circuit of change is a workout studio located at 57 west 16th street (16th and 6th, NE corner of the intersection; 4th floor). i bought a groupon for 10 classes at the studio a few months ago, and i have to use them all up by april 4th. here is the studio:
yesterday morning (sunday @ 11am) i went to the “mindbody bootcamp” taught by the founder, brian delmonico. all of their classes are barefoot, which i think is fantastic – our feet are sensitive and should not be confined all the time. this mindbody bootcamp class had the following format:
mindbody bootcamp sequencing
- centering exercise at the beginning (less than 5 minutes) – sitting, child’s pose, some hands and knees stuff (i don’t remember it all)
- yoga-ish flow with extra intensity (10 minutes?) – sun salutation variations with extra workout-y stuff like knee to nose, planks, etc… lots of abs thrown in too.
- cardio circuits (40 minutes?) – kickboxing, abs, jumping jacks, “hit the deck”s, squat thrusts, plyometric jumps, etc… you change movements about every 15 seconds so if you don’t like what you’re doing, it’s fine because you will switch quickly.
- centering exercise (<5 minutes) – sitting, breathing, i think i remember there being some light stretching.
i estimated the times; i know that the class is 60 minutes total but i didn’t see a clock so i wasn’t able to be more precise in my breakdown.
i had a lot of fun with the class. my favorite part was the yoga-ish flow. if there was a whole class of crazy sun salutation variations i would be there in a second.
i liked the cardio circuits part as well, but i did feel like a lot of the exercises could hurt your lower back if you’re not careful (bending down to touch the ground for example). i am not a fan of squat thrusts because i don’t think they are good for your joints (unlike chaturanga, you don’t land your feet back with your arms already bent). squat thrusts aside though, the exercises brian did pick for the circuits were probably my favorites out of the standard cardio class moves.
midway through the yoga flow i started to break a sweat, and i kept on dripping all the way through class.
Update: I originally said I would go back, however, unfortunately, I hurt my back at a class later on during this week and I think it was because of bad form during far-too-fast squats and other exercises that could be bad for your back. I didn’t end up using up all 10 classes – I only used 5.