Fitness Studio Review: TRX Workouts at Fitness with Insight

Fitness with Insight is a boutique TRX studio near Inwood Village. If you aren’t familiar with TRX (Total Body Resistance Exercise), it was created by a Navy seal and uses a combination of gravity and body weight with the suspension ropes to perform numerous exercises. TRX is incorporated in a lot of boot camp style classes and is very recognizable for it’s yellow and black suspension straps that hang from the ceilings. While it may look intimidating, it’s actually easy to get a hang of once you get acquainted and great for the body.

The Class: For this review, I attended two classes: Intro to TRX and Body Chisel.

The space.

The space.

The intro to TRX class is only 30 minutes long and I think it should actually be longer to accommodate the “lecture” and a longer workout. Perhaps 45 minutes or more would help the class feel less rushed and help newbies get the hang of TRX much faster. The class goes over the suspension training bands and how to adjust and position your body correctly depending on the exercise. The teaching and demonstration took up half of the 30 minute class and the other half was used to go through a very fast warm up, work out and cool down (5 minutes for each segment). I am more of a visual person and as an experimental fitness geek, I prefer actually bumbling through the motions versus just a straight lecture. I get that TRX may seem intimidating to a lot of people, but this class wasn’t really a workout class because of how short the class was. If the intro class is a mandatory class for beginners, I think it should be offered as a complimentary class to help people get better acquainted. They do offer three 30 minute intro classes for $30, but I don’t know how I feel about paying for lectures instead of true workouts. Could they be condensed into two 45-min classes? Or one long hour? If you do get the 3 intro class package, the studio is flexible with how you use them. If you feel like you’ve got it down in the first class, you can apply the credit of the other two classes to more advance classes.

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For my second class, I attended the body chisel class with Cheryl and had a much better experience. This class was more of a circuit class with some TRX exercises. There were 6 stations and a variety of exercises that work the entire body. For one circuit, you’ll go through the 6 exercises twice followed by an active recovery exercise like jumping jacks and then a water break. For this class, you’ll go through two different circuits. The second circuit is a round of completely different exercises as well. After the second circuit, Cheryl will conclude the class with some great stretching to exercises.  It was inspiring to see all the women who attended really challenge themselves. There was also a great range in ages from mid twenties to sixties. One elderly woman had a shirt that said “No Crybabies Allowed” and rocked the class. Seriously, that woman is my idol.

The Space: The space is very small and could use an interior uplift and a new paint job to spiff things up. It’s a one room studio with two small bathrooms. Upon entering, the room is painted grey with a jarring yellow accent wall. There aren’t any lockers or true cubbies for personal belongings. Members just dump their purses and jackets on the bench by the door before making their way to the floor. There are suspension ropes hanging from the ceiling and I believe the classes can accommodate about 15 people max.

Wish there were real cubbies for belongings.

Wish there were real cubbies for belongings.

The Instructor: I had the pleasure of taking Cheryl’s class and was delighted to meet gym manager and instructor Charlotte Lester. They both have great arms! Ugh….jealous! Cheryl led the class well and I liked that she really checked form and offered a lot of modifications for members to challenge themselves or to be more careful with their bodies and limitations.

Here with instructor Cheryl who taught Intro and Body Chisel.

Here with instructor Cheryl who taught Intro and Body Chisel.

Loved/Hated: I love that this is truly a place for beginners to get started. Personally, I didn’t find it as challenging as some of the other classes I’ve taken and this has more to do with where I’m at in my fitness journey. I really didn’t like taking the intro class because of how short it was. I expected a workout that Saturday morning and didn’t quite get what I wanted.

Difficulty Level: This is great place for true beginners who want to gain strength. The instructors take great care to make sure you are using the TRX properly. Personally, I didn’t find it quite as challenging as I would hope, but that’s not to say it wasn’t challenging for someone else. The pace of the circuits are a bit slower and the chosen exercises are mostly low impact. For this particular body chisel class, there weren’t any box jumps or other high impact exercises.

Balancing and lunging. Really liked this exercise.

Balancing and lunging. Really liked this exercise.

The Next Day: Felt some soreness in my shoulders and arms, but otherwise felt fine.

FYI/Costs/Parking: Decent amount of parking available. I would say come in gym clothes with your own water and towel. I’d avoid wearing overly loose tops as some of the TRX movements require you to bend over or do planks. I’m not a fan of showing people my stomach when my shirt goes up. Leave as much of your belongings in the trunk of your car or home. There really isn’t anywhere to put them.  There aren’t a lot of amenities offered.

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The Takeaway: This was really a difficult review to write because I had to be conscious of my own experience and what it may be like for someone who has never tried it. The studio has been around for several years and there can be some improvements on the overall guest experience. Offering a few more amenities such as designated lockers or cubbies to towel service and disinfectant wipes to restructuring that intro class would be a few things that could improve the studio.

In order to review Fitness with Insight, Deep Fried Fit used her complimentary ClassPass to attend two Fitness with Insight classes.

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