the class and allowing everyone to see why Core Fusion is so great! I hope everyone I met last night comes back for more soon!

After class I went to Gobo with Dori and Melissa. Gobo is a vegetarian restaurant on the Upper East Side. We rewarded ourselves with 2 Lychee Saketinis (much needed!) Everything on the menu looked amazing! We decided to order a bunch of small plates and share everything.

We were served bread with sweet potato spread to start. Sorry about the dark lighting! The spread was amazing!

crispy spinach and soy cheese wontons

eggplant stuffed with herbed tofu cheese

vietnamese spring rolls with spicy honey dip

yam fries

spiced bean curd, red onion & pepper stir-fry

Every single dish was delicious! The drinks were great too so I would love to go back there!

I am excited for the weekend! Tonight I am going to a Phillies/Mets game, tomorrow I have Dori’s backyard party, and Sunday will most likely involve some sun and sangria! How about you?

Related posts:

1. Core Fusion Bootcamp Winner and December Goals!
2. Core Fusion Lean & Toned DVD Winners!
3. Blogger lunch at Sea Thai and New York Giveaway!

Fashion

I know most of us not only love food, but also fashion! I wanted to introduce you to my friend’s new business called Label Lovers Boutique. It is an online designer resale boutique selling upscale designer merchandise such as Prada, D&G, Burberry, Juice Couture etc. They also accept consignments; clean out your closets and turn your old clothes into cash!  You can follow Label Lovers Boutique on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to their blog for notifications of sales and new merchandise!  They have some really cute items so I encourage you to go check it out!

Fitness

I thought I’d share some of my exercise classes that I’ve been taking this week!

Monday: 6:30 am Intensati.  This was my first time taking a class with Darbi and I loved it! There were only 6 people there but we brought extra energy to the room and had more space to dance!

Core Fusion Cardio in the evening. This is always an intense and amazing class. Everyone needs to try it.

Tuesday: 6:30 am Cardio Kickboxing. This was fun but I don’t see myself waking up so early for it again. The entire 45 minutes was a Michael Jackson techno mix. It got pretty annoying by the end. We also had to do 20 push ups a few different times during the class. I can do a few normal push ups but not 20 in a row before my body is even warmed up. The instructor yelled at me for using my knees. I held a plank the next time around and still got yelled at. Blah. I should be allowed to modify a push up if I need to!!

R.I.P.P.E.D: This class was not till 7:45 am so next Tuesday I will sleep an extra hour and just go to this one! I loved this class!! We used 3 different sets of hand weights. We had to start out heavy and move on to our lighter set once we could not handle it anymore. We did 16 regular reps, then 16 pulses, then we held the position for 16 counts. There were also tons of squats and lunges in which we did the same type of combination. It felt great!

Wednesday: Zumba: I actually wanted to go to another strength class but I am going to Core Fusion tonight so decided on cardio instead. The Zumba teacher on Wednesdays is the same instructor that certified my mom so she’s been begging me to take her class ever since I joined Equinox. Of course the one day I go it is a sub! I decided last night that I don’t like Zumba too much. I am not a huge fan of the music. I would rather spend my hour taking intenSati since I love the music and since it is twice as intense! Maybe I would enjoy Zumba more if I knew the moves a little better. I don’t know. I only burned 200 calories in an hour and did not break any kind of sweat. I will give it another try once my mom’s teacher is back. Speaking of my mom, check out her new website: ZumbawithShelley.com. I made some of it but have to give most of the credit to Emily from TheBlogFairy for creating the cool header and background! Emily did my header twice and I loved it both times! I highly recommend her if you want a blog makeover! ! I have one more really exciting Zumba announcement but I am going to save that for another post!

Thursday: Dori is hosting a free Core Fusion class for her blog readers tonight! I can’t wait to meet everyone! Thanks Dori! 

Friday: 6:30 am intensati. Hopefully writing this a day in advance will motivate me to wake up tomorrow!

As you can probably tell, I am so happy I joined Equinox. I actually want to go to the gym TOO much! I want to try every single class but know my body can’t handle it! I also want more muscle so it is tempting to do a strength class every day. I think doing one every other day will work out for me!

Food

On days where I did not go to the gym in the morning, I made egg paninis!

They seriously take about 5 minutes to make in the morning. They fill me up for a while too.

Colorful lunch:

Salad with tuna, peppers, cauliflower, beets, guacamole, chick peas, broccoli, and mushrooms!

Of course I went to Friday’s one night for free drinks so I tried a new menu item!

Dragonfire Salmon: Norwegian Salom fillet fire-grilled and glazed with spicy Chinese Kung Pao sauce. Served over coconut jasmine rice with Mandarin oranges and broccoli.

This was actually really good for being Friday’s salmon! You were right Mari! I almost got a house salad to start until I read that it was 600 calories! Insane! Need those calories for my Cosmos!

Fun

I am choosing the winner of the Macaroni Grill Prize Pack tomorrow! Don’t forget to enter! Have a great day!

Related posts:

1. Weekend of Working Out!
2. Celebration!
3. Weekly Workout Roundup