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Old 02-06-2020, 08:10 AM
 
Location: Roanoke, Va
163 posts, read 142,976 times
Reputation: 261

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How much to do you love it!?? I love so many things! The structured classes, booking your own classes and holding yourself accountable to go, just show up and the workout is pre-planned, the coaches to guide you through your workout, each day is a different workout. You're too busy focusing on yourself you have no time to worry about anything else!

Over- all I love measuring my success by my heart health. You can measure by how your heart reacts to each exercise by following the colors. The higher your heart pumps the harder you're working, but once you reach the point of a fitness level, your heart rate goes down and you can recover faster, which means it's another step in pushing yourself to the next level. That's when the fun begins. Who else loves it just as me?? The concept to me is just genius.
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Old 02-06-2020, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Toronto
669 posts, read 316,765 times
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My wife is really into it for those reasons. One opened near my work in Downtown Toronto. I was skeptical given the competitiveness but it has been busy every time I leave work at 5pm.
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Old 02-06-2020, 09:27 AM
 
Location: Roanoke, Va
163 posts, read 142,976 times
Reputation: 261
That's awesome! I'm glad to hear she likes it. We only have one in our area and just recently I joined a face book Orange Theory group and was surprised to see there are areas around the US where people are actually wait listed for classes. I live in a small town so I'm happy not to have to worry about that. I go to an early AM class and it's a good sized group. The 5am class is bigger. I can't get up that early lol

It's great to see people with all kinds of fitness levels just focusing on themselves. So different from the regular gym. You don't have to worry about people talking or talking to you during the work out. It's not that type of place. It a place to get it done.
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Old 02-06-2020, 02:17 PM
 
Location: Vallejo
21,662 posts, read 24,789,425 times
Reputation: 18887
Not my cup of tea. It's different. I only did one free session, so limited exposure. I brought my own HRM. Standard BT/ANT HRM. I get that the instructor can't 30 seconds to pair every random drop-in to the screen but that's was red flag. It's just a standard BLE/ANT+ HRM. They wanted 100 which was highly encouraged, very highly. If you want your heart rate on the TV you buy their branded HRM. Period. It's too much free work for the instructor to be bothered to spend 30 seconds on you if you brought your own. I get it for a drop in. I really do. Taking a few minutes to pair is a few minutes on a tight schedule, someone comes in and doesn't know how to pair their device and expects the instructor to tie their shoes and open their water bottle for them.

Moving on. Nobody was let in the room. Instead we all piled up in the lobby and sucked our thumbs. Actually I went out and went for a warm-up jog around some parked cars while everyone else sucked thumb. Then we stampeded into the room and were assigned our stall, treadmill or rowing machine. Then we did two minutes of jumping jacks and mountain climbers. Not much of a warm up but by the time we were done filing in the door and getting assigned stalls it's how much time there was left. Some people appeared to be used to this routine and proceeded to immediately warm up despite stank eye from the instructor ones assigned their stall.

The rest of it was a mix of treadmill, rowing machine, and "strength." The stenght is what I would call variety. I've used restance bands before. They take up space and take time to change bands, so they're limited use in a group setting. Most people don't get enough variety, core, stabilizers so it's good, just an addition to strength training and not a substitute. I went the day after lifting. It's not heavy enough to overly hurt recovery.

Intensity is moderately high. When the friend who roped me into trying it was talking about it, it was like you're nuts. 161 to 175 bpm is orange zone for me. Sustaining that for an hour would be brutal and supposedly you people do this 4 to 6 times a week? Well, you don't. It's more like 12 to 15 minutes cumulative for each half. I couldn't keep my heart rate up on the strength half of it anyway. It's not a cakewalk but it's not vomit bucket. Run, for example, was 3 minutes on, 2 minutes off. The on. For a runner it's too hard for a recovery day, but you could always hot dog it, but easier than you'd do on speed work. For example track workout might be 400 at above mile pace 200 recovery with lots of repeats. It was more alternating between 5k pace and long recovery with a few mile pace efforts. Done as intended it's a decent short run. It's not vomit bucket and it's not recovery.

It's balanced, other than the lack of heavy lifting. If you never run or never lift it would hit your weakness. For me hit my lack of core strength. What seemed like it was easiest for everyone else was what challenged me the most.
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Old 02-06-2020, 08:59 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX via San Antonio, TX
9,843 posts, read 13,585,668 times
Reputation: 5701
I’d do it 4-6 times a week if I could afford it. I do Camp Gladiator instead because I have a killer discount with my employer. I can’t, though, justify paying for the premium account when I can go to the same number of CG classes at a lower price. I loved the work-out. I’ve probably done 4-5 total at all different times of the year. As an endurance runner, I loved the idea of pushing myself on the treadmill for 30 minutes instead of being at a steady pace for an hour. I think if I kept at it I could get my long distance pace up, but, again, cost. I will occasionally pay for a drop in class when I don’t want to do CG, but that’s usually on a Friday or Sunday when there aren’t any CG classes (so lame that it’s within their model to not have classes on those days). I liked the rowing too. From my understanding OTF coaches don’t have to be personal trainers because the classes are all pre-determined. CG is all independent and every trainer is different. If I want a hard workout I’ll find a great hard trainer. If I want a little less I find a different trainer.
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Old 02-07-2020, 07:04 AM
 
9,280 posts, read 8,189,086 times
Reputation: 18940
Next to Planet Fitness I could not hate a "gym" more than the Orange Theory model. Expensive, classes only, full of amateurs who know little to nothing about fitness, which is why they joined a gym like this in the first place.

I'd rather do bodyweight exercises alone at home. Sorry, just being honest. I know it has a place for some people.

Last edited by Florida2014; 02-07-2020 at 08:25 AM..
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Old 02-10-2020, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Roanoke, Va
163 posts, read 142,976 times
Reputation: 261
Florida 2014 you don't have to apologize. It's not for everyone, however I wouldn't say it's for amateurs who know little to nothing about fitness. Are you talking about the instructors or the people in the class?? If you're referring to the people in the class, try and rethink that. You're not there for someone else, who cares what level they're in. They're there learning. I've been into playing sports and fit my entire 48 year old life, a regular gym is what I've always focused on mainly weight lifting. Not afraid to lift heavy. Cardio isn't something I enjoy. I'm confident to say my body comp is impressive, however OT is very challenging.

If I break it down, I go 2 times a week, it costs less then 2 lunches out a week. ($11.25 per class) I plan to bump it up to unlimited just because I'm enjoying it that much. The cost for that will be only 3 lunches per week. Cost varies depending on your city and since I'm in a tiny town it's $90 per month, which when you break it down it's not that much. Most woman choose to get their hair or nails done for more then that. So I justify cost that way.

Malloric - You should try it again! Sounds weird to me OT would have a warm up before class. Never heard of that?? I imagine OT's could be different in areas, but I've never heard of a "warm up" before the class starts? I have friends in different states and they don't do warm up ever. I get to OT 5 minutes or less before class time so I'm not standing around. It's 6 am so I don't want to get there any earlier then I have to. Once I'm in I grab a tread card or row card. My preference is the row due to stretching my body out. From row we go to weights and lastly the tread which is most challenging for me. I've been athletic my whole life and speed running in short distance I've always been good at. Not so much distance.

What I think I love about it the most is the heart health! I never paid attention to that ever. I guess that's what happens as you get older? It more important to me then anything now. Going in the red isn't necessary good. It's an indicator your heart rate in red isn't used to that kind of activity. So the more you do it the more endurance you'll achieve. So I've realize the challenge for me is to try and stay out of the red. You're not supposed to stay in the Orange the entire time either. Half green and half Orange is awesome too.

ashbeeigh - Yea, I'm with you! If your employer offers discounts yea no-brainer! Glad to hear you enjoyed it though.

Last edited by CaveSpringNewb; 02-10-2020 at 02:12 PM..
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Old 02-15-2020, 08:59 AM
 
Location: Virginia
2,765 posts, read 3,612,278 times
Reputation: 2355
I have seen some videos on youtube about Orange Theory and they seem to be pretty energetic. I am glad that some people can use this program to get fit. The only issue I see with all these exercise programs is that they all seem to be trying to re invent the wheel. They all brand themselves as new and unique and different from the rest but in my eyes they are pretty much the same in essence. Fitness used to be simple. People did some form of resistance training such as lifting weights or calisthenics or functional exercises and some form of cardio like jogging aerobics, bicycle riding or swimming and that kept people fit. Now everything seems so complicated. And on top of that the obesity and poor health rate is worse than ever. You would think that with all the technological advances and all these new fitness programs obesity and health problems would have been eradicated but instead it seems worse. It is almost like if the fitness industry had made matter worse. It is weird. But I am glad some people benefit from Orange Theory.
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Old 02-15-2020, 10:02 AM
 
9,952 posts, read 6,581,067 times
Reputation: 19649
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1orlando View Post
I have seen some videos on youtube about Orange Theory and they seem to be pretty energetic. I am glad that some people can use this program to get fit. The only issue I see with all these exercise programs is that they all seem to be trying to re invent the wheel. They all brand themselves as new and unique and different from the rest but in my eyes they are pretty much the same in essence. Fitness used to be simple. People did some form of resistance training such as lifting weights or calisthenics or functional exercises and some form of cardio like jogging aerobics, bicycle riding or swimming and that kept people fit. Now everything seems so complicated. And on top of that the obesity and poor health rate is worse than ever. You would think that with all the technological advances and all these new fitness programs obesity and health problems would have been eradicated but instead it seems worse. It is almost like if the fitness industry had made matter worse. It is weird. But I am glad some people benefit from Orange Theory.
I have some friends who like it, but they tend to have a higher level of fitness. I have another friend who tried it and he is obese and had not been exercising for a while. These high-energy fitness classes are often too much for someone just trying to ease back into it. He ended up paying for a few months and then stopped going. In warmer months, he does biking and tries to take a bike trip every year. It’s essentially free except for the trip since he has the bike.
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Old 02-17-2020, 02:26 PM
 
Location: Roanoke, Va
163 posts, read 142,976 times
Reputation: 261
I understand what you're saying 1 Orlando. Fitness used to be pretty simple that's for sure. However, I also grew up in the 80's where as a kid there was no such thing as sitting around in your room or eating fast food. If I went to my room it was torture!!!! Only because I was sent there to clean my room or punishment. We played games until the the sun went down. Even played in the dark at times when we had an outside light. It was basketball, wiffleball, running bases, badminton etc. etc. with my family and neighborhood. Now most of the population sits around on computer gadgets and mindless scrolls wasting a whole lot of time. I think the fitness world has adjusted to the way people are today unfortunately.

Ramen Addict - I would somewhat agree that the classes are geared to higher level fitness, but in my city there are a few dozen people who I've noticed very out of shape. What's nice about the class is you don't have to run. There are power walkers and you just go your own pace. Every exercise can be adjusted to everyone's level, you do what you can. I applaud a long with most of the classes I know to anyone who comes out and tries. The key is not to give up and do you. No time to compare to someone else.
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