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