What Are These New Workouts I Keep Hearing About?

Combine New Year’s Resolutions with Dry January, and you get an entire month of our friends seeming like they’re at the gym every time we want to hang out. Which wouldn’t even be so bad, if we at least understood the newfangled workouts they keep name-dropping. So, in the spirit of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” we gave in and decided to delve into the new world of fitness fads. It’s done wonders for our arms.

OrangeTheory

Imagine a colour-coded scale of intensity that runs from purple (low) to red (high). Orange is pretty close to the top, but not quite there. The premise of these workouts is to spend a quarter of your workout in that orange zone: working hard, but not maxing out your heart rate. In other words, tough enough for major gains, but still approachable for average Joe.

Precision Run

If you’re a treadmill enthusiast who feels most driven to push yourself in slightly competitive group settings, get ready to love Equinox’s new breed of interval training that reimagines the spin class environment for runners. Just what you need to keep yourself from slacking off at the end of your jog.

TRX

You know how gymnasts are insanely ripped? That’s thanks to their time on the rings. Basic TRX incorporates straps with handles into a bodyweight workout based on similar resistance-training principles. Think of the force you feel while holding a water-skiing rope and you have the main idea. Skip ahead a few months, and you have a shredded body.