Signing up for fitness classes is an avenue for you to get your heart racing, strengthen your muscles, and to meet new people. No matter what your goal is, whether it’s to reduce stress, improve concentration, or to tone and strengthen your body, there’s a fitness class that’ll help you achieve it.
Team Based Workouts
Build muscle, burn calories, and bond with teammates at one of the new competition-based classes. These workouts rely on the sense of camaraderie, excitement, and accomplishment of teamwork to motivate clients, make fitness fun, and produce results. , a new boutique studio in New York City, divides participants into teams to complete “workouts” based on games like tag, capture the flag, and flip cup.
Pole Work
A pole can provide more than a tantalizing striptease—experts say pole classes are sweat-inducing, super-effective workouts, with the added benefits of learning how to flaunt your curves and celebrate your body. Classes like Ann Saldi’s and New York City studio enhance flexibility, tone your body, and build strength as well as confidence. Plus there’s nothing like having a few laughs along the way!
Crossfit
If you’re looking for a simple but intense fitness class, Crossfit is also a good way to go. For each session, there is a Workout of the Day (WOD). The WOD includes a combination of sprinting, weight lifting, rope climbing, or other exercises that don’t require any machinery. And it varies every time.
Crossfit is great for fitness buffs who are aiming to build some muscle and really bulk up. If you’re competitive and easily bored by repetitive exercises, you should definitely give it a shot. Despite its competitive nature, you’re sure to make new friends through Crossfit.
Ropes Gone Wild
Waving a rope up and down sounds simple—until you try doing so with the ’s signature weighted ropes. relies on the “art of undulation,” or creating a wave-like pattern in the rope with your body. You’ll work every muscle, especially your core, while reaping cardiovascular benefits, improving coordination, and increasing metabolic endurance. Plus, this highly effective workout is low impact, so it’s safe for anyone from newbies and injured athletes to decided gym-goers.
Barre + Cardio Fusion Classes
A new style of barre is amping up the traditional ballet-inspired workout by adding a major cardio component. In these barre-cardio fusion classes, you’ll sculpt lean muscle, slim down, and get your heart pumping by moving through high-intensity moves followed by brief moments of active recovery. They’re certainly not your old-fashioned ballet class anymore: As instructor Bergen Wheeler of the new class says, “You’ll experience a fast-paced, full-body workout designed around simple and functional movements, and take your fitness to a level you never thought possible.”
Body Art Training
Swiss fitness expert Robert Steinbacher combined his experiences as a dancer and a therapist for special-needs children to create this dynamic bodyweight workout that’s already a hit in Europe. Steinbacher realized that many therapeutic exercises could be just as beneficial for people without physical limitations, and was born. Dubbing itself an “extraordinary training concept for a new awareness,” the program integrates functional training, physiotherapy, dance, Tai Chi, and yoga positions for a tough yet restorative workout.
Bokwa
While you already know your ABCs (we hope!), that’s not all it takes to make it through this dance class craze based on the alphabet. In , you’ll “draw” letters and numbers with your feet while performing a calorie-torching cardio routine. In this nontraditional class, participants can make up their own dance moves by simply moving to the beat of the music. Bokwa’s origins trace the map from an L.A.-based instructor who used elements of South African dance to bring the steps to fans in Europe, where it is already all the rage.
