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| - After already hiking just under 5 miles at Tom's Thumb Peak and enjoying a nice little brunch at Tryst Cafe at the break of dawn, I'll admit I was a tad bit lazy by the time 2pm rolled around. That was my assigned time, 2:15pm, and despite my brain saying "No more!" my body said, "Let's go!" and "Ta Da!" I found myself signing my "In case you die" waiver and answering a little survey about my health history and fitness level. I consider myself pretty fit always juggling between running, hiking, tennis, yoga, spin, and most recently, returning to my favorite hobby, rock climbing. I've also taken a few tabata classes at Mountainside Fitness and sampled some classes at Premier Fitness Systems, so in other words, I was no stranger to circuit training, but I've never had the chance to try OTF (Orange Theory Fitness).
I was fitted with a Polar heart rate sensor, which sat snuggly under my sports bra. Being a minimalist, I did not like wearing the sensor, but after the workout started, I forgot it was even there. Well, except for the fact that the heart rate is displayed on LCD screens the minute you walk into the workout room. As one could imagine, if your heart rate was at rest, the color of your "block" on the LCD screen that had your assigned sensor with name displayed was between blue and green in color. Red was the opposite end of the spectrum, where your heart was working at max capacity. Ideally, our instructor Eric explained that you should not spend more than 5 minutes in the "red zone." He said that we need to be aware of how hard our hearts are working so we know how to condition properly.
Our group was split into 2. Half of us found our way to the treadmills while the other half worked out on the floor and rowing machines doing different combinations of circuits. Then halfway through the hour, the 2 groups switched. Simple enough. Despite having a large group, Eric was able to bounce everywhere and make sure people were doing what they were supposed to be doing and made sure that exercises were done correctly.
It didn't take me long to realize that my shortcoming was definitely the circuit part of the workout. I can spend endless hours doing intervals on the treadmill... well... with the exception of maxing out at a speed of 7.5 to 8 with a 5% incline. The only problem was that I gave "it" my all during the treadmill half of the workout that by the time I got to the circuit part, I had exhausted all my energy and was lazy. Lazy is equivalent to sloppy when trying to do exercise reps. Between doing push ups assisted by resistance bands and throwing a medicine ball around, I found myself just wanting to go back to cardio...go back to the rowing machine, or even back to treadmill. It's funny how the body searches for the "familiar," and it proves that circuit training can condition you as a whole. Cardio must be balanced with weights and resistance training. I feel like the trainers at OTF can help fitness beginners or veteran enthusiasts alike with finding the right balance. I'm very grateful that Yelp and OTF Arcadia finally gave me a chance to try their workout out. I'm seriously considering joining, but probably the location closer to me near Lake Pleasant.
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