Monday, May 14, 2007

The Gym Project

This week I had my very first and probably last experience with the latest celebrity-frenzy-mania: Budokon. Well, I didn’t like it. As expected, it was a combination of yoga and martial arts with a dash of meditation. Not a big surprise for yoga junkies nor for martial arts funs. I don’t belong to any of the above categories so I was seriously challenged. The yoga movements have to be quick, the martial arts even faster. In a way, you are pretty much forced to fly on the air! Not a nice experience, not my cup of tea anyway.


The gym I did it was the Broadway at 19th street Equinox


Equinox
897 Broadway, New York, 10003, tel: 212 780 9300, web: www.equinoxfitness.com


Score card


Facilities: 10/10.
A massive four-store building can satisfy all your exercise needs. A floor with cardio machines, another one for weight and strength exercise, two studios, sauna room, and plenty of machines and stretching areas. There is also a café and a store to buy the latest gym fashion clothes! The changing rooms are clean, towels are free, there are water fountains everywhere and plenty of beauty products to use in the shower room/bathrooms! An excellent place to get fit. The only downsize: there are far too many people and because of its size, it’s very easy to be disorientated (or lost).


Variety of classes: 10/10
There are plenty of classes to pick and choose: Budokon, ashtanga and anusara yoga, pilates, cardio kickbox, circulation, pure strength and also the funny named Brazilian butt lift class!


Rate of difficulty: 10/10
I would say that it is extremely difficult to master Budokon. Maybe because I was really sore from the Pure Strength class I took the previous day, I couldn’t “operate” very well in the studio. The first half an hour we were on the floor pretending to do a type of fast yoga and the second half it was purely boxing techniques. Yes, I now think much higher of Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox. They must be very motivated or simply insane!

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