WORKOUTS I LOVED THIS MONTH

Ratchet Zooba - Banana Skirt Productions

Location: Pear Studios - 500 8th Avenue - between 35th and 36th

Location Perks: Convienient to a few trains.

Amenities: Small ass bathroom - supposedly there are changing rooms but...I highly suggest coming dressed if you can.

Cost: $20/class and packages offered.

So I know I have mentioned more than once that in my mind I AM a back-up dancer - ummm...dreams do come to life in this class - for sure! One of my clients and I have been taking dance classes together to try and spice her workouts up and I also vowed that I will dance more this year so...two birds killed with one stone. I’ve taken classes at Pearl Studios before and usually they have been in small rooms so I was a little weary. We walk in...thank god the room was a decent size. In walks our teacher Zack - introduces himself and then procedes to beak down the class to us - “follow as best as you can and have fun”. He also lets us know that when he shouts out “selfie” we muct give our best selfie pose - he shouts it out and its "selfie" practice time. Then when he shouts out the word “freestyle” we are supposed to do our own thing - he shouts it out and now its "freestyle" practice time. Time for class! Neither of us knew what to expect at all. Zack (our teacher) turns on the music and I swear the next hour was a blissful blur. We literally danced non-stop for an hour - felt like it was only 30min long but it was most definitely an hour. No choreographed routine - for an hour we followed whatever Zack did - he would do a move for one or two 8 counts and then move on to another move - sometimes reapeat moves he had already done and then would randomly scream out “selfie” or “freestyle”. We switched lines from time to time so that everyone got their chance to be up front and watch themselves strut in the mirror. Oh and the music? what??? On point!!! I haven’t been out dancing in the longest time and the last time I did go out I know I didn’t dance for an hour straight. It was amazing!!! I sweated my ass off (I know many calories were burned for sure) and had fun while doing it. Everything about this class was right. My client and I also attended a choreographed class - Ciara “Ride” - nasty but again oh so right!

Throwback Fitness

Location: 303 Fifth Avenue

Cost: $19/1st timer special - $32/class and packages are offered.

I’ve been wanting to take this class for a while - I signed up for one last year and wasn’t able to make it so when Sheela (read my Q&A section) suggested this class I was definitely in. Running a little late and took forever for me to change. Walk into the room there are medicine balls set up in a citrcle and people are walking around them while some loud 80’s song is playing (dang! I wish I could remember the name of the song). Music turns off and now the people are fighting to sit down on one of the balls. I’m clueless and then a guy with some high waisted polyester shorts and knee-hi tube socks on shouts at me to “hit the rower”. Huh??? Someone quickly expalins to me that it was like a game of musical chairs and I better “hit the rower”. Oh...gotcha! Next section of the class Sheela and I partner up and while one of is on the rower the other has 3 exercises that they must perform and then we switch. I’ve been on a rower before but for some reason I never get it right - the coach explains the sequence of muscles I should use. I got it for a while and then...I lost it and he was right back at my side helping me make the corrections. I’m not gonna lie I lost form a few more times and each time he either came over or called out corrections to me. Some might find this annoying but I appreciate stuff like this because the last thing I am trying to do is injure myself. We go for 16min (maybe more) straight back and forth - all while he is calling out group stats. Once we finish the 16min we do another team activity - one of us holds a plank while our partner runs a few flight of stairs (can’t remeber how many) and then we switch. Then he splits the class into 2 and they pull out these kiddie size goals and throw a bunch of Nerf balls with what look like Ninja Muntant Turtle faces on them on the floor. Again huh??? We pick a name for our team, pick a goalie and then are given 3 exercises we are to do and once we finish we run to the center of the room and pick up a Ninja Mutant Turtle Nerf ball and try to throw it in the goal - so much fun!!! We do this for about 9 minutes. I can’t stress enough how fun this clas was. Old school rock and hip hop music, quick, fast intense exercises and games - how could that all not equal fun?