A few posts ago, I blamed my recent absence from blogging this past fall on my job. While that was partially true, the other reason I wasn’t posting as much this past fall is a new hobby I’ve taken up: Orangetheory Fitness.
Orangetheory, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is a class-based high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout that’s gaining popularity across the country. Some folks have likened it to “Crossfit-lite”.
The basic setup of each one-hour class is that you spend time on three unique stations: the treadmill, the rower, and the weight floor. On the treadmill and rower, your coach calls out varying levels of effort (base, push, all-out) that help guide you as to how much energy you should be exerting. On the weight floor, you perform sets of various muscle-strengthening exercises using some combination of body weight exercises (including work on TRX straps/ab rollers/Bosu balls), dumbbell exercises, and medicine balls moves. The workout changes every day.
What’s unique about Orangetheory is the instantaneous feedback. Everyone in class wears a heart rate monitor that is synced to televisions around the room. At any point, you can look up at these screens and see your current heart rate & calories burned so far in class. Your goal is to get your heart rate into the “Orange Zone” which equates to roughly 84-91% of your “max heart rate” based on factors like age, height, and weight. If you’re not in the Orange Zone, you can push yourself harder; if you’ve gone past the Orange Zone, you can tone it down a bit.
And here’s the weird part….
…I kinda love it.
I’ve never been big on working out in my entire life. While I did lots of dance and cheer and gymnastics growing up, that always felt more like “playing” than exercise to me. Once I hit college, I dreaded going to the gym, despite doing all kinds of programs to try to get myself motivated. I’ve done Couch-to-5k, I’ve done outdoor bootcamps, I’ve had myriad personal trainers, and I’ve gone through fads with Bikram Yoga, Zumba, and spin classes. None of them stuck for very long.
But I started Orangetheory back in October, going 3x a week. It’s now March, and I’ve upped my attendance to 4x a week. And I’m pretty sure that 6-months straight with a single exercise program is a new record for me.
Here’s why I think it worked for me when so many other things haven’t:
1. I started during a “transformation challenge”
A few times a year, every Orangetheory studio will run a “transformation challenge” where you push yourself towards a specific goal. One was about to start right as I signed up for OTF, so I jumped on the bandwagon, attempting to decrease my body fat % as much as possible over six-weeks time.
But that six-week timeframe also made it manageable in my brain. I didn’t have to do this forever; I just needed to get through six weeks. Who hasn’t put up with something less-than-pleasant in their life for six weeks? Jobs you’re ready to quit but stayed at til you find your next one, roommates who just won’t move out but you act civil towards until the lease is up, volunteer commitments that sounded fun initially but somehow drag on and on?
Lo and behold, though, after the six-week challenge ended, I didn’t want to quit. Which brings me to my next point:
2. I’m seeing real results.
During the first Transformation Challenge, I lost 16 lbs. I was doing OTF 3x a week, plus using Weight Watchers for my diet during the six weeks, but allowing myself a once-a-week cheat day for certain social functions we’d already committed to. I didn’t feel like I was killing myself, and yet I saw big losses.
After that first challenge ended, I kept up with the 3x a week classes, but dropped the diet — eating what I wanted, when I wanted. And despite the fact that this time period included the holidays, I didn’t see the scale creeping back up. The classes alone helped me maintain my weight loss, even without a diet plan attached to it.
In January, I started a new Transformation Challenge. The goal of this one was to lose the highest % of weight loss you can over an 8-week timeframe. At my official starting weigh-in, I was just 1.5 lbs heavier than my official ending weigh-in from the first challenge, and by the end, I was down 28.6 lbs total. That brings my total weigh loss since joining in October to 40 lbs. This shit works.
3. I’m doing it with the hubby
Finally, the biggest boost to me staying with this program has been the support of the hubby. He’s no gym rat either — rather, he’s a long time subscriber to the Dionysian belief that “if something doesn’t feel good, it’s probably not good for you.”
But I asked him to do Orangetheory with me, and he agreed. And now, even when I’ve had a hard day at work and am just not feeling working out, I come home and see him all decked out in his workout gear ready to go, and figure “well, I guess I can get changed and go too.” Not to mention — with two of us, if we both “late cancel” (within 8 hours of the start of class) for a class we’re registered for, then there’s an extra charge of $24. The money incentive to stay on track is helpful too, I’ve gotta admit.
So if you’ve been considering giving Orangetheory a try, I say go for it. It’s definitely not for everyone — I’ve read complaints online from men that the weights aren’t heavy enough and reps aren’t high enough to actually “get ripped”, and I know some introverts who don’t like the idea of having their biometrics on the screen for the rest of the class to peek at if they choose. But if you too are a gym-hater, it may also work for you. Good luck!
Header photo courtesy of Orangetheory Fitness Lakeline on Facebook.
