On the Saturday of Memorial Weekend, I tried out Orangetheory Fitness Los Angeles for the first time. It is located in an office building on San Vicente Blvd, where they offer free valet parking for OTFLA members.
Once I entered the Orangetheory Fitness studio, I was amazed by all of the high-tech equipment, the weight room & overall look! Here is a picture of the lobby where they have cool looking merchandise on display. I can’t wait to get one of those tanks that says “Base-Push-All Out-Repeats.” These phrases are repeated during the course of an Orangetheory Fitness session.
There are complimentary lockers for you to store your gear inside. Once I stashed my gym bag inside, signed the release forms & got my heart monitor strapped to my chest – it was time to begin!
The group is split into two teams. One group goes to the treadmills, while the other group gets warmed up on the water rowers. I started with the row machine, which I had never used before. I enjoyed this part of the workout! The important thing that I had to remember was to push out hard with my legs, than the arm work is somewhat secondary. It all works together in tandem, but the legwork is very important.
After warming up on the rower, my group went over to the weight room to do some planks, arm weight exercises & what not. The weight section is within viewing distance to the runners, so I would glance over to see what they were doing (in anticipation of what was to come). We also did some weight-resistance work with straps that was very similar to what I do in my TRX classes at my local Y. Loved it!
The part that I found really cool is that the heart rate monitor that you wear, beams info onto a flat screen TV so that no matter where you are in the exercise studio, you can check your heart rate & see if you are in the green or orange zones. Those are the zones that you want to “live” in.
Half-way through the session, the teams trade spots & then it was time for my group to run on the treadmill. I was hesitant to go all out since I have had foot issues in the past. However I modified it by not jacking up the incline too much. I was still able to jog/run throughout the session & get my heart going into the orange zone.
After the treadmill portion was done, the entire group went to the center of the floor to do cool down stretching. Then our instructors talked about the stats on the screen.
I was really impressed with the entire workout. I’ve done two sessions so far & will do a third session this Thursday. What I thought was a VERY nice touch is that after your session, you are sent a training report via email. Here’s what mine looked like:
Cool, right?! I can’t say enough about Orangetheory Fitness! I love this type of circuit training, the way the instructors really push you to go all out & the data that is given throughout the session as well as afterwards. So awesome! I sure hope they open one up in the Valley soon!
Disclosure: No compensation was received for this post. I attended free community sessions that were open to the public. All opinions are 100% my own.
This gym looks fancy but I can tell they make you work your butt off! I’ve never done circuit training in groups probably because I don’t want to hold up the group. This one looks like you all do the exercises at the same time.
I’m curious, do you bring your own heart rate monitor or they give you a brand new one every visit?
– Karen
http://www.MrsLookingGood.com
Hi Karen! They give you the heart rate monitor when you check in (cleaned after every use). The Studio Mgr said that a lot of members buy their own so they can put it on at home before arrival.
This looks like a great workout! I really need to get back to the gym!
This looks like a great workout–plus being able to see how much you’re actually working your body! I’d be curious to know what their rates are; plus if they’re planning on expanding, since I won’t be heading that far west to work out.
I really enjoyed this article! It made me itching to go to the gym and do some TRX training or some Bag class. I’m so excited that my son is almost old enough for me to go work out consistently again. 🙂 Thank you for writing this! It’s good motivation!
Thanks for checking out my blog post. Good luck with your fitness goals!