Well Equinox, It’s Been Swell

Oh Equinox, I will miss you so. The luxuries, the lovely refrigerated towels post workout, spacious locker rooms, roomy lockers,  intense classes, and surprisingly friendly customers.

Sunday I went back for another “Zen Combat” experience.

Violet Zaki: terrifying, hardcore, hilarious and awesome

The first time around I was a bit terrified, but the second time it was simply an awesome sweat fest. We did the same combination from last time, however I did not find it boring. There were still troubling spots where my brain glitched and couldn’t remember what was next, it still made me sweat buckets, and it still focused me unlike any other class I have taken.

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Today [Monday] was the final day of my trial membership at Equinox

I started out the day bright and early with PureStrength! taught by Mark Hendricks. The class was a strength and toning based class, but unlike any other I have ever taken. It involved a lot of stretching and using body weight mixed with typical dumbbell exercises and a splash of yoga. It was quite intense for 7:30 in the morning, and while grueling, it was an awesome workout. My legs are currently a tad bit like jelly, and I’m lovin’ in. I continue to be impressed with the unique workouts at Equinox. I really wish I could afford the gym and that it was a tad bit closer to NYU-Land

After sweating it out in Pure Strength I treated myself to a muffin from the cafe followed by Zumba taught by Cindya Davis. Yes, I consider zumba the treat for surviving a scary class. Cindya was a great zumba teacher, keeping the class moving and sweating for the full 60 minutes, but it was not my favorite zumba class. I personally enjoy a mixture of “zumba” songs and popular music from the radio. I also get a more intense workout when the moves are super simple but use a lot of energy. These dance moves were a bit too complex for my liking, despite the fact that I have years of experience dancing. I felt the class lacked structure — there is usually an intense build up, a brief cool down and then another build up. All in all though, I always enjoy a good zumba class, and was happy I decided to attend both classes bright and early this morning.

I finally took at shower at Equinox and was won over by the Kiehls products. I generally hate showering at the gym– I have yet to at crunch union square, and was disturbed by my experience of taking a very public shower at crunch Lafayette and drying myself off with towels that barely covered my butt (I am only 5’2″ and slender, I can’t imagine how anyone remotely taller than me can cover any skin with those towels). Equinox’s showers however offered privacy– a small personal changing area in front of the shower, adequately sized towels, and amazing water pressure. There is nothing like a good shower after sweating for 2 hours.

Leaving Equinox I stopped nearby at “Soy Cafe” to pick up a salad for later in the day. My salad– the autumn one with spinach, goat cheese, apples, grapes and walnuts topped with balsamic vinaigrette was SO GOOD. Seriously, everyone sitting next to me while I was eating it at school was jealous of this awesome salad. It is a good thing I don’t live nearby the Soy Cafe, or I’d be spending all my money there. I seriously need to find a place nearby me in the Village that makes a delicious spinach salad.

 

As I walked from the West Village to my class in NYU-Land, I couldn’t help but feel so content and energized. I never ever ever ever thought I would be that kind of person who would work out first thing in the morning, but the more I do it the more hooked I am. It leaves me so ready to conquer the day and I feel like I already accomplished something that early in the morning. I still despise hearing that alarm at 6:15AM and consider hitting snooze, but I find myself more and more addicted to my morning endorphins. I am currently in tech for my show, which means I spend from 7-11pm in the theater, what is usually prime work out time for old Kayla. Old Kayla wouldn’t get to exercise during tech week, and therefore would be a sad Kayla. New Kayla however will get to work out at the gym every day except Friday. So while waking up early sucks in theory, it rocks in actuality. WHO AM I? and what happened to nocturnal kayla?

Equinox Day 3: Drinking the Kool-Aid at Inten-Sati

Today was the day I suddenly thought “wow, I’m hooked”. Perhaps I have gym ADD, and  perhaps I am obsessed with all the pretty things Equinox has to offer, but really I have fallen in love with these three classes I have taken there and what they have made me realize about exercise

Day Three I attended Patricia Moreno’s class “inten-sati”. Online the description reads

IntenSati is a revolutionary workout fusing high-energy aerobics, martial arts, dance, yoga, and strength conditioning. Combining spoken affirmations with simple choreography, IntenSati provides a heart-pumping, exhilarating workout that builds physical, mental, and spiritual muscle.

After google searching reviews about the class I came in open minded and ready to drink the affirmation kool-aid.

The class is a series of movements and simple choreography that are performed while saying affirmations. It sounds very cult-ish and religious, but I must say it is truly empowering. The sweat is dripping, I am punching and telling myself that “I AM STRONG”, performing moves with titles like “carefree”, high fiving those around me after a job well done, and feeling the most centered I have in while.

Really, the class was awesome, and I’m usually skeptical about, well, everything. There was something pure about the affirmations, something in them that everyone can grasp on to, young and old, student and professional. It was fitting for where I am today, at 21 and having daily freak outs about life beyond college, and I’m sure it is just as powerful as people in their 50’s dealing with a whole other set of stresses. Marrying these positive affirmations with intense body movements? wow. It sounds hokey and fake, but wow. It sticks with you like a catchy song.

After class, as I walked home sipping a perfectly made starbucks chai in this beautiful unseasonably warm weather, I couldn’t help but feel so freaken happy. For everything. To feel a peace with myself and this sense of “everything will be okay, whatever happens”.

What’s the biggest difference I’ve noticed these three days at equinox? MIND BODY CONNECTION. Each class has married the mind and the body in order to get a complete workout both physically and mentally.

This week has been about focus when I’m working out. How to not think about dinner or my to-do list or how much homework I need to do. To truly take what this class is offering me. At inten-sati I felt I could push myself harder, that there was more in me, and I once again felt invincible.

I came home, showered, and got dressed up for class for the first time in awhile. recently i’ve ditched my signature style of cute dresses and perfectly matching accessories out of laziness and feeling I am not trying to impress anyone, why bother. But today I thought “do it for yourself. wear the cute dress with the fun tights and the awesome earrings for you.”

Since last June I have focused a lot on happiness, first reading “The Happiness Project”, then experiencing the most happy summer and basically period of my life, and trying to keep the essence of that going during the school year. Right now I am taking “the science of happiness” at NYU. So much of my happiness came from living in the moment. During the summer I was able to just “be” and enjoy each moment as it came. Today I was reminded of that as I sweated my butt off.

Equinox Day 2: Me, Zen? Pshhhhhh

Day 2 of my free week at the fancy Equinox on Greenwich Avenue.

Yes, obviously a hunky guy makes me want to work out

Tonight at Equinox I took “Zen Combat” with Violet Zaki.

I had no idea what the expect except what my new fitness friend from the other night told me and what I read online

“Created by Black Belt & Fitness Celebrity Violet Zaki, this electric fusion class will kick your cardio fitness to the next level while defining and shaping your body Basic martial arts techniques and strength moves that challenge balance and agility. A serious calorie burn, Zaki-Style.”

 Um, okay. I was unsure what “zen” in the title meant. After my 30 minutes of yoga-ish activity yesterday, and my usual Wednesday morning crack of dawn yoga class at Crunch, I was praying that Zen had nothing to do with yoga for the sake of my poor, tired, arms.

The 60 minute class was like kickboxing on crack– 60 minutes of intense, sweat inducing cardio. We learned a martial arts combination ( I liked to pretend it was dance choreography and still counted it in 8’s in my head), that built throughout class. It took a shocking amount of mind power to memorize and repeat this combination over and over again while praying I didn’t fall over or kick the person next to me.

So what is Zen? And did I experience it in this class?

thats could totes be me being "zen". she has red hair too

Googling searching “zen” I come across this defintion via Urban Dictionary

One way to think of zen is this: a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It also is a state of mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts.

 Total Focus and togetherness of body and mind. This is something I definitely struggle with– my mind is going a million miles an hour ticking off to do lists, reviewing songs that I’m supposed to have memorized for the day, planning what I’m eating for lunch and dinner, planning what I’m going to wear for the next week… Seriously, this is what I think about when I am supposed to be concentrating in class, or say at yoga.

At yoga I try oh so hard to focus. Look at that groove in the floor Kayla, stare at it, and think of nothing else except that and the breathe….. this lasts a millisecond before my mind is thinking “I really should make pasta for dinner in 12 hours”.

Zen Combat was a totally different story though. The choreography (or martial arts based movement sequence….) was super intense and required a lot of focus. You had to remember everything start to finish and be hyper aware of those around you. When it comes to dancing I usually have enough of a muscle memory from learning that dance that I just kinda do it and concentrate on the whole picture I am creating and how to act the emotion of the dance. At Zen Combat I was so clueless about the vocabulary that I had to think myself through each run of the combination “Okay Kayla, shoulder, knee, lunge, kick, lunge, punch right left uppercut, back kick, crescent kick, pivot pivot…..” etc.

I had to do this EACH TIME we went through the combination. That is definitely over 50 times I had to tell myself every single move in order to make my body do it in time with the other sweaters. When I got distracted by thoughts of dinner or my to-do list was when I messed up the moves. When I thought about each move as it was coming I could nail the combination each time. Zen? finally giving my mind a break from creating to-do lists and planning out every meal I will consume and every outfit I will wear?

I loved loved loved the class, from the sweat pouring off my entire body, to the amount of brain power it took, it was a fantastic full body work out. The music was pumping and never ending and Violet is awesome, encouraging, terrifying and fierce all packed into one tiny fit body. She reminded us that beginners should not be discouraged, which I really appreciated.

I had to will myself to leave the group fitness studio and not stay for the next class. Kayla, you have homework to do, laundry to wash, and you already sweated for 3 1/2 hours today. enough.

My thoughts on Equinox thus far? You do get what you paid for, you get top rate fitness gurus, icy cold towels waiting for you in a refrigerator, a clean locker room with plenty of lockers and yummy smelling soap. Oh how I am won over  by the classiness of a gym.

If I can walk tomorrow the game plan is to attend Inten-sati before school.

How The Other Half Sweats: Day 1 at Equinox

For the next week I will rock my finest lululemon outfits, enjoy plush towels, use kiehls products and try out every group fitness class my poor body can handle.

DAY 1: Exploring and Inner Warrior

Last week I snuck a peak at the Greenwich Avenue Equinox during my job interview. I was intrigued by the cleanliness of the gym and how spacious it was.

Today I took the time to explore the club and see what it has to offer and what you get when you spend double what I do every month for Crunch. I’ve done my fair share of gym hopping– starting at David Barton on Astor Place, spent the summer at NYSC in the suburbs, joined Crunch in the city for senior year, and Club Fit in the suburbs for winter break. Each fitness club has had its strength and weakness along with varying prices for membership.

It is easy to be wowed by experience at Equinox. I walk into the locker room and am amazed by how huge and spacious it is– lots of free lockers! It was nice to be able to quickly find a locker. I was amazed by the products in the bathroom– fancy soap, moisturizer and razors. Everything was also super clean everywhere I went.

I attended Nadia Zaki’s class “Inner Warrior“. The first 30 minutes was a yoga inspired sequence that moves quickly but really tests strength. Lots of chaturangas, warriors and other things I am now more familiar with after taking lots of yoga classes. About halfway through the yoga portion my shoulders were burning– I was regretting attending this class after I had lifted weights early in the morning. It was an incredible test of upper body strength while also trying to stay balanced and focused.

The second 30 minutes featured a martial arts inspired movement sequence. Taught like dance choreography, we learned the sequence piece by piece and built on it until the end of class. I’ve been craving martial arts recently– I took karate for 4 years growing up but quit because I disliked sparring (fighting) and wasn’t allowed to only focus on the katas (movement sequences). This class was perfect to satisfy that karate craving. I loved doing the sequence at the end– it was a fusion of my love for karate and dance.

By the end of the class I was drenched in sweat and had made a new friend who gave me a recommendation for what class I should take tomorrow.

Stay tuned for the rest of my week sweating with the 1% at Equinox