Finding a gym doesn’t seem like a hard thing to do. But when you move somewhere new and you need to work out to prevent anxiety, the gym is like a community center. This is my hunt to find my swolemate-gym/the perfect fit.
Mostly doing FREE classes or New student deals.I’m trying to get what I need for the right price. If it’s real, I can make a way to make it work. You never know where your next true love might be!
partner in crime, swolemate, my mama
1) Come on people now, smile on me brother…
Before I moved back here from L.A., my mom and I had a great yoga/hiking habit. We started going to this yoga studio 4 years ago, it’s like going to temple. Love the core community. I actually tried that place on a free week deal after a summer of 3-4 new member deals…
I moved here and went to a studio I visited once during college.. went there for a while, did work trade (Free) so, I started going less and less. I moved farther away, or maybe I wasn’t getting enough of a workout or whatever… So I started a summer job that had fitness center perks…. I went to some classes for the two weeks of prep before 12 weeks of camp… they were awesome and reminded me how good a hard work out is!
2) These are all my women. If you ask them, they’ll tell you they’re mine…
I continued to work out at the gym and in classes until I joined a crazy cult gym. The cult gym made me love working out, and made me want to do it more than anything else. It lit my fire, lost me a few pants sizes and 10 pounds. I gained clarity there, so much that I could see straight through their diamond encrusted veil. At $99/mo, with my start through a “groupon” (the deal they would give you for your first month if you signed up that moment) for unlimited classes, short nutrition counselings, and a group of women feeling equally inadequate in comparison to the top trainer…. They would always complement you, tell you exactly where you’re showing progress, or if you’re wearing fierce make up, or if they have a new louisV.
it’s all about what it looks like, but at the same time not at all.
In other news, I got a lot of my friends hooked on this place and then I left, which feels awful, and they’ve all asked me about it and it’s actually been okay. They will realize what a scam it is at some point… they are still young members…I took my mom to a class and she literally spoke “what the fuck is this?” when we were in thread the needle in “energy” yoga. I brought my mom, my ultimate dealbreaker, and she showed me the light. She was all, “I just want to take your trainer to my bosom. Like, here, it’s okay, wipe off allllllll that make up and come away from this scary place.”
3) Cause I’m freeeeeeeeeeeeee, free-ballllinnnnnnn Chorus: free ballin, yeah we’re free ballin, free ballin now we’re free ballin…”
I had to leave, I had nowhere to go, and it went something like this:
- I could do it on my own! I have a gym in my complex and chris needs a buddy while rehabbing his ankle!
- There are great youtube vids!
- No wayyyyy, I’ll just take a week off!
- Oh man, running buddies!!!
- I’ll just work out with friends.
And then you realize, you’re not working out more than you’re working out. 3 days a week is unheard of for me now. Okay, maybe I can handle every other day. Yeah. That would be perfection~!
4) “What about the pretty colors in there?” and Nelly sings about the temperature of the room
So I contact this gym and they ask for a very detailed history of exercise. Sounds brutal. So they get back to me and we set up a time and date for me to come in and try one of their classes.
So I did.
1/28/2015 – Orange Theory Fitness (Free for my first class) $169 unlimited monthly… womp
Accidently took the stinky and sweaty heart monitor band home with me. Oops, now I have to go back…
First impressions:
Really nice people, want you to know all the information up front, this studio has specific instructions and technology for all equipment, feels like job training. Stinky women’s restroom, but the rest of the studio was clean and nice.
Class Taken: Endurance
10 minute treadmill warm up in base zone, this color coded heart rate thing on a screen, with colored squares and abbreviations of everyones names. And numbers, so many numbers everywhere.
Now we’re off!
This back and forth sequence from treadmill to rowing machine, variegated lengths or times until you’re done, or until she says stop!
Alright, now that you’re sufficiently knackered, you’re going to go watch a video and copy the weight lifters and their reps. So many… round and round…
I actually had some muscle fatigue and FELL almost flat on my face on the lifting bench! I looked around and literally… no one was looking my way, nor was the instructor anywhere in sight.. oh, so no one is looking at me, at all!! Amazing!!
Listen, going to this place takes focus and pre workout supplements, and I wish I had taken mine.
It was really high energy the whole time, I kind of like an interval style…. I felt dizzy between the different stations.. I think I do better with more short intervals…. Or at least not 20min of just one thing… ayyy… Or maybe this is just cardio and it only needs to happen…eh once…. Maybe twice a week… right? Plus I already cardio while I do my own thing (when I do my own thing! I think my boyfriend subconsciously is done with rehabbing his ankle and “left” the gym key card in his pants, at his parents, in his laundry. Oops)
Will I go back? Yeah, to give the strap back.
I mean, I was exhausted but positive all day after, I just wished I had planned meals to eat immediately… I was too bushed to make lunch until 5 hrs later….. I mean i had some cereal, but that’s the lazy lunch…
*UPDATE* 24 hrs later, I am sore in big leg muscles– which is what we worked…. hooray!
Will I go back to work out? Maybe, if nothing else is the perfect fit.
