At a few doctors appointments I’ve gotten a high blood pressure reading. Which means now I’m nervous every time I get my blood pressure taken and that elevates it even further 🙃. According to the American Heart Association, more than 40 percent of non-Hispanic African-Americans have high blood pressure and you can go years without showing any symptoms. I’m hoping my recent lifestyle changes will nip it in the bud sooner rather than later but with a history of heart disease in my family, it is a constant worry. With that in mind, I’ve been crazy intimidated by Orangetheory Fitness, or as they have affectionately (pretentiously?) nicknamed themselves, OTF. They use heart rate trackers during their workouts and I was worried that I would never be in the right “zone”. In my very small amount of research in writing this post I learned that heart rate and blood pressure measure different things. Reason #1 why I don’t recommend the ignorance is bliss approach that I’m totally relying on for my blood pressure… You can make false assumptions that may end up hindering you in the long run. Luckily, I have some pesky friends who are diehard OTF’ers that convinced me to at least give it a try (I agreed only after 3 or 4 glasses of wine).
Your first workout is free! I wasn’t getting out of it so my friend called to reserve my spot the morning of, heads up – they do ask for a card to keep on file. When you arrive at OTF for your first class, they sit you down with one of their staff members to give you a tour and briefly describe their methodology. I was a little less anxious after they said that while you are striving to spend most of your workout in the blue and green heart rate zones, it’s totally normal to see more of a variation and everyone is different. Here’s a graphic they showed us on the heart rate zones before class.
Your results are emailed to you after class and you’re looking for something resembling a bell curve (spoiler alert: I killed it 😉). After talking to that staff member, who I will later come to realize seems to be more of a sales rep, all of the new students are invited into the studio early to chat with the instructor. I was excited to see there were 3 other newbies with me in solidarity! The instructor asks if there are any injuries and then briefly describes each of the stations. In my class there was a treadmill, a rower and an area with benches and free weights. You choose where you start and then cycle through the stations.
This place was packed! I think there were 12 spots in each row (station) with 3 rows total. I think that’s the 3G part? Who knows. Get there early or you are absolutely not going to get a spot. I wonder how it is at other times of day. I was with the young professional/after work crowd at 6:30PM. I’d say that maybe a quarter of the room was men, two of them were the friends I came with. The class was full of mostly very fit regulars but there was at least one other plus-sized woman (go us!) and a few ethnically diverse students. Overall a pretty inviting and inclusive atmosphere, for sure.
I started on the rower, in line with my friends who proved to be awesome motivators that were still silly enough to break up the intensity. Your first instinct on these things is to use all of your arm strength but you want to kind of jump back using your legs. It took a while for me to get the form down but I think I was doing okay by the last rotation. Our instructor gave us a meter goal and once we hit that we got up and grabbed the medicine ball for some squats. Then back to the rower to do it all again. I got through 2.5 cycles which was pretty low, other people hit 3 and 4, but who cares. Give yourself time and space to learn to do things safely. After a quick 6 minutes you move on to the next station.
Next up was the free weights/bench area. The instructor showed us the three workouts we were doing and their optional modifications (yay for inclusivity!). I grabbed 10 pound weights and headed to my bench. There were planks, curls, leg lifts. I think this is why my back was sore the next day. A good strength building section in between the heavy cardio. I didn’t need to watch my heart rate much here but always remember to breathe!
Last but certainly not least was the treadmill. The treadmills are specific to OTF and you can definitely feel the difference. They are bouncy, supposed to have less impact on your joints, and they take a little while to get used to. I felt like I had to hold on the first time through lol. You start with a brief warm up but then there are structured intervals (base, push and all out). These intervals look different for different people; you can walk, jog or run and each pace changes accordingly. The first time through I did a combination of walk/jogging. If you are jogging or running your incline stays neutral but if you’re walking, the incline is what challenges you when you change intervals. It was super helpful having all of the information on the screen on the treadmill. This is totally where I hit the red heart rate zone every time and it was difficult to get it down during the cooldown.
The best part of OTF’s workout methodology is that as soon as you’re over one workout, it’s time to switch. It kept things exciting and interesting and made you really want to push through the tough parts because the end was always within reach. Here are my stats which generally resemble the bell curve I was shooting for so I guess I did pretty good!
I’m sure this would be great if I was going to regularly attend and could track my progress but I ain’t made of money soooo…
One downside is after your first class they start the HEAVY sales pitch. It’s not needed, it’s a good workout and methodology. They have you talk to the sales rep again before you leave and try to get you locked in to one of their very pricey plans. All the newbies, myself included, politely declined but felt bad doing it. I attended this class almost a month ago and I’m still getting regular phone calls to come back in at a fraction of the cost for a $12 drop in. I might take them up on it one of these days but it would be more in spite of the calls than because of them. Plus, it’s 2020 your pricing should be straight forward, easy to understand and readily available. I didn’t take notes and now it’s nearly impossible to find the pricing. I think it was $69 for 4 classes a month with the more premier memberships reaching over $150.
If I had to do it over I probably would have opted for an earlier workout. I went with friends so it was fun but for a girl who is usually in bed at 9PM, starting at 6:30PM was not ideal. I didn’t get home and eat dinner until around 8! On the plus side I had a TON of energy after my workout but on this night in particular that just meant it was really difficult to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
Overall, I’m really happy I overcame my fear of the heart rate monitor and I had an awesome time working out with my two friends. It’s definitely worth a try and I could totally see the appeal; just beware of the hard sell and give yourself time to get used to the workouts and equipment.
Recommendations: Orange 3G (at least for the free first class!)
Notes: 60 min
What to Wear/Bring: Your favorite workout gear and the confidence to turn down the sales rep if you aren’t ready to commit to a plan.
Inclusive Fitness Denver 