Dancing in the Shadow

Main Lobby

Training Room_Bags for Days

Boys and gals, it's been awhile since our last post, we've been swamped with friends' weddings, yep, it's that time of the year again. But we're back in action and this time we treated ourselves to Shadowbox.

The concept of shadowbox has been around for almost as long as boxing itself and it is for boxers, in this case you, to prepare yourselves physically and mentally for a match. This movement is a means of finding rhythm while perfecting style and technique. Paired with elements of modern day training methods, shadowbox is the foundation for evolving the group class fitness experience. By reimagining this ritual, this class has created a full-body workout incorporating high-intensity rounds of shadowboxing, body-weight exercises and heavy bag work using various guided punch combos. Shadowbox offers variety of classes, which differs in styles - signature class (classic 45-minutes group workout, combines body weight exercises, shadowboxing and heavy bag work), different format of longer duration classes (60-minute vs. 45-minute) and private ring training (train one-on-one with certified trainer to further develop your skillsets).

Many of you when you try this class, would naturally compare this with Rumble, which we've covered in our previous post. Overall, the classes are similar in terms of their concepts and what they're aiming to achieve. However, we would say that Rumble is more "Barry-esq" and has a clean bifurcation of bag works and floor workout throughout the session. Shadowbox on the other hand incorporates the bag works and weight training more closely, also in our opinion, Shadowbox is a better proxy of a real boxing workout.

Now that we've introduced the background of Shadowbox, let's take a look at the ratings:

Motivation (4.0) - Our instructor for the session was Rod, and this guy was fire, high energy throughout the session, beginning till the end. He was also very precise with his instructions, we can tell he's been doing this for awhile, very professional. The best part of his coaching was that he did everything along with us, so he made sure people understood what they're doing.

Amenities (3.7) - The gym comes with a couple locker area, and the locker rooms were equipped with showers in case you want to freshen up prior to get on with the rest of your day. Additionally, the gym does provide wraps and boxing gloves for rental. Tip: if you've been to Rumble before, feel free to save the wraps, that way you can reuse the wraps for this class and save a couple of bucks. 

Intensity (4.0) - The class started with some basic warm-up moves, such as jumping jacks, air-squats and learning different boxing moves by shadow boxing, nice and easy. Steadily, the pace picks up, we broken our workout into 8 different rounds, each round had combination of heavy bag, cardio and bit of free-weight strength training (i.e. push-ups and etc.). Unfortunately, I had to step out to take a work call in the middle of class (I know, I was that guy, shame on me...), coming back I missed 2 rounds of workout, but did my best to make up the fun missed. Our favorite part was the last 2 minutes or so, in which Rod gave us the opportunity to concoct fury of combinations, free style to demolish our "opponent".

Overall (4.2) - Anytime we get the opportunity to punch something without holding back is a good time in our book, so overall, we had a great time and workout. To enhance the quality and productivity of your workout, we recommend you to reserve a spot towards the front of the class (i.e. closer to the front mirror, bag 1 - 9 or in that general region) as you'll get a better view of the instructor and it's helpful to be able to see his / her demonstrations before performing the combinations yourselves. We have heard from some of friends that they took classes where they were in the back and they felt lost, which negatively impacted the quality of their class.

Suggested Occasion - We would put this in the similar category as Rumble and Barry's Bootcamp, which provides you a good combination of cardio and strength training. If you're someone like me who goes to the gym for weight training frequently, doing classes like Shadowbox is a great way to shake things up a bit and provide a nice shock to your system. Of course, if you just feel like punching something while getting a good / structured workout, this is a good way to go as well.

Class Location (NY Metropolitan Area Only):

Flatiron
28 W. 20th St.
New York, NY 10011

Dumbo 
55 Prospect St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201

-L&L

Barry's For Days

Barry's NoHo Location Lobby

Treadmills for Days

Lobby Lockers

We’re back with a new post and we’re going to talk about our thoughts on Barry’s Bootcamp (“Barry’s”). It is probably one of the most popular and well-known boutique group fitness class in NYC.

Barry’s was founded in 1998 in LA by celebrity trainer, Barry Jay. Barry Jay partnered with John and Rachel Mumford to open the first Barry’s Bootcamp in West Hollywood and together they launch the boutique fitness studio revolution. In 2011, the first NYC studio opens in Chelsea, which sees the first Fuel Bar launch and first use of our signature Woodway treadmills. Now Barry's has expanded globally and has location in the UK, Norway and Dubai. 

Barry’s wants to push through the “I can’ts”, where you run faster, lift more, lean out, quiet down. The workout itself is designed for efficiency. The intervals and strength training combinations are proven to lean and tone your body. The programming carefully pairs opposing muscle groups to ensure your body has the perfect balanced workout, and proper time for recovery. Typically, there are two sessions of floor exercise and treadmill running. However, instructors have the liberty to construct the class in variety of style. For instance, there is “Dirty Thirty”, in which the class is bifurcated into one session of treadmill and one session of floor exercise and this past weekend, our class is structured as 4 rounds of floor exercise and 4 rounds of treadmill! It was one of the more unique and engaging Barry’s workout class we’ve ever been to.

With that, let’s get into the ratings of the day:

Motivation (3.8) – Our trainer for the session was Niv (at the Barry's NoHo location) and he decided to incorporate 4 rounds of treadmill and floor exercises each, in this session. Right off the bat, we knew this was going to be an uphill battle, but Niv kept a good tempo throughout the session, high energy. The only constructive feedback we had was given there were 4 cycles of treadmill and floor exercise, total of 8 rounds, we felt the pace of each round was little bit rushed and perhaps one less cycle or 3 cycles would be a better pace.  

Amenities (4.3) – In addition to the lobby lockers, fresh towels and well equipped restrooms you're probably used to at this point at the different classes, Barry's pride itself on its juices bar. The best part of the juice bar is your ability to pre-order your shake / juice, which means a beverage of your choosing will be ready for you at the counter once you finish your workout. And of course, we treated ourselves with our own post workout smoothies - treat ya self 2017 (shout out to Park and Recreation)!  

Intensity (4.5) – As you can probably imagine when we said we had total 8 rounds of floor and treadmill mix, it was going to be a tough workout, and it was. We started our workout at the treadmill and the intensity was ripe right from the gecko. We did enjoy the fast pace and high intensity through the workout, but as mentioned before, we did feel that the voluminous rounds undermined the workout just a bit. 

Overall (4.5) – In Barry's we trust. Overall, we thought we had a great workout, Niv was a very efficient instructor and we actually learned a few good moves when performing the floor exercises which we'll for sure utilize in our own workouts. Once again, the best part about Barry's is it's consistency; we've been to a good numbers of Barry's classes with various instructors and so far we have not been disappointed. 

Suggested Occasion – Barry’s is your typical high intensity interval workout, which we think it’s great for wide range of occasions (i.e. cardio, toning and detox from a night of treat ya self). While each class might specifically zero in on several body parts (i.e. our class featured mostly chest and back focused workouts), all classes will give you the opportunity to work on your whole body. Additionally, if you want to get a guarantee good workout without surprises, we think Barry's is great for that as all classes we've been to, the quality has been very consistent.

Class Location (NYC Only):

Chelsea

135 W. 20th St.

New York, NY10011

NoHo

419 Lafayette St

New York, NY10003

Park Ave South

107 East 27th St

New York, NY10016

Tribeca

1York St.

New York, NY10013

Upper East Side

1216 2^nd Ave.

New York, NY 10065

-L&L

Two for One: Acro Yoga and Flywheel

Riding Real Dirty 

Main Lobby of Calmness

Hey guys, we know we've skipped a couple of weeks of contents, so we decided to hit you with a two-for-one special this weekend. We'll be discussing our experiences with practicing Across Yoga for the first time and Flywheel class. This will be one of our longer posts and we hope you enjoy it.

To kick it off, we'll start with Acro Yoga and let's just talk about the premise of the practice briefly. Despite a popular belief of Acro Yoga is a new format or recent development of yoga, Acro Yoga has been around for decades; one of the oldest videos of someone doing Acro Yoga is with the famous Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya himself, practicing the role of the base, while a child being the flyer in 1938. Acro Yoga may provide physical and mental health benefits, in addition to the exercise and strength building aspects of Acro Yoga the partner balancing can improve concentration and the massage elements can provide stress relief. However Acro Yoga is more vigorous than many traditional yoga practices and this may lead to more injuries. Unlike typical yoga that an be practiced individually, Acro Yoga consists of the following roles: Base - the individual who has the most points of contact with the ground, Flyer - the individual who is elevated off the ground by the Base and Spotter - whose entire focus is on making sure that the Flyer lands safely in case of any slips.

With all the fuzz around Acro Yoga and recent popularity, we decided to give it a shot and we took the introductory class at OM Factory with Maisah Hargett, below is how we felt about the class:

Motivation (3.3) - We felt that the class emphasizes more on collaboration, which is another way to motivate each other to perform the different positions in Acro Yoga. The overall structure class is as follow: introduction of each class participants because this is a relatively intimate class and it's helpful to develop some familiarity with your partners (i.e. their previous injuries), flow yoga to warm up your body, then onward with the main content of Acro Yoga.

Amenities (3.2) - The amenities at OM Factory is relatively basic, nothing fancy for good reasons as you probably won't need them. We did not see lockers around to place our personal belongings, but there is a shoe rack to place your shoes before enter into the main class room and the class room has plenty of rooms for you to store your other belongings (if needed).

Intensity (3.5) - Again, this is a yoga class, so we didn't feel that the class was particularly intense. The class is aim to be more constructive and informative vs. high intensity. We thought the instructor, Maisah was very supportive and helpful when it comes to her teaching style; she made sure everyone had the chance to practice different positions and roles (i.e. being Base, Flyer and Spotter).

Overall (3.8) - In addition to classic yoga, which for a lot of beginners (i..e Ron) may be hard to grasp the right tempo and precision around the forms, Acro Yoga provides immediate feedback mechanism, meaning that if you'll know if you're hitting the right posture based on your partner's body language. The little gem of this class that we really appreciated was towards the end of the class, Maisah taught us how to perform basic Thai massage on each other. The massage techniques can easily be replicated and performed at home. Overall we did enjoy the class and Acro Yoga, we thought it was very refreshing and not to mention you'll bring home some cool moves.

Suggested Occasion - This is a yoga class after all and therefore, if you're looking for a ass whooping, cardio centric or high intensity class, this will not be the best class to take. That said, this is a great class if you want to stretch out your body after a long day of sitting at your cubical.

No time for break, time to ride that Flywheel, let's hit it!

Many of you may have already heard or participated in a Flywheel class. Similar to most cycling classes,  the instructors will lead you through climbs, descents, races, rhythm riding and sprints to supercharge your day. Additionally, you can choose between 45-, 60- and 90-minute classes. Now before you jump into the conclusion that this is just like SoulCycle, well it's not. In our view, Flywheel emphasizes on more of a precision riding. Flywheel bike has a "TorqBoard" equipped to the it, so the rider knows exactly how much torq and RPM that he or her will need to hit. Based on the TorqBoard, each riders will also earn points and if the riders volunteer at the beginning of the class (at the front desk when signing in), they can compete with their fellow riders.

Today we're rocking with Megan Arnoldy and without further ado, here comes the ratings for Flywheel:

Motivation (3.8) - We took a Tuesday class and as you know, after a long day of working, it's definitely difficult to get your lazy ass into the gym or to take a workout class. We thought Megan was great at motivating the crowd and her playlist was on point and we felt that Tuesday night felt like the new weekend.

Amenities (4.5) - Similar to SoulCycle and other established boutique group fitness class, Flywheel most of the amenities you'll needed. While we did not use the lockerroom to take a shower post class, the locker area was well organized and not too crowded. There were free towers for riders to use during the class, but here's the game changer for us, Flywheel provides free water bottles (I know, right!).

Intensity (3.8) - The class was well structured in terms of the tempo. Warm up, hill climb (with high torq / resistant) mixed with some downhill sprints, bar weights and final wrap-up or what we call it - Gut Check Moment. Since the TV monitor is on with most people's performance points (bifurcated based on men / women), we were competing and going above and beyond till the very end.

Overall (4.2) - Great cycling class for us. We enjoyed utilizing the TorqBoard to monitor our progression of the class. One thing we would like to note is that if you're finding the recommended torq too easy, you should gage your level of resistance based on your RPM as the instructor would typically tells you what RPM you should be hitting.

Suggested Occasion - Great for cardio burning session, in which you just want to break in some serious sweat. Also, the competition element of the class should make it extra interesting for your competitive nature.

OM Factory Locations:

OM Factory Fashion District
265 West 37th Street (37th Street and 8th Avenue), 17th Floor
New York, NY 10018

OM Factory Union Square
873 Broadway (18th Street and Broadway), Suite 202 (buzz 058 for access)
New York, NY 10003

Flywheel Locations:

Astor Place
51 Astor Place
New York, NY 10003

Gansevoort Park 
420 Park Ave S
New York, NY 10016

Williamsburg
173 North 3rd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Flatiron
39 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10010

Upper West Side
470 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, 10024

Upper East Side
201 East 67th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, 10064

Lincoln Square
150 Amsterdam Ave
New York, 10023

Tribeca 
415 Greenwich Street
New York, 10013

Chelsea
245 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

East 60th Street
203 East 60th Street
New York, NY 10022

- L&L

Unleash Your Inner Playfulness

Ready for Take-Off

Main Studio

Ladies and gents, boys and girls, we’re hitting up trampoLean this weekend. As you may have already guessed, you’re performing most if not all of the different exercises on a roughly 4 ft. in diameter sized circular trampoline (as shown in pictures above). trampoLEAN classes are ~50 minutes in length and focuses on different muscle groups daily. Exercises are easily modified based on fitness levels. All classes are booked online and use MindBody scheduling system. The gym also offers private classes upon request.

The idea of the class is to combine the concepts of “Fun”, “Move” and “Sweat” into a holistic workout session. You’ll experience weightlessness as you jump up and down the trampoline, which is definitely different than your average high intensity interval training classes. Further, the class incorporates an element of yoga throughout the workout, aiming to improve your muscle flexibility and stability.

Finding the class initially was bit tricky as the class studio is located inside of a larger dance studio… and therefore to get to the class studio, you’ll have to tip toe your way through a group of fierce ballroom dancers. Once you enter the classroom, all the trampolines are already laid out on the floor and ready for your amusement / usage. Barefoot training is preferred as you’ll be constantly jumping and performing all types of exercises, so grip is the key. That said, the class does recommend people with weak ankles or ankle injuries to wear sneakers. Most of the exercises are performed without any equipments, however, our class did feature the usage of resistant band and light hand weights to enhance the results of different arm and abs workout.

Motivation (3.3) – We had Brent Shultz as our instructor, he was very professional and definitely knew what he was doing. The best part was that he essentially performed all of the exercises with us, with exception of occasions that he came off his trampoline to correct people's forms. That said, the class felt very routine-like and we didn't really feel that the class provided that extra push you needed to go above and beyond. The music was a mix of hip-hop, pop and electronic. 

Amenities (3.0) – We would consider the amenities of the class subpar in comparison to the rest of the group fitness classes we’ve attended. Provide how much you sweat in this class, it does not provide free towels for the participants, but you do have the option to pay $2 for towel rental. The class facility consists of only one room, so there is no separate lockers area.

Intensity (3.5) – Perhaps it's trampoline that helps to absorb a lot of the punishing force to our knees and feet, the class did not have that high intensity that we normally get in a typical HIIT-type of classes. However, we were burning up and sweating a ton, so you'll for sure get a good cardio workout from this. Additionally, there are scheduled intermittent breaks throughout the class prompted by our instructor, which helped our body to recover.  

Overall (3.5) – The concept of this class is a unique one and it's our first time exercising on a trampoline in any capacity, so we had a lot of fun during the class. All in all, we would surely recommend others to try this class and experience a different type of workout because at the end of day, it's about having a good time when you're working out. 

Suggested Occasion – This is a new concept that we would like to incorporate into our blog from now on because we think that different workout classes could be good for different occasions. For instance, in this case, with its constant flow of movements, we think that trampoLean is great for breaking out a good sweat and improving your muscle flexibility, but this might be a great class if you're looking for muscle toning or building.

Class Location:

37 W. 26^th Street (9^th Floor)

New York, NY 10011

- L&L

It's All About That Convict Body

Locker Area (Jail Cell Door Cameo to the Left)

Post Successful Prison Break Flex

It’s all about that “ConBody”. As the slogan of the gym emphasizes “Do Your Time”, the founder of the group fitness class, Coss Marte  developed a unique and effective exercise program without the need for any equipment while doing his time. With such a strong and almost intimidating name, what makes ConBody different from other workouts? Well to start off, you literally enter into a jail cell-like confinement space as the class door leading towards the main exercise room is made of jail cell bars (as shown in the picture above). Appearance aside, the trainers aim to guide you through a variety of resistance exercises using only your body weight. There’s no other equipment required and no shoes allowed in the exercise room (Tip – we would recommend you to go barefoot to gain tractions when performing the different exercises). The class will help to build personal discipline through a unique blend of cardiovascular training and bodyweight exercises that take advantage of the resistance properties of everyday objects. Additionally, the trainers apply military techniques to space constraints intimately familiar to city-dwellers and individuals who reside in small, constrained spaces.

Even before the workout class, we were very intrigued by this idea of leveraging a person’s harshest and darkest experience to empower others physically and mentally, which is something that we respect the founder, Coss and his fellow trainers (Sultan Malik, Ray Acosta and Shane Ennover) very much so for. Perhaps many of you would agree, working out on a consistent basis and constructing the body that you want day-in and day-out is not merely a physical act, it is about mental toughness and focus. As you may already suspected, all of the trainers did their time in the “big house” and they each bring something different based on their experience to feature into their workout.

Our trainer was Shane Ennover (Instagram – shanes_fitness_world) and our ratings for this class is as the follow:

Motivation (4.3) – The class started aggressively, there was a lot of yelling and pumping up, so it is natural that it caught us little off guard. Shane had great energy throughout the class, it’s hard to believe that our class was his third class in the row! He kept up the motivating chants throughout the workout; one may call it "tough love", but he was very good about correcting your posture if needed and very professional throughout the workout. One of our favorite motivational quotes from Shane was "Why you lying?!", which he repeated many times throughout the last part of our workout or the abs portion when you're experiencing all types of soreness in your whole body body.

Amenities (3.3) – The amenities here are not the best we've seen and the overall facility is relatively small. That said it is suffice for your basic needs - storage, shower and workout towels.  

Intensity (4.2) – Our class reflects a bootcamp-like style of training. Our trainer, Shane was relentless, we did not have many breaks throughout the class; intensity was definitely on point right from the gecko. Additional element of intensity comes from the team/group oriented routines. To elaborate further on that point, we had to perform certain exercises as a group, for instance, together we had to do lunges around the room, relay style, finishing by holding a half-squat position against the wall, so if you let down during the exercise, you're ultimately letting down your teammates and making them suffer (um... does remind us a bit of this workout class called Tone House - a little bid of foreshadowing for ya...). Again, intensity of the class was on point. 

Overall (4.0) – A great workout overall, well choragraph class in a weight-free fashion, which is pretty cool. The class helps you to realize that you really don't need a lot of space or fancy equipments to get in shape, all you need is your determination and let your creativity do the rest. Again, we cannot emphasize enough that we really appreciate what the founder and trainers are trying to accomplish and have accomplished so far.

Class Location:

294 Broome Street (C-Level)

New York, NY 10002

-L&L

Friday Night Date Night with F45

Locker Room Scene

Main Battle Ground

It's that time of the week, Friday night, where you want to be out and about, eating, drinking and doing fun things, so naturally we chose to go to a group workout class - F45 Training ("F45"). F45 was found by our mates from the Down Under (insert our "athletic" Australian accent) in 2012.  The F45 Co-CEOs sought to create a Group-Training facility that featured the most dynamic and effective training styles to date. Not only did they seek to find the best types of workouts, but they wanted to find a way to vary those workouts every day and make them accessible to the masses. They envisioned highly-capable, charismatic instructors to lead the workouts to motivate people to reach their potential. The "F" stands for functional training and the "45" stands for the approximate length of each class.

If you've read our second post - Time For a Switch ("Switch Playground" or "Switch"), you may have drawn some parellels between the two classes. Both classes (in our opinion) does a good job of keeping your body guessing by performing various movements at a high intensity level and firing off your different muscle groups. That said, F45 feels more like your cross fit gym with a openness feel to it and Switch injects certain gadgets (i.e. smoke machine and live DJ) to create a certain club-esque feel to the workout (though F45 does have a DJ on Saturdays).

F45 offers few many different style of classes, so you should definitely check'em out on its website, under "Workouts". We did the Flamingo: Athletica ( a 45-minute cardio focused session featuring varieties of HIIT). We took 3 Athletica classes (based on the generous two week special) and were pleased that they felt completely different each time, will definitely keep you from getting bored.

Time to drop our ratings on this class:

Motivation (3.5) - Our session consisted of 3 trainers, one of them was the owner of this location. The session started with the trainers providing demonstrations of the different workouts, which we thought were helpful. Further, there were TV monitors on the wall that provided additional guidance of the different exercises if you happen to be lost. That said, we wished the trainers were to do more during the workouts; while they did a good job of trying to pump people up with the "you can do it!" type of chants, we thought they could've guided people more with their forms and approaches.

Amenities (3.8) - Believe it or not, we do take this rating category pretty seriously and we did debate a fair amount regarding the rating we should give for F45. The controversial aspect of this rating rooted from the lockers without a lock, which we had a different view on. Ultimately, we decided that the overall amenities package provided by F45 gym does sufficiently offset that no lock on the locker aspect. The locker rooms do have LARGE fluffly towels and 3 showers if you are looking to run to work after. The restrooms and core training facilities were well kept and equipped with everything you need to get a good workout experience.

Intensity (4.0) - Not to over belabor the point regarding the correct forms when performing different exercise, but given how short of intervals each exercises are (20 seconds with 10 seconds break in between sets or 45 seconds with 15 seconds rest), we thought having the correct form when performing these exercises are critical to optimize your workout and maximize the intensity level. Overall, the exercises themselves will definitely give you a good run for your money, but if the trainers were more keened on people's forms and movements, we thought the session could've been even more engaging, providing more tangible results.

Overall (3.7) - We both thought the class had a lot of potential, however there were some hiccups in midst of the workout. For instance, the malfunction of the TV monitors which led to the trainers miscounting the number of sets and cutting off (several times) the cycles prematurely. All in all, we did enjoy all the different workouts featured in our session and we did appreciate the breadth of exercises offered in our session. Giving how new this location of F45 is, we hope the gym can smooth out these wrinkles quickly and realize its true potential.

Class Location:

F45 Training Flatiron
123 W. 20th St. (1E)
New York, NY 10011

- L&L

Let's Get Cyc'ed!

Li & Loo Tackle Cyc

Safely Store Away Your Belongs

Ladies and gents, today we're going to take a closer look at  Cyc Fitness ("Cyc"). As you can probably extrapolate or infer from that name, it is a group fitness class for cycling. Ever since the emergence of Soul Cycle in 2006, cycling has been the foundation block of New York group fitness scene, partly driven by its accessibility and prevalence for people with different fitness background. Additionally, these cycling classes aim not only to provide you with a good sweat and workout, but good vibes.

In this competitive cycling group fitness landscape, Cyc aims to creates its own unique brand identity. In our opinion it is closer to a Soul Cycle class than a Flywheel class. Cyc offers a series of fast-pace, beat-bumping rides that activates the whole body, the whole time. Each unique class combines calorie burning endurance intervals and weighted sectors with high-energy playlists and motivating instructors. The Cyc experience consists of  3 different types of classes: Cyc45 (most popular and common workout - for 45 minutes, let your instructor take over and just ride), CycLift (like Cyc45, but with additional elements of weight training incorporated into your ride) and CycLean (opposite of CycLift, this class focus on your stamina building and it's weight free). We took the classic Cyc45 class.

Most people are fairly familiar with cycling group fitness class due to the popularity of Soul Cycle, Flywheel and Peloton, so for us the deciding factor comes down to the instructor for your class and we got a great one today.

Now let's rate this thing:

Motivation (5) - As we mentioned above, the deciding motivational factor of the class is mainly determined and heavily influenced by the instructor. For this weekend's class, our instructors was Aaron Albert and tell you what, he was hands down one of the best cycling instructors we had, all time. The style of the class was very upbeat and motivating right from the beginning. Similar to most instructors, Aaron too, incorporated his own choreography and style of riding, however, his energy was phenomenal, especially when he would sporadically just free-style and improvise during middle of a song - his energy was contiguous.

Amenities (3.5) - The gym offers you the soup to nuts amenities similar to the rest of the group cycling classes, so if you don't have your own cycling shoes, the gym does provide you with rentals. There is a locker area downstairs from the studio, along with separate restrooms.

Intensity (4.5) - The class was fast-paced and mixed with variety of different workouts, including the weight component. While the intensity of the class was largely dictated by the our instructor, he did provide the class with the opportunities for feedbacks throughout the session. The class rode with great intensity and chose the "harder" options every chance we got. Needless to say our shirts were completely drenched by the end of the class, it was a great cardio day.

Overall (4.5) - The class definitely pleasantly exceeded our expectation and it was probably one of the best cycling classes we've taken thus far. Granted this is the only Cyc class we've taken, so it's hard to tell whether if all Cyc classes are like this, but if most of the Cyc classes provide similar quality, we're confident that you'll hear more and more about this brand of cycling. Also, Cyc is available through Class Pass.

Class Locations: 

Cyc Chelsea
555 Sixth Ave.
New York, NY 10011

Cyc Hell's Kitchen
700 Eighth Ave.
New York, NY10036

Cyc UES
1231 3rd Ave.
New York, NY 10021

-L&L