No Sleep Till (Orangetheory) Brooklyn!

This post is sponsored by Orangetheory Fitness Brooklyn, but you know I LOVE me some OTF.

I love running. Even if it doesn’t love me right now.

I’ve grown to like strength training — I love the feeling of lifting heavier and feeling myself getting stronger.

But my time is limited, so any workout that can get both in is A+++ to me.

You may remember I had quite the OrangeTheory Fitness kick last year. To be honest, the only reason I stopped was because I was doing Whole 30 and just didn’t have the energy at first.

So…I didn’t do it for a while.

But there’s a new OTF opening in Park Slope, and I was invited to try a workshop at a Brooklyn-based OTF for this campaign. HELL YES! Plus, when it’s around the corner from one of your closest friends’ place, it’s an A++ excuse to go for brunch immediately after.

The class is broken up into treadmill blocks and “floor” (aka strength) blocks that can vary based on the class focus.

The purpose of the class is to get your heart rate into the fat burning (orange) zone for as much of the class as possible to get “splat points.” This is measured via the heart rate monitor you wear on your chest (you can pay ~$5 to borrow one or buy your own. Unfortunately you can’t BYOHRM) and is shown on this monitor.

As someone who’s generally a runner, my heart is fairly well conditioned to running and I have a hard time getting into those zones — my legs really struggle before my cardiovascular system does. For that reason, i really like to start on the treadmill so that I can keep on burning a bit while my heart rate comes down for the strength blocks.

But on this day I tried OTF Brooklyn Heights, I got on the treadmill and was immediately moved to the erg. FINE. (It’s cool, I also really like rowing.) My group went from the rower to the floor and back before switching to the treadmills. (My butt, by the way, still hurts thinking of those ass-to-grass squats to the bench.)

That white you see in the windows is no mistake. As I walked in, it was a gorgeous snowy December day; walking out, it was a “wintry mix” mess. SWEET.

But I loved the space — it was HUGE and didn’t feel cramped at all. (Toto, you are not in Manhattan any more.)

The Park Slope one (Flatbush/St. Marks, right by Morgan’s BBQ) opens in January and they are doing all kinds of special deals at all three BK locations (BK Heights, Williamsburg and Park Slope) to celebrate its opening.

Have you ever been to an OTF? Are there any other awesome strength/cardio-in-one workouts you do? Tell me everything.