5 Best Post-Holiday Workouts
Over the holidays, you no doubt ate and drank with abandon. A few candy canes here, a bite or six of ham there, everything chased with several sips of egg nog. Hey, you're human, and the holidays do bring out the hunger in us. But if you're looking to get fit in the new year, you're in luck: NYC has several gyms and fitness studios to help you burn off your holiday indulgences. Check out our picks for the best post-holiday workouts below. By Jessica Allen.
You don't have to look very hard to find an indoor cycling studio in New York: from SoulCycle to FlyWheel to Revolve, there are plenty of places to get your riding on, complete with kickin' music and super-motivating instructors. Designed and owned by a husband-and-wife team, Flow Cycle does things a little differently, by using a bike that tilts from side to side. The instability works your body from head to toe.
As "[t]he world's only fitness studio dedicated solely to rebounding classes for all ages," JumpLife "offers a total body immersion that elevates the mind, body, and spirit." It's also really, really fun. The low-impact workouts take place on individual trampolines, and they develop stamina, increase circulation, and tax your muscles in the process. Some classes even include yoga, relaxation, resistance training, dance moves, and weights.
Refine Method calls itself "New York's smartest workout." Its small group classes focus on full-body, high-intensity circuit training, blending stretching, strength training, and cardio. Expect lots of individual attention, lots of sweat, and lots of burning, in a good way. The basic exercises can be ramped up for the fittest of the fit or modified to accommodate newbies. There are three locations in Manhattan, and absolutely zero excuses.
"The only school in the United States that offers both eastern and western sword styles side-by-side, encouraging exploration and discourse between the divergent forms," Sword Class NYC is also known as Sung Do Kwan (in Korean), which translates as "Academy of the Sacred Sword." Whatever you call it, here you'll learn to master of the German longsword, kendo, or siljun dobup, and become a samurai in the process.
The trouble with working out, of course, is the working. Throwback Fitness seeks to put the fun back into exercise with group workouts that "channel the nostalgia of adolescence." In other words, you'll get fit by playing Capture the Flag or Dodgeball, running around with water guns, or taking a break from rowing or calisthenics to tackle another game you no doubt recall from your time on playgrounds or in gym class.