30/60/90

30/60/90, created about two years ago by Kristi Molinari, is by far the best class I have ever taken from any gym. Althought this class is offered at many Equinox locations, I take it at the SoHo Equinox on Tuesdays at 6:30pm. "For those of you who haven't taken this class before; it's really hard," Kristi yells into the microphone. "If you need to take a break, do so, but just don't do it in the last 10-15 seconds each exercise). These last 10-15 seconds is when you get the anaerobic exercise and your body sees the results."

As the title suggests, the class is run on intervals of 30, 60 and 90 seconds. Kristi walks around the class with her stopwatch and makes sure everyone is using 100 percent of their energy. The items needed for the class include a step pad, hand weights and medicine ball...and a gallon of water and towels to soak up the excessive sweat.

She starts the class with a quick warm-up and then the class goes full force into the timed intervals. For the first two minutes we jumped up and down and back and forth on the back of the step pad, which began to work my quads and hamstrings—a variation of squats and lunges. Then each interval took us through pushups using the side of the step pad, jumping lunges with weights held above the head, side-to-side with weights held high, some arm exercises, dips on the pad and many other strenuous, torturous cardiovascular exercise (with weights). In between each cardio/weight jumping sequence was another weight exercise.

Now, I had done the wedge class the day before I took this class, so I was already kind of sore. The side-to-side lunges were almost painful for me and the entire breathing thing became hard. When the time came for us to do a 7-minute plank routine (plank is a yoga position where you get into a push-up position, but don't go down for the actual push-up). I almost died. Luckily, I am pretty good at plank and incorporate it into my daily routine; otherwise, I would have fallen on my face. Next was side plank where you hold your body up by one arm, on leg is on top of the other leg with feet flexed, giving you an oblique workout. Then we had to run in place while still in plank. I really wasn't joking about the 7 minutes.

Have you ever heard of a squat thrust? Well, it starts with a simple jump in the air, down into push-up position, push-up, then back to the jump. This is a pretty difficult thing to do for 90 seconds, so Kristi decided to bring a medicine ball into the mix, so instead of just a regular push-up, we had to balance on a medicine ball.

I have a love/hate relationship with this class and I highly recommend it.

SELF Workout in the Park

selfThe SELF Workout in the Park is an event I have wanted to attend for five years and on May 9th, I finally made it! Held in San Diego, Chicago and New York City. The NYC event took place in Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield where thousands of women come together for workouts by Crunch, beauty treatments and product samples. Registration began at 9am, but the events didn’t start until 11am. Since the $15 entrance fee was paid in advance, I stood on line waiting for a while. There was a choice of taking classes in three areas – the main stage (mixed classes), quiet zone (yoga), and Ford Rebounding Zone (cardio on a trampoline with weights). Since we (Nathalie, her sister and I) only wanted to stay at the main stage, we secured our spots right up front…also the yoga and urban rebounding required that you sign up.

I didn’t eat breakfast before, so I stopped by the EAS booth for a chocolate Myoplex drink and and energy bar. Other sponsor booths included Ford, Blue Diamond, Afrin® PureSea™, ASICS, American Laser Centers, Garnier, Jennie-O Turkey, lucy®, JELL-O, Pretty Elizabeth Arden, PureVia™, Smartfood, Reebok EasyTone, Maybelline and Veramyst.

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Classes we tried:

11:10 – 11:30am Strength and Alignment: Create a leaner, stronger, more flexible body using classic sculpting and stretching movements.

11:35 – 11:55 Latin Rhythms: Moves from the mambo, cha-cha, merengue and samba.

12:00 – 12:20 Rock Bottom: Intense lower body workout that targets butt and thigh muscles.

12:25 – 12:45 Cardio Tai Box: A cardiovascular workout with great music and simple choreography. (Because we were all so close together – everyone was kicking wet gook on each other’s backs – gross!)

12:50 – 1:10 Movieography: Break out your sweatbands for moves from the most dance-tastic movies of the 80s: Footloose, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing and more. (This wasn’t so much of a workout, but it was really fun!)

Classes we didn’t try:

Beach Body: Total body workout.

Steletto Strength: Calf boosting, posture-building, cat-walking diva class.

Million Dollar Knockout: Traditional boxing principles and training targeted for women.

Masala Bhangra: Traditional Indian dance workout set to hip-hop, disco, salsa, techno, house and rap music. (I was so sad I didn’t get to try this!)

After 5, 20-minute classes, we took a break to walk around and grab some goodies at the booths. I came home with a Ford scarf (everyone needs one of these suckers), some popcorn chips, some Garnier shampoo and a SELF magazine. We planned on trying Masala Bhangra, but it was hot out and we were tired...I will have to try it at Crunch in the future. If you are in any of these cities in 2010, you should definitely do the SELF workout in the park.

TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour

img000382 My 42 miles of adventure started at 7am when I met my team in TriBeCa. At 8am sharp, we were off!

With roughly 30,000 participates, the ride was pretty slow at first, but as we got closer to Central Park the gaps between people became greater. After Central Park, we went through Harlem (for about 10 blocks), then Brooklyn and finally, Queens. Along the way were rest stops stocked up with Pop chips, Bonita bananas, Larabars, Snapple energy drinks, water and other little snackies from the sponsors. We only stopped at one rest stop (#2) and I’m proud to say that in the span of 4 hours, I didn’t need to use the restroom once!

What a cool experience to have in NYC; we rode on streets, bridges, and highways, through parks, and should have gone on ferries (we didn’t make it to Staten Island due to the 3-hour wait when you return to the city). Not sure if you noticed or heard, but it was raining on Sunday and yes, I rode through it like a champ…sort of. The subway ride on the way back was a little painful and cold…very cold.

Did you know that this tour is the largest biking event in the United States!?! If you live in NYC (or not), this is an experience not to be missed. I was lucky to be recruited by a team of 18 that raised money for three great charities: Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA), United Veteran’s Beacon House (UVBH) and Generation Iraq. Overall the team had 228 donations for a total of $19,200!

Join me next year!

Arms with Tim @ Equinox Soho

My friend Nathalie invited me to a 4pm training session with her friend Tim Keleher (thesportingclub.co.uk), and I couldn't turn down the offer. I guess I really didn't know what I was getting into, but how can you pass up a free personal training session? Apparently he had found this new great arm routine, which he learned of in Sweden...I think by great, he meant torturous, but anyway, it's always good to mix it up. You're body gets used to certain workouts and you need to spice it up! We started out with negative dips and negative pull-ups. When did I last do a pull-up? My best guess is 4 years ago. After doing about 4 regular dips, from starting position, with arms straight, I had to lower my body down while Tim was counting from 3-10 seconds (different count for each of the 3 sets), then weighted chest dips with a belt around my waist (3 sets). The weighted dip is an excellent movement because it allows for the training of the chest and triceps together in a way that uses a greater mass of muscle from more muscle groups. Next were the pull-ups…so hard. Tim had to lift my legs a bit so I could pull myself up and then while he counted down from 6-12 seconds (3+ sets of different counts), I had to lower by body to the count. This was incredibly fatiguing but that is why it was exercise #1.

We moved on to push-ups and bicep curls on an angled bench. I thought that at least the push-ups would be easy for me, but NO – my body was already tired. I started out with push-ups (5-10 reps), then bicep curls on the bench with an 8-lb weight (12-15 reps) and finally bicep curls with a 20-pound bar (10-12 reps). I actually had to switch to a 5-lb weight for the bicep curls and a 10-lb body bar because I was shaking like crazy! We did 3 sets of each and it was tough to say the least. Next was tricep work: skull crushers (3 sets of 12) and tricep rope pushdowns (3 sets of 12-15: 1 set standing and 2 sets on the knees).

Dips

1. Stand at the dip station and grip each handle, with palms facing the body. 2. With arms nearly straight, lift legs off the floor or platform and lean forward slightly without dropping your head. 3. Slowly lower your body until your upper arms are parallel to the floor. 4. Push yourself back up until your arms are almost straight. 5. Repeat, lowering and raising yourself until exhaustion.

Skull Crushers

1. Lie on the floor or a bench and hold a light-medium barbell with the hands close together, about shoulder-width apart. 2. Extend the arms straight up over the chest, palms face out and thumbs wrapped around so that they're next to the fingers. 3. Bend the elbows and lower the weight down to a few inches above the forehead or until the elbows at about 90-degree angles. 4. Squeeze the triceps to straight the arms without locking the joints.

Rope Pushdown

1. Attach a rope to the top portion of a cable machine. 2. Grab the rope with your palms facing towards each other and position the rope at about chest level. 3. Slowly lower the rope downward, making sure to keep your elbows in while extending your arms and have a slight bend in your arms when you reach the bottom of the movement. 4. While keeping your elbows in slowly let the rope come back up to the starting position.

This concluded the workout (roughly an hour and a half). While my blood sugar was high, I inhaled a smoothie with strawberry, banana and soy milk. Every responsible source in bodybuilding and athletics recommend that you eat preferably within 45 minutes (maybe up to 60) after a workout. Known as the “golden hour,” this is when the muscles absorb the most nutrients and when glycogen, an energy reserve in your muscles, is replaced most efficiently.

This workout was on Saturday and today (Monday), I can barely straighten my arms, lift my purse or basically do anything other than type with my fingers. I recommend this workout to anyone who wants to see major results and feel the pain. Yay! Thanks, Tim and Nathalie.

Blueprint Cleanse: Day 3

After going to bed after midnight on Friday night, I ended up waking up on Saturday at around 11am and I was STARVING! I had an acupuncture facial at 12:30, so I gulped down my first juice and brought my second one for the road. It was 82 degrees out, so I decided to ride my bike from West Houston to East 56th Street -- about 5 miles round trip! The last real workout I had was on Thursday, the first morning of the cleanse, so when I was going up the slight hill in Midtown, it was a bit hard on the legs. After my facial, which was amazing (post to come), I was feeling a bit fatigued, but still had good energy! I have to admit that I'm a little sore from the ride. :P green-juiceBecause it was so nice outside, I was out and about all day, thus, not consuming enough water. At around 7pm, I went with a friend to Carerra, one of my favorite wine bars, and tortured myself while she indulged in some vino. As I was sitting there, I started to get really light headed and realized that I needed my last juice and lots of water. I rushed home to get my juice and then I went with her to Pepe Rosso, where I then watched her eat a delicious looking pasta dish. What was I thinking?! I guess it was a good test for me.

After dinner I had some tea with peppermint to calm down my body and then I went to bed early to finish off the cleanse. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the Blueprint Cleanse and I would recommend the 3-day cleanse to anyone who wants to give their digestive system a rest. Next time, I'm gonna go for the 5-day. Right now, I'm enjoying my first real meal: oatmeal.

Blueprint Cleanse: Day 2

Today was much less painful than I had anticipated and the juices gave me lots of energy -- I think tomorrow is going to be a breeze. The only hard part of this cleanse is that NYC is finally warm (82 degrees tomorrow), so the whole not eating/drinking thing is going to be a challenge for me with such fine conditions. The same as yesterday, my meals today consisted of 6 juices: Pineapple / Apple / Mint, Green Juice, Spicy lemonade, Green Juice, and Cashew Nut Milk. Yesterday I wasn't so much a fan of the last juice, but today I found it to be quite nice and filling. Compared with the usual detox I do (grains, fruits, & veggies), this cleanse has been great -- I'm just hoping that tomorrow doesn't surprise me with intense hunger...until then, I remain a happy juicer. Thank you, Blueprint!