If you’re going to label your fitness class ‘the WORKOUT’, then you’ve got to make sure it delivers on all fronts to really do what it says on the tin and put clients to work by challenging both body and mind in a result-driven way.
Respected local fitness entity Original Fitness Co. (OFC) have been brave enough to dub their newer sessions that, and we felt compelled to see how these high-intensity circuit-style segments measure up.
With temperatures soaring, OFC, who generally operate outdoors in parks, on beaches and other public spaces, have taken their equipment and expertise indoors and during Ramadan are also holding fort in a buzzing section of the vast indoor play space that is Dubai Sports World.
OFC Founder and CEO Corey Oliver says: “Designed to accommodate all levels of fitness, ‘the WORKOUT’ incorporates scientific and cutting-edge training knowledge but ultimately strips it down, taking you back to basics.
“No yelling from ‘Sergeant Major’, no stuffy fitness studio, no complicated routines or equipment. Functional and compound exercises among others make up the basis of this ‘old school’ workout.”
One star piece of equipment they’ve got to their advantage at Dubai Sports World is a favourite of ours in 2014, the OMNIA by Technogym. If you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with this epic fitness junkie jungle gym, the OMNIA – its name inspired by the Latin word for ‘all things’ – offers infinite possibilities in all kinds of training modalities from strength, endurance, and stability, to flexibility, coordination and speed, and in a pretty small and efficiently laid out space too.
Our trainer for the day, OFC’s Paul McGrory, comments: “The OMNIA is I think one of the best individual circuits you can do – for something that’s about 1.5 metres by three metres you could probably do 1,000 exercises within reason on there, catering to 20-30 people, compared to static machinery which you can only use one or two ways.
“On the OMNIA, you can go from using legs to abs, from abs to core, core to upper body (chest, shoulders, triceps etc.), all in basic but highly effective exercises.”
Setting us up on that to start, McGrory takes a few pages from his military background and applies it to the session. “In the military we don’t lift heavy weights and more tend to work with body weight resistance, runs and sprints etc….”
Indeed, a lot of what we did that day was familiar – tricep dips, ring dips, bar pull-ups, elevated push-ups and more – but the way he incorporated them was different and exciting.
We were put into pairs and while one team-mate sprinted round one of Dubai Sports World’s many courted areas, the other got to work on the gruelling exercise repetitions until his/her partner returned and they switched places.
After wrapping up five different body quaking routines targeting the arms and upper body (what these guys call an Overload Circuit), McGrory took us onto one of the arena’s indoor pitches for some sprint intervals.
Here, Team-mate 1 legged it across the pitch and did sit-ups, mountain climbers and burpees, while Team-mate 2 spent the “wait” doing squats and heel raises, or holding the plank position, until their turn came to sprint.
We liked that we were constantly kept going through active recovery exercises, and couldn’t even imagine how many calories we had burned in the hour-long effort.
There’s a healthy dose of rivalry injected into these sessions too as McGrory had us then race individually to be the first to complete sprint intervals intermixed with another barrage of quick and deadly floor moves.
But of course the lesson lies in the fact that you’re not really competing with others, but with yourself, challenging and working on your individual fitness level and pace.
On that note, it was helpful of McGrory to introduce each exercise in three ways, from the easiest to the most difficult modification available, so that everyone from ‘the WORKOUT’ rookies to seasoned athletes could take something away.
The session continued with core work via the famous Pilates move The Hundred – demonstrating that OFC pluck inspiration from just about everywhere to maximum effect.
“I’m not a fan of doing too many sit-ups anymore, I’ve seen too many back injuries and other problems with it, but core Pilates work teaches you how to breathe and use the muscles in the right way,” comments McGrory, whose wife happens to be a Pilates instructor.
Keeping things continuously varied and interesting, we then got down into a circle on the ground and were instructed to do a Mexican Wave of push-ups, holding in plank for as long as it took for the wave to make a complete round, and continuing again for up to five push-ups a set.
To top it all off, the chatty Scotsman entertained our energy levels with what he found on the internet to be ‘the world’s hardest exercise’ – something a client of his calls ‘The Vomit Inducer’!
It consisted of timed repetitions of a burpee transitioning into a shoulder press done in the pike position, quickly followed by left knee to right elbow and vice-versa, then coming to stand via a bunny hop forward and one back.
All this is one rep done very quickly and you would usually do this repeatedly for one minute with 15 seconds off in between each minute, for a total of five minutes. Thankfully, we had run out of time before that could happen! But we definitely got the idea – with a little bit of creativity and open-mindedness, a person can really challenge themselves in a variety of ways, and with little to no props or machinery too.
Thank goodness for us, OFC have done the research, they’ve gathered the material, and all we have to do is turn up with a can-do attitude and a readiness to get sweaty.
The boredom stops here…
What: ‘the WORKOUT’ by Original Fitness Co.
Where: ‘the WORKOUT’ indoor sessions continue until August 16 in the gym at Dubai Sports World, World Trade Centre, and also takes place mornings and evenings most days of the week in other outdoor Dubai and Abu Dhabi locations
When: Dubai Sports World timings are Sunday to Wednesday from 19:30 and Fridays from 9:00
Cost: Your first session is free and for the summer, walk-in’s are Dh75 or you can grab eight sessions for Dh400 (normally Dh500), or 12 for Dh550 (normally Dh650)
Contact: [email protected] or 04 311 6571/02 406 9404; www.originalfitnessco.com
