Ok, I’m at it again with this month of torture fitness. Honestly, I don’t know why I do it so often, because I’m not a fitness fanatic. It makes me feel great. It gets me in shape. It releases voodoo-like endorphins that make me feel happy and invincible. But, since I sleep so little, that extra hour of zzz’s would really do me some good. Fortunately (and unfortunately depending on how you look at it), this month I’m flexing my muscles at FLEX Studios.
FLEX Studios is a boutique fitness studio located in both the NoHo and Union Square area of Manhattan. Founded on the premise of small group workouts that are intense, you will be sweating five minutes in – and that’s me being nice. My first class was barre focused with moments of burpies, lots of planks, and patterns of pulsing movements that had my thighs quivering. At the end, I had sweat streaming out of every orifice as my body begged me for a 30 minute recovery nap on the communal bench.
As I slowly and begrudgely put on my sneakers (I wanted to Britney Spears myself out the studio, but knew barefooting it anywhere in NYC is like begging for a disease) some fitness equivalent of second wind hit me. That exhaustion and “give up” mindset was replaced with pep and excitement for the day. Which was unusual for such an intense regime. Most times an hour to two hour recovery period is required, but within minutes I was treating myself tooverpriced delicious, fresh squeezed pineapple orange juice from Dean and Deluca, while crossing off errands originally scheduled for the weekend.
This could just be the honeymoon stage of my time at FLEX Studios, but in the world of wellness does the honeymoon phase ever end? We’ll just have to see…