Tag Archives: crunch class review

June 1, 2012

Megan’s Monthly Goals {June} and Crunch Class Review {Beach Body}

Today’s Workout: 1 mi run, 45 min spin {The Ride}, 60 min beach body class @ Crunch

HAPPY JUNE! To kick off the new month (and pretty much the start of summer. Woohoo!), I am going to recap the goals that I set for myself in May. I really want to see if I met them all or not. Here were my May goals:

1. Go to PT consistently and heal this IT Band so I can run the Lake Placid Half in June.
MAYBE: I have been going to PT consistently but the IT Band is not healing all that fast. I will most likely run/walk the Lake Placid Half.
2. Do more crosstraining (pilates, kickboxing) classes.
YES: I have been using my monthly Crunch membership to try out lots of classes. You can read reviews here.
3. Stretch every day!
YES: I’ve been stretching every day consistently. Some days better than others.
4. No eating after 8:30pm and limit snacking.
NO: I forgot about this goal honestly and am guilty of snacking a lot. I am going to re-try this and make it one of my goals for June!
5. Plan an awesome anniversary day.
YES: Karl and I tried a new grill-your-own meat restaurant that was amazing. Although we couldn’t spend the whole day together, we had a great time.

Now onto my June goals and what I hope to accomplish this month. Pretty sure I can do them all, although numbers 1 and 2 may be difficult!

June Goals:
1. No eating after 8:30pm and limit snacking. (Need to do it this month!)
2. Continue and complete the RW Summer Run Streak.
3. Read at least one new book.
4. Buy a bike and start biking places.
5. Lose 5 pounds to get to my goal weight (I gained a few in May).

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This morning basically consisted of LOTS of exercise. I only have a week or so left to use my month-long membership to Crunch that I bought on Lifebooker so I’m trying to take advantage of it. I headed to Crunch this morning for two classes, but before that I had to get in my #RWRunStreak mile for the day. I only did one mile because today is normally a rest day for me, so I decided to take it easy.

After the mile I took a 45 minute spin class {The Ride} with Brooke. I reviewed a spin+abs class I took with her the other day, so I won’t write another one. You can see that review here.

After spin I was feeling energetic and noticed that another class was starting soon after mine ended. After some deliberation, I talked myself into staying for it to get my money’s worth of the monthly membership. I’m so glad I stayed, it was a great workout! Here’s the review:

Class: Beach Body@ Crunch
Instructor: Zuta G
Length: 60 minutes

This class was held in the group fitness room and was pretty crowded. That’s always a sign that the instructor is good!

Photo of the group fitness room from another day

Zuta is really high-energy and picked great exercises that flowed well from one to the next. She played great music the entire time and honestly it made the whole class so much more fun.

The class was focused on conditioning the entire body, so we did a little bit of everything instead of just one area of the body specifically. In most of the exercises we used both arms and legs at the same time for a better workout. The class started out with lots of fast movements (e.g. kickboxing kicks and jabs, step-up kicks, fast squats, etc) to warm up and get in some cardio, while also strengthening. I was seriously sweating the whole time, but especially during the first 15 minutes. It was intense. We used the stepper during most of the class, but especially the beginning.

My station!

After the cardio section we used the weights for some upper body and back strengthening as well as core (planks). Zuta emphasized high reps with the weights, but not an unrealistic amount. I was feeling it in my muscles but at the same time I wasn’t overwhelmed with how much we were doing. It was just right! Towards the end of the class we did some chest and ab work, which killed me since my abs and core are pathetic.

The verdict: I enjoyed this class and its worth a try. Zuta is a great instructor.

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Since I didn’t do the Three Things Thursday post this week, I just want to end off this Friday post by sharing a few random pictures that I took this week. I love NYC and all its craziness.

Random man on a super tall bike in BK

A GAP billboard make entirely of shirts. Real shirts.

This was my lunch today. Apparently subway has low fat kettle cooked chips. And they taste GOOD! Yay!

Did you meet your May goals?
Tell me some of your goals for June.
Any good plans for the weekend?

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May 30, 2012

My Graduation Day and Crunch Class Review {The Ride+Abs}

Today’s Workout: 1.5 mile run (RW Streak Day 3), The Ride+Abs at Crunch, PT exercises

Tonight is the graduation ceremony for my Master’s degree in occupational therapy! Basically its a faux graduation though because I’m not really done. Its sort of anti-climactic. While I’ve completed all my classes, I still have two Level II fieldwork affiliations to complete (basically its working full time for credits). So until those are done I can’t sit for my licensing exam. But its only about 6 more months until I can get a real job! Then I’ll probably feel like this…

Later I’ll be going out to eat with my family before the ceremony so I didn’t want to go overboard with my food today (since I know I may indulge a little this evening). In the past few weeks of being off from school, I’ve felt myself losing some control over my diet. Perhaps its me just getting lazy or the change in my daily routine but I’ve noticed I haven’t been feeling the same lately.

Because of that, I think I may have gained a couple pounds. Its only a few and nothing major, but I want to be better about not snacking too much and making better choices in general. I want to feel as good as I did a few weeks ago, which is most important to me. So today I had a Clif bar for breakfast on my way to the gym and for lunch a green smoothie (almond butter, banana and spinach) and TJs salmon burger. Filling and tasty! Plus, there was a ton of protein in there for my muscles.

I was so sleepy when my alarm went off this morning and basically had to pep talk myself into getting up. Its gloomy in NYC lately which makes me feel this way… I’m missing the sunshine! Anyway, I did get up eventually and headed to Crunch gym for a class. I ended up getting there sort of early and decided to get in my run before the class to complete Day 3 of the RW Summer Running Streak.

Since its normally supposed to be a “rest day” for me, I decided to take it easier and run 1.5 miles on the treadmill. I’ve been running on the treadmill a lot lately just because its convenient but I really need to get my butt outside more. I’m just not thrilled about running on the city streets and since I can’t run that far right now, there’s no sense in commuting to Central Park or Prospect Park. But this week I’ll man up and run in my neighborhood! Watch out pavement!!

Proof that I ran. I think that calorie burn is a lie.

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After my quick run I headed to the spin room for my second spin class ever. I may be an addict.

Class: The Ride+Abs@ Crunch
Instructor: Brooke E
Length: 45 minutes

I’ve already talked about the Crunch gym spin room at Lafayette street in this post, so I’ll just get right into the class itself. Basically this class is different from the regular “The Ride” class at Crunch because its only 30 minutes of spin and 15 minutes of abs.

Unlike the last spin class I took with Tomas (mostly in positions 2 and 3), Brooke utilized all three positions pretty equally. We did some seated sprints and then some in the other two positions on the bike. I really enjoyed the 30 second sprints that were incorporated, they were my favorite part.

Brooke seemed to emphasize high-resistance riding while Tomas used more of a moderate resistance throughout with some higher level resistance sprinkled in. I think I prefer the way Tomas organized the class in that sense but I still feel like I got a really good workout today, which is really what matters. Brooke was also very high energy, helpful, and kept everyone motivated!

The music was pretty good overall but I prefer more dance type, Jersey shore fist pumping music for classes like this than the mix that was played. However, it still was coordinated to the pedaling and the resistance on the bikes which I really enjoy since it helps me keep my uncoordinated self on track!

After spin we went into the group fitness room for some abs. Now, I have to preface this by disclosing that I have incredibly weak abs/core. That being said, the abs section of this class was TOUGH! Although it was a quick 15 minutes, I definitely got in a great core workout. I liked the variety of the exercises Brooke chose and how they flowed from one to the next. I was seriously feeling the burn!

I would recommend trying this class. I liked how it incorporated spin + abs, which adds a little variety to the workout. I’m really liking spin and want to take as many classes as I can before my membership expires. I’m also going to keep an eye out for Groupons or discounts that agree with my student budget! If you know of any, send them my way :)

What was your workout today?
What did you have for lunch?
Which do you prefer: running outside or running on the treadmill?

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May 15, 2012

Crunch Class Review {Chisel} and a Personal Training Session

Today’s Workout: personal training session, Crunch Chisel class, 1.75 mile run

Recently I attended my first class at Crunch gym on Lafayette street and had a great time! Another perk of my $40 unlimited monthly membership from Lifebooker was the opportunity for a free personal training session. Apparently they are normally around $130 for a session (whoa!). So as a grad student with no real job aside from babysitting, getting this for free was the only way I’d ever be able to do this!

My appointment today was with Eric, a  super nice trainer. I told him about my injury and also that I have a week core and upper body, so he made sure to really fit those into my session. Basically I got what I asked for and my arms/core got beat to a pulp, but I guess it was good for me.

We used TRX suspension equipment for most of the session and did squats, rows, chest press, biceps, triceps, and core exercises. They were a killer and of course my arms were shaking embarrassingly. After years of softball and volleyball, my arms are still really weak. Pathetic. And of course he wanted me to repeat the whole sequence 3 times. Fun, fun!

TRX suspension equipment. Thats obvi not me, I didn’t turn blonde overnight no matter how hard I try!

Afterwards we did some more core work with another device that I can’t remember the name of. But it looked like a long stick with a resistance band thing on the end. Anyway, it was a core muscle killer and I loved it! I’m glad to have gotten to try this for free. Its intimidating to be one-on-one though because they can see everything you do right AND of course all you do wrong!

After the training session, I headed downstairs to get ready for the class I was taking:
Chisel with Carl Hall.

Carl Hall from Crunch

Apparently he is super popular and his classes fill up in minutes so you have to sign in early. Luckily I was there anyway for training and got in. According to the website, Chisel “uses weights and calisthenics to sculpt and shape muscles.“ Basically what it should say is: “this class will kick your butt, work every muscle you have, and make you sweat like a beast, but you’ll have fun doing it.” 

When I walked in I wasn’t sure what to expect. I set up my station similar to everyone elses (with an elevated stepper) and got three sets of weights: easy, medium, and heavy. I always set up in the middle/back of the room (I try to semi-hide myself, I’ll admit it) but in this case it didn’t really matter because Carl walked around the whole time to help everyone out. He was really great in that way and made it feel almost like a personal training session. I think he adjusted/worked with everyone individually at some point.

Basically we started the class with a warm up followed by core/abs, upper body and lastly lower body. We repeated most of the exercises 25x which allowed me to really feel the burn in my muscles. There was a bit of cardio but mostly the class involved lifting weights and using our body weight to strengthen and tone pretty much every muscle.

Carl himself is great, with a fantastic sense of humor and upbeat personality. He played great music and kept the rhythm of the exercises with the beat. He was making jokes throughout but was also keeping everyone motivated. He also kept emphasizing that “Summer is just around the corner ladies! Its going to be 80 degrees this weekend! Gotta work harder if you want that chocolate”. I actually liked his little motivational comments because pretty soon I’ll have to show my stomach in public (geez). That made me work more on those crunches :)

This is Chisel… some serious muscle time!

I would definitely recommend this class to anyone interested and may go back to take it again next week. It really is an intense total body workout but is also a ton of fun with a great instructor. If you are ready for an awesome, kick butt, crazy, sweat-inducing workout, this is for you.

After the class I decided to head upstairs for a quick 1.75 mile run on the treadmill. I wanted to run more but was so tired from the training session and the class that I had to stop. The BK Half is this weekend and I’m hoping I’m able to run a good amount of it before having to walk because of my bum knee.

PS. Remember to use the code: RunlikeaGirl15 to get $15 off a pair of Aspaeris Pivot Shorts. It is valid through the end of May :)

Have you ever had a personal training session before? Did you like it?
Have you gone to any classes recently? Tell me about them!
Anyone else excited to run the BK Half?

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