#CBCfit is searching for the best way to break a sweat.
Edmonton AM director Tim Adams and personal trainer Chris Tse will be hopping into some of best fitness classes in the city centre.
Every week, they’ll test out a new heart-pounding program, to help you find the perfect fitness fit.
I have never seen someone sweat so much in my life as when I watched the CBC’s Min Dhariwal suffer at the new GoodLife Fitness in Oliver Square.
He liked to call the puddle growing around him “Lake Dhariwal.”
The CBC’s Min Dhariwal works up a big sweat during a Les Mills Grit workout at GoodLife Fitness. (Peter Evans/CBC)
Min, Chris Tse and I took the noon-hour Les Mills Grit classes.
The classes take their name from Les Mills, an Olympian who opened his first fitness club in Auckland, New Zealand in 1968.
Today, Les Mills International provides choreographed group fitness classes to GoodLife and other health clubs around the world.
The first 30-minute class was all strength and the second 30-minute class was pure cardio.
We really should have stopped after one. I mean, I like to suffer, but this was another level.
Chris went into hulk mode, but Min and I died painful, painful deaths.
These classes are most certainly not for beginners.
The combination of strength, cardio and the range of exercises really destroys you. Have you ever seen a grown man cry?
Min just kept saying, “Man, if I did this three times a week, I’d be jacked.”
But is it too much? Is it safe to push the limit that far?
One of the big challenges with a class like this is how quickly we started to lose our form. We got tired and our technique gave way to survival and that gave way to the potential for injury.
There was also very little time to work on form, to correct it, or to teach the best technique.
This was particularly concerning for Chris because there were some complicated exercises in this workout being done at very high speeds, and the turnaround time between them was short.
The intent is obviously to a get a good sweat rolling, but it’s risky, says Chris.
“My main concern is with the intensity multiplied by complex movements like snatches that are paired with bent-over rows with a barbell,” he said.
“These alone would be high enough intensity, but when paired together in one movement the strain on the lower back can be quite intense, even with experienced athletes.”
Saying that though, we didn’t get any injuries. Sore but unhurt, we left the workout feeling immediately like we got our money’s worth.
Take it down a notch?
Instructor Jacquie Davis kept the energy level really high and handed out a healthy dose of high fives. She did a great job of pulling us through to the end.
But if we could make one suggestion, it would be to slow that class down a notch.
We realize that might be hard. Les Mills classes are big business.
According to GoodLife, 130,000 people around the world are certified to teach Les Mills classes in a particular way and GoodLife holds the contract to teach them in Canada.
Grit cardio classes at GoodLife Fitness are not for the faint of heart, says CBC producer Tim Adams. (Goodlife)
So, it’s a class done from a template. It doesn’t seem like there would be as much room for the individual instructor to make adjustments.
But a slightly slower pace would make it easier to follow the cues from exercise to exercise and give the instructor more time to focus on form and show his or her skill.
This would help mitigate some of the concerns Chris has about which exercises are paired together because the exercises would be done well.
We’re also confident that slowing things down a bit wouldn’t compromise the sweat — in other words, “Lake Dhariwal” wouldn’t dry up. Min would be just as sweaty and so would we.