With my husband off to his figure drawing open studio and my late shift at the wildlife refuge, I decided to forego another CrossFit WOD for the day, and finished my trial membership at Anytime Fitness, just down the street from the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. Anytime Fitness is very much like most small 24 hour places, where they have staffed hours, but allow members access to the gym 24 hours with a key card. However, they did have a few added features that stood out to me. And with a free week trial, I was able to try out several of those unique components to experience a few great workouts.
First, the Anytime Fitness I visited was brand spanking new, and had that brand spanking new gym smell. Almost as though people don’t sweat in there. Hmmm…. But I totally sweated at Anytime Fitness. The equipment was brand spanking new and state of the art, and Chris and I tried several different things to get a good feel for the place.
There is a small “class” room where you can choose from probably hundreds of on-demand workout videos, ranging from Zumba, BOSU ball, Kettlebells, Core, Kickboxing, and even special population groups (pregnancy and older adults). On our first day we tried one of the Kettlebell workouts as our warm-up. It was a short 20 minute workout, but it was a great warm-up. We also really worked our trapezius muscles with five sets of ten pull-ups (mine on the assisted pull-up machine). We’re STILL sore from that workout.
But on my last day, I decided to program my own workout and hit my glutes as well as get in a good cardio. For my Glutes Workout I performed 20 reps of 8 different exercises, and repeated the sets 10 times. But rather than just jump into the next set, I included a Countdown ladder of burpees. For my first set, I did 10 burpees, my second set I did 9, and then 8 and so on until just 1 burpee. It made for a pretty intense workout. Here was my set for glutes:
20 Side leg lifts (I call them “Jane Fondas”)
20 Inner leg side leg lifts
20 Glute Bridges
20 Single Leg Glute Bridges
20 Donkey kicks
20 Fire Hydrants
20 Front/Rear band walks (I refer them as “Stingray Shuffle” and “Raptor Keeper”)
20 Lateral Walks
After that, which took me a pretty 35 minutes to complete, I hit the treadmill. I’m not normally a fan of treadmills, but when in Rome, you know….
My favorite treadmill workout I’ve done to date was at OrangeTheory Fitness. Their system of “Base”, “Push”, and “All Out” helps keep things at a strong pace to push you, but not overwhelm you with hard running. My knees can’t handle constant hard running.
My Base was kept at 4.0 mph at a 3.5 incline
Push was 5.0 mph at 2.5 incline
All Out was 6.0 mph at 3.5 incline
0:00-3:00 warm-up
3:00-5:00 Base
5:00-6:00 Push
6:00-7:00 Base
7:00-7:30 All Out
7:30-8:00 Recover (slower than Base)
8:00-9:00 Base
9:00-10:00 Push
10:00-10:30 Base
10:30-12:00 Push
12:00-13:00 Base
13:00-14:00 All Out
14:00-15:00 Recover
15:00-16:00 Base
16:00- 18:00 Push
18:00-18:30 Base
18:30- 20:00 Push
20:00-20:30 Base
20:30-22:30 Push
22:30-23:30 Base
23:30-25:00 All Out- last 30 seconds, empty tank- up to 6.5 mph
25:00-27:00 Recover
27:00-28:00 Last Push at 5.5
28:00-30:00 Cool down
All in all, I gave myself a decent workout. And Anytime Fitness was a nice place. A bit inconvenient for me and Chris to both use, but nice all the same. The owners met us each time we stopped in and I had a nice chat with the husband on my last day. They have some great energy efficient features, which it being a brand new facility, I would have expected. If Chris and I weren’t moving to Whidbey Island, we would definitely consider a place like Anytime. If you have one near you, I recommend giving them a go. Try some of the workouts I have posted or create your own. It’s great to workout, especially on your time!