Month One at F45

Late last year, I started seeing ads in my Instagram feed for “F45”, a fairly new chain of fitness studios and one was opening near me. It had been over a year since I had done some type of “class” environment training, so the concept intrigued me. I signed up for their trial for when they opened.

They finally opened, after some delays (construction delays suck), in early March. I went in with some hesitation and worry. I wasn’t sure what to expect. My old coach used to teach the classes at my old gym, so there was definitely a level of “comfort” there.

Day 1, the class was reasonably crowded. It was a LOT tougher than I was expecting. While it was only 45 minutes compared to my old gym’s hour long sessions, the breaks were shorter. We could usually get in a good 2 minute break, not here.

Here, everything is on a tight timer. It’s all controlled by the technology in the studio. That was probably the first thing that impressed me about this place. All the exercises are on the screen. There are timers on one side, and heart rate monitors and leaderboards on the other. It’s a studio that has truly embraced technology. As someone who is a big believer in “Data Driven Fitness”, I loved this. The data nerd in me was just loving all the tech.

After my second “trial” session, I decided to sign up for a monthly program, 8 sessions a month. I thought the price was reasonable, and while I can’t say I was “enjoying” myself, I definitely felt like this was something I could work at and improve in and eventually “enjoy”.

The other thing that struck me was the app for the phone. Part of the overall technology package, you can track exactly which classes you’ve taken, when you took them, and reference that back to who taught it as well.

On top of that, they have a second app, F45 Life, which let’s you look at your heart rate from their tracker system. I bought into their heart rate monitor to track this, but more so for another reason. Since my conditioning isn’t exactly top notch right now, having focused heavily on lifting over the last year and a half, my heart rate spikes easily when hitting intense workouts like what they offer. This allows the coach to see my heart rate and know exactly why I’ve slown down a bit.

The first couple of weeks the F45 studio was open, they were doing their own schedule, but then moved to a “global” schedule. That was another thing I found impressive. You’re basically doing the same exact workout as everyone else in the world on the day that workout is scheduled. This means everyone is doing the same thing and you can compare and compete against them regardless of where they are.

I found it funny that once I started doing F45, how much they started popping up everywhere. One of my favorite modern singers musicians is Olly Murs from England. His Facebook stories often feature him doing the workout of the day at the F45 studio in England. It’s fun to watch him do exactly what I did! This past weekend, Mark Walhberg, who made an investment into F45 as a company, showed up at a studio in West Hollywood to workout with the members there. Good to know the same 27 stations I did in my workout Saturday, several hours later Marky Mark was doing the same damn thing.

This brings us to the most recent workout, which was definitely a test for me. Called the “Hollywood” workout, it features a live DJ and 27 stations of a mixture of strength and cardio work. It’s one hour long instead of 45 minutes, making it that much harder.

Most of it was stuff I had done before, whether in my old gym, as part of my regular routine, or in F45 over the past few weeks. It was hard, it was intense, and there were things I sucked at. There were things I excelled at, mostly the strength moves because, you know, lifting.

Whenever I hit a strength part like the be bench press, chest flys, sandbag rows, etc. I was right in my element. Then were there some cardio portions like box jumps that, for the life of me, I can not do and would fall on my face so fast you couldn’t say “jump brah” before I was on the floor.

I pushed through it. I wanted to give up when we hit the first break. I sat for a second, thought about it, and decided I had committed to this and I was going to see it through. Thankfully, the coaches positioned me so the very last thing in my circuit was exercise bike, which meant the last few rounds were a little easier and I could pace myself accordingly. I survived to tell the tale, and I felt good… after feeling bad for about an hour. I felt bad because of a combination of exhaustion and the feeling that I should be able to do better than this.

The adventure over the last month has gotten me thinking about my programming, my goals, and how I approach training in general. Getting back to the tools I used to succeed the last time; strength training, HIIT work, and commitment to the process. I’ve been struggling to break this body fat level for over a year now, so something has to give. Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results? Insanity. Something has to give. There has to be a breaking point where I have to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B, and this is where I am right now.

This week I am trying out one of F45’s “strength focused” sessions. The idea here is to try something completely different than what I am used to. I know HIIT work, I know lifting heavy, but interval strength training will be a new challenge to approach.

The end result of all of this? I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking about shaking things up to move the needle. I sit at a desk all day long churning numbers and analyzing data, so I’m not exactly the most mobile person at work. This means I have to get activity outside of work. So I look to my exercise sessions. My current thinking is to somehow incorporate a three-part approach. HIIT Cardio, interval strength classes, and lifting heavy with compound lifts. It all depends on how the classes might impact my compound lifts, and that remains to be tested for me. That’s part of what I’ll be doing this week.

What I love about F45 so far is a combination of the programming, the level of effort (intense), and the energy all of the coaches’ bring to every single class. Most days, save for my weekly session with my strength coach, I am working on my own. This changes that dynamic completely, and it isn’t a bad thing. It’s nice to have someone push you, make you use proper form, and be the best you can be every single go-around.

If this is successful, I might be looking at ramping up the needle on activity levels to incorporate these three pieces, at least short term. I want to try to push past some of the barriers that I have been feeling regarding my body composition. I’ve come a long way since the person I was a few years ago, but there is still so much more to accomplish and achieve. I won’t give up on my strength and size training, but I think by incorporating additional elements I can drive more cardio, more strength and flexibility of the finer muscles, and leave the heavy stuff for the afternoons picking up big weights to drive me towards my goals.

Back in 2016, I did an effort for 8 weeks where I just went “hardcore” with things like 2-a-days and a strict diet. It was probably the best kicker for getting body fat down I’ve done in this process, and it may be what I need again to sort of “reboot” the effort.

Part of the fun of the fitness journey is trying all this stuff out and seeing what works. It might mean you’re stalled for a bit, but as long as you keep moving, you haven’t given up. I’m not where I want to be yet, but with determination, grit, and sticktoitiveness I know I can get there.