Revamp Your Workout

 

If you follow any of my Insta-Stories or Snaps you know that I bounce between Pilates and Rowing for my workouts. In high school I was on the rowing team and while I may be a shorty, I could row with the tallest of girls! This is still one of my favorite workouts and I promise to do a post soon on why you should be rowing as well! Thankfully, a few local rowing coaches opened up a strictly rowing gym, Live2Row, and I’ve been hooked ever since I googled ‘Rowing Gym that isn’t Orange Theory Fitness.”

I was diagnosed with “Unhappy Hamstrings” in high school due to my failure to stretch after running/rowing after school…those were the doctors words, not mine! Yoga helped with the stretching but in the end, I’m not a yogi. Too much silence and I was looking for more.  Thanks to Groupon I found The Fitness Studio of Orlando and jumped right in with three private Pilates sessions.

The minute I put my feet in the straps I was hooked. Honestly, Pilates has been so great for my muscles! Not only do I walk away with with an amazing, tough-ass work out, but there’s the added benefit of stretching and lengthening of the muscles. At barely 5’3, I’m looking for all of the lengthening I can get!

For me, bouncing back and forth between different exercises keep my workouts fresh and allows me to decide the best way for me to unwind after a day of work if I don’t do a Happy Hour with the ladies. If I have gone really hard one week with rowing, I love to add in Pilates and resistance training, something I don’t necessary get on a rowing machine.

A friend of mine recently moved back into town earlier this year and when he lived here we were workout buddies–always trying new classes at the gym. With him living in downtown Orlando and me in the ‘burbs’ I’m always willing to make the 20-ish mile trek to him as the eye candy is a bit better and there is so much more to do! (If you’re ever visiting Disney, take an afternoon to check out the other 90% of town!) As a workout fanatic, he belongs to TWO gyms and is my workout inspiration.

He shared with me that the Downtown Orlando YMCA was launching a new set of Les Mills group fitness classes and that your first class is free. This was music to my ears and the class we ended up selecting, Body Combat, was at 11 a.m. Which is a perfect start time for those looking to get in a few extra zzz’s on a Saturday morning.

I won’t bore you with how I fumbled on some of the steps and how I most certainly did not slay it but we had a great time and burned a TON of calories. Seriously, by noon we realized we could free for all on our calories for the rest of the day and still come out winning! We decided to go to a local vegan restaurant, The Sanctum Cafe, and ate some of the most delicious food ever. The Poke Crostini, The Nitro coffee–it’s all SO good. I will crave this every day, I can feel it.

While catching up, trading bites and discussing our workout my friend mentioned that there was another gym in town offering free classes the following week as they were doing a new launch of classes as well. He invited me to join him, but this time for a potential Body Pump session. Lord knows, kick boxing may not be my strong suit!

Driving home I started to wonder, can I add a 3rd option of workouts to my regime of strictly free-ish classes? How many places in town are offering up this kind of deal and how can I take advantage of this? If you are also looking for new ways to switch it up, I highly suggest checking out your local YMCA to start. From there, see what gyms and classes are around you. You can generally get a free class on your first go at Pure Barre, The Bar Method and more. Warning: You will walk funny for a few days after. Barre is NO joke. And if you live in Orlando and want to join me for a row, Live2Row Studios offers new students TWO WEEKS free. You MUST take advantage of an amazing deal like that!

Tell me, what’s your work out go-to? What do you do to mix it up? Think you are more coordinated than me at Body Combat? Alright, I’m off to text my buddy and making him join my search of as many free classes in town as possible!

Happy exercising, Revampers!