Day 20: 30 Day ClassPass Challenge

DAVINCI BODYBOARD CLASS (PILATES STUDIO CITY) 

11650 Riverside Drive, Suite 1 & 2, Los Angeles, CA 91602 

Resistance Band to the Extreme

Adding yet another unique workout to the books- DaVinci BodyBoard Class! ClassPass adds new studios to its line up every week. It's like a Christmas Present finding out that a new studio you like is added. Last week, they added Pilates Studio City.  I have been wanting to check out this place forever because it's a walk, skip, and jump from my place. No driving in Los Angeles is a rare jewel to be treasured.

Davinci BodyBoard is described as a group equipment class and like taking Pilates, Barre, and Zumba all at once. The BodyBoard System is based on high intensity intreval training that is time-efficient and extremely effective. The use of resistance bands allows for more varied movement and engages smaller muscle groups which creates "full body integrity." That's what my ClassPass description said anyways. Pilates, Barre, and Zumba are pretty much my penultimate work-outs so ALL THREE IN ONE? Where have you been all my life.

Today was another super sonic one workout. 25 minutes! A full body workout in 25 minutes? Again, I was curious to see if I could get a good butt-kickin in as little as 25 minutes. Wednesdays are my longest days of work and it seemed like the perfect day to take advantge of a short class. 

Only 4 to 5 students per class  

This simple machine is highly deceving  

The instructors name was Keiko and she was all business. We began class two minutes early. Here's a woman after my own heart- I love starting early! Especially when you only have a 25 minute class, I was ready to squeeze in a few extra minutes. 

We began with a few minutes of Cardio. We picked up the pink bungees on the side with our arms and began lifting our legs in the air- like a march. Much like you would do at Pure Barre or Bar Method. Because we had the bungee's, this added more of a challenge than you would find at the barre studios. I was surprised at how fast my heart rate picked up. We also did a series of squats and dips on each leg 

Boogie with the bungees  

I actually have a video of me doing a little dance with the bungees. I am not going to lie- I look pretty ridiculous and hilarious, so if you want to see that- you are going to have to follow me on Instagram. That's a shameless plug. In all honesty- I cannot figure out how to upload a video onto this website with my Ipad. That's the only reason you do not get to see me shaking my hips like Shakira. (okay, not even close to Shakira's hips)

I liked the intreval aspect of the class. We used only the board for "weight-lifting" and the resistance was killer. We would dance in between the sets to keep our heart rate up.  

All in all- the class is probably aimed at women slightly older than myself. The two ladies in class with me were in their 50's but that being said- I was surprised that it was as difficult as it was. I asked Keiko if there was an advanced level. I would be all over that. She said, not yet. I am pretty good at reading in between the lines and I am assuming means that there could possibly be an advanced class in the future.  

Ooo the part that really killed was the ab section. Both your arms and legs are attached the the bungees. You are strapped in. Unable to escape! Can you imagine doing a minute of this attached to bungee cords?? I can tell you from experience. It's HARD.                                                

Keiko giving me intense pointers about keeping my stomach to the floor while twisting. I'm TRYING Keiko! 

Keiko was a solid coach

I am a surprisingly a little bit obsessed with this class. There are a few reasons, and I would be lying if some of that didn't have to do with the distance to my apartment. I love that if you are having a really busy day, you can still squeeze in a decent work out, that gets your heart rate up AND tones in only 25 minutes. I would love for it to be 45 minutes. 

I will be returning to Pilates Studio City- and can I put in a request that Level Two Pilates please be added on the ClassPass schedule soon :)  

Day 4: ClassPass 30 Day Challenge

The "beach" torture chamber 

Aw man, I was completely finished with this blog post for today and then technology decided to be a sneaky little bitch and deleted everything before I could post. This post might be a little short since I HATE TECHNOLOGY and am really cranky now. This has nothing to do with my workout today.

A couple of evenings ago I was watching an old episode of ABC's SharkTank and SandBox Fitness was doing an update. Mark Cuban invested and put a bunch of classes in Crunch Gyms. Looks like it is really expanding because SandBox has many of their own standalone stores now. I chose to attend a Surfset class in Sherman Oaks, CA. Pretty nuts, they have covered the entire floor with sand! I have a difficult time imagining the class in a gym because we did a lot of jumping (jumping, my fav!) from side to side. On the gym floor I would imagine this would be a little hard on the joints. I definitely appreciated landing on the super soft sand.

I thought this class was going to be easier for me. A few months ago I told a modeling job that I could yoga on paddle board even though I had not ever actually yoga-paddleboarded before. In the end, I took a class, and turns out I was pretty freakin good at yoga on paddle board. But it also turns out, that Surfset class is NOT yoga on a paddle board.This is a full-out bootcamp class with high intensity cardio and sprinkled with a few holds and strength training. SandBox fitness does offer yoga, TRX, and bootcamp minus the boards. MY class today was spent entirely on the surfboards.

Cow-a-bunga (sp?)

We began the class with 40 second cardio bursts. This included jumping across the board. Jumping on the board. Mounting the board like on an actual ocean. Burpees.  After this we took a little time to do some strength training, like push ups, arm presses, ect.  THEN we did the whole cardio section but this time we did everything for a minute.  A minute may not seem very long, but a minute is eternity. A minute on an unstable board doing mountain climbers takes it to a whole other level.

Side note- Don't wear short shorts to Surfset class. Too much jumping and sand involved. Wasn't thinking. Sorry if I mooned you today. 

My instructor, Minna, made it look pretty easy. She did the whole routine with us, and talked and explained the entire way through it. Like it was as easy as brushing her teeth or something. I wonder how many classes she has to teach a day? Does she do all of them? Is she a freak of nature? WHO ARE YOU, MINNA?!

Let's get real here for a second. Getting dirty is not my favorite thing to do. I was nervous that I would have to wash my hair afterwards and I pretty much base most of my workout decisions on if it will make me have to wash my hair. I am not sure what I was thinking because luckily, my hair never touched the sand. I can go another day! The sand comes off your bod fairly easily too. Not like beach sand, it was very soft and my toes really dug it. But you WILL sweat bullets in the class, so expect to get a little messy because sand does like to stick to sweat. But bathing is fine, just no hair washing. 

I am still curious about how often they change the sand out. It cannot be cheap to pour that much sand in the room all the time. I was sweating an awful lot and everyone else was too...so...hmmm..I am just going to put that out of my mind. At least it wasn't stinky!

Pretty sure my previous post was funnier and longer but I can't do this any longer. please save, please save! If you're in the LA area you really should check out SandBox because it's very unique and unlike any workout I have ever experienced. So freaky lucky I live in a city with cool shit.

why did I choose to wear such short shorts? Sand likes to creep up certain...areas. Wear pants people.