Yesterday, I burned 570 calories before 6am. I ran. I rowed. I strength trained. I pushed my body to its limit. All in the course of 60 minutes and before most people were even awake for the day or had their first cup of coffee.
This isn’t because I am some freak of nature who enjoys rising at 4:30am or someone who truly enjoys running. I don’t! (Though I do enjoy working out more than Kristina.)
It’s because of a new addiction of mine.
It’s called Orange Theory Fitness (OTF).
Have you heard of this new fitness class craze? Are you wondering what the hype is all about? I’m here to fill you in!
Orange Theory Fitness is all about getting your heart into certain zones of your max heart rate in order to provide a serious calorie burn and (my favorite) after-burn.
But how do you know if you’re working at your max heart rate? Simple! Each participant wears a heart rate monitor customized to your body (weight and height). We all burn calories differently; the heart rate monitor tracks your stats throughout the class as you work out. During the class, your heart rate stats are displayed on a monitor.
Don’t worry, nothing related to your height or (shreek!) weight is displayed! Simply just what percentage of your max heart rate you are working out. Your trainer will coach you through intervals to take you into each zone. The idea is to push, then let your body recover, and then push again. Each minute you are in the orange or red zone (84% or more of your max heart rate), you get a splat point.
Once you take your first class, you will immediately become addicted to those points. Trust me.
Your class will typically consist of about ½ cardio and ½ strength training. Think 28 minutes on the treadmill with some rowing and 28 minutes of strength (may include rowing) with equipment like TRX bands, medicine balls and weights. Not a runner? No problem. Power walkers are a big part of the OTF community.
Your coach will take you through the entire workout along with fun energized music. They will tell you things like “2 minutes push pace!” and that basically means you run or power walk for 2 minutes and then take it into a lighter jog or walk to recover. Then back up again.
The great part is the entire 60 minutes is guided for you so you don’t have those confusing moments trying to figure out what exercise to do next like you might have in the gym. They create the workout for you – and it’s way more fun and effective than you probably do at the gym yourself.
The workouts are mixed up every single day so your body never knows what’s coming. That keeps it fun but also confuses your body which is how you see results!
Finally you get results emailed to you so you can bask in the glory of how awesome you are.
Your first class is free so why not give it a go? Don’t worry, you don’t have to go at 5am like I do. They have classes 7 days a week sunup to sundown!
Questions about OTF? I’d love to chat with you about this awesome workout in the comments!
{This post is not sponsored. I just love this workout and thought you would, too!}
