
“To that end we keep the heart rate up while simultaneously keeping your mind and body engaged with challenging core specific moves,” Rittenhouse continued. It sounded a lot like what one might do when he or she uses various equipment on the gym floor alone. “In order to increase your strength and proficiency for a given movement one must keep the reps low and the rest periods longer than your average class,” he told me. I asked Rittenhouse what was the method to the madness in creating a hybrid heavy strength yet group fitness-based class. Another was a line of reclined benches with dumbbells no less than 25 pounds each next to them.
Equinox sports club group fitness portable#
One of the stations was made up of portable pull-up bars. There were four rows of equipment already in place and I knew right away that I was about to embark on a totally different group fitness experience.

In setting foot into the group fitness room set up for Pure Strength at Equinox’s Lincoln Park location, I assessed the situation throughly. In 13 years of training, few things are as satisfying as seeing someone complete their first pull-up.”

It gives you confidence in knowing your body is capable of more than just moving quickly. “Pure strength training has benefits beyond just burning calories and pumping your heart. “While conditioning based classes address cardiovascular needs, which are vital to health and fitness, this is only a piece of the puzzle,” Dennis Rittenhouse, Equinox trainer, boxing, martial arts and grappling extraordinaire and co-creator of Pure Strength, said. There needs to be some method of cross-over to marry all these benefits and Equinox’s new Pure Strength class is exactly that. But there are benefits to both kinds of workouts, in the type of exercise performed in both and the environment that each type of workout presents. Your friend who works out alone by hitting the gym floor and cranking out his or her own rep-based work rarely will take you up on a HIIT class in a group fitness studio – and vice versa. You either work out alone or you take group fitness.

Among your family members, co-workers, even best friends – there is a simple defining factor in the way we live our lives that says a lot about who we are. A great divide exists among fellow citizens of the world today.
