Up next, and one that I was very excited about, Orange Theory! I’ve always been interested in Orange Theory because it gets a lot of hype and people really seem to love it. Not being a huge cardio lover, and knowing that majority of the class is focused around that, it’s been intimidating for me. While making a list of new workouts to try, though, this was still top of the list. Orange Theory only offers one or two free classes, so you’re really drinking through a fire hose to figure out if it’s something you want to commit to. Here’s the experience I had at Orange Theory, and hopefully the details will help you decide if you want to try too!
Class #1
Before Class:
Because I’m a morning person, I chose to go to their earliest class at 5 am. I spoke on the phone to someone when booking my class a few days prior, so they knew I was coming and were ready for me when I got there. With COVID, things are obviously running a little bit different. For the particular studio I visited, you stand in a line outside the door to have your temperature taken and sign in. Then, they ask where you would like to start, and being new I had no idea. After signing a typical safety waiver, the “coach” walked me through the studio quickly explaining the water rower, treadmill, and weight training stations. It’s definitely overwhelming, and something you only start to understand once you’re doing it.
During Class:
The Rower…
I started with the water rower, which is very different than the Concept 2 rowers used in a CrossFit gym. Water rowers use resistance from, you guessed it, water! The resistance stays consistent at the same level because it is all force created in bowl rowing against the water. Concept 2 rowers have a damper you can set from 1-10 for your resistance level, and that can fluctuate as you wish throughout your workout.
I got frustrated at this station for a couple of reasons. To start, I didn’t place my heart rate monitor correctly on my arm, so it looked like I wasn’t working very hard. That pushed me to work too hard right out of the gate. We got the monitor adjusted pretty quickly, so it wasn’t a problem for long. Secondly, the style and set up for the rowing station was confusing for me. It wasn’t very clear on how to find your “baseline”, and therefore finding your “push” and “all out” pace was even harder. Basically, I just got through this station the best I could, was glad when it was over, and happy when it was time to transition to the next.
The Weight Floor…
Next up, the weight training station. As you transition between stations, everyone has a Clorox wipe to clean what they touch, and we also wore our masks as we moved. This station is set up similar to F45 in that there are tv’s hung up showing you the moves and rep schemes. The coach also shows you the moves before time starts, and as the sets change they demonstrate what’s coming up. This was the most comfortable station for me considering my training background. Most moves were very “bootcampy” in style, and for this particular class we utilized body weight and dumbbells only.
The Treadmill…
Last up was the treadmill. I won’t lie, I was dreading this station. I’ve never claimed to be a runner and honestly don’t really enjoy it when I do run. It was much easier for me to find my base pace here considering there’s a chart that helps guide you as to what that is. Push pace and all out pace are easy to gauge as a result, so I started out in a much better place than the rower. I had also been listening to what the different stations were doing throughout class, so I knew what to expect on the treadmill and tried to pace myself accordingly. Essentially there were 3 rounds of different running sprints. I ended up actually enjoying this station and by the end of it was pretty happy with my experience overall.
After Class:
After class the coach, and who I would consider was the general manager, made sure to check in with me to explain my results and field any questions I had. The special sauce for Orange Theory is how the heart monitor on your arm reports and keeps track of your results. Here’s how mine ended up:
The results include a handful of really neat information for you to see after your workout. The first is a graph showing how many minutes you spent in each working zone, which ideally would look more like a pyramid. The second is a combination of a couple of metrics, most notably your “splat points”, which are a total of the amount of time you spent in the orange and red zones combined. Finally, you get your treadmill results including metrics like average pace, speed, incline, total distance, and more! For reference, here are the results from my Apple watch for this workout:
If you’re used to training CrossFit or HIIT style where it’s an all out sprint for most workouts, you can probably expect to see results like this too for your first class. In the end, they offered a second free class for me to come back, and I was happy to accept and scheduled another 5 am class for the following week. Someone from the studio also called me the next day to check on how I was feeling after my first class, which was a nice touch and very thoughtful.
Thoughts:
The first class is overwhelming, you will feel like a fish out of water, but by the end you’ll have a basic idea of what’s going on and will hopefully have the option for another free class to get a better idea of whether you will enjoy this type of workout long term.
Class #2
Before Class:
For the second class, I had a better idea of what I was doing so I didn’t get to this class as early as the first. Just like before, we stood in line to get our temperature taken, and this time I chose to start on the treadmill. I got my heart rate monitor placed, got on my treadmill, and was ready to take off for my second class. I also ran into a friend from high school I hadn’t seen in forever before class started, which was really cool! ***Disclaimer: My treadmill monitor didn’t work during this second class, so I do not have those results to report 🙁
During Class:
The Treadmill…
The set up on the treadmill was an endurance workout instead of the sprints that I had done in the first class. We rotated between our base, push, and all out pace for 9 total rounds increasing in intensity. We were on the treadmill for almost 30 minutes, and I wasn’t bored once! Again, I was very surprised on how much I enjoyed the treadmill portion of the workout.
The Rower and The Weight Floor…
This class the rower and weight floor stations were combined. We spent the vast majority of the time on the weight floor, and sprinkled in the rower during the first round. Round one was designed to have you move through 3 or 4 movements on the weight floor, and between each round row 600, 400, and 200 meters accordingly. I moved pretty quickly through the movements, but didn’t make it to round with the 200 meter row. That was all the rowing we did for the second class (didn’t hurt my feelings)! The second and third rounds were moving through a couple of different set movements with body weight and dumbbells, along with the bosu ball. I enjoyed the weight floor routines and, again, felt very comfortable with all the movements.
After Class:
This time after class there was not much fuss. I spoke with the coach again, told him what I enjoyed about the class, and he made sure I had already covered pricing after the first class. I discussed my end of class results because, once again, I spent a lot of time in the orange zone. In fact, I spent almost ALL of class in the orange zone. He let me know that after taking 20 Orange Theory classes, the algorithm becomes more individualized based on your performance history so I would probably see an adjustment if I chose to continue taking classes. Here are my results from the second class…
Again, for reference, these are my Apple watch results from the second class:
Thoughts:
After my second class, I would say I felt much better about understanding all the equipment in the studio and how the class actually works. You get used to the terminology after hearing it a handful of times, and understand where you should be as far as heart rate and exertion goes. All of the staff and other clients were very welcoming and kind, the environment was encouraging, and I felt like I got an excellent workout!
Pricing and Final Thoughts:
Orange Theory is priced similar to F45 for their monthly unlimited membership at $159/month. That unlimited membership is also month to month, so you’re not locked into any long term commitment, which is nice! They also offered an 8x per month membership at $99 and 4x per month for $59. I really appreciate these type of options for people that don’t want to just do one type of workout all the time.
Overall I would say, especially in COVID times, Orange Theory is better bang for your buck than F45 and on the same playing field as CrossFit. You have a one on one coach that is there and dedicated to walking around to make adjustments and suggestions, while explaining the programming for that day. Pricing wise, I will say it is expensive, especially since the equipment in an Orange Theory studio can all be found at a regular gym where a monthly membership could run you somewhere around $30/month. However, $160/month is seemingly the average for this area, so it really just depends on how you want to look at it.
If you’re a cardio junkie, I think you will love Orange Theory. Two thirds of your time is spent on a cardio machine, so there’s lots of sweating and calories burned. If you’re more inclined to enjoy the weight room, this might not be your cup of tea. This was a great experience from my point of view, I would absolutely go back or incorporate a handful of times a month into my routine, but could not see myself only dedicated to Orange Theory as my singular workout.
Find your closest Orange Theory studio and sign up for your first free class here: https://www.orangetheory.com/en-us/
Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave comments, feedback, and suggestions down below!