...And it was actually really enjoyable?
By Natalie Matthews
I’m wearing beat up Supergas and a stained mens sweater right
now, but beneath that, there's a secret beast inside of me. An absurdly
“basic,”
girly beast who eats Brussels sprouts at Sunday brunches and who will
gladly cough up more than $30 for an exercise class (as long as it’s,
like, totes amazing). The latter's exactly what I did when modelFIT—a
new gym from celebrity trainer
Justin Gelband—opened so close to my New York City apartment I couldn’t resist trying its $40 group classes.
I thought modelFIT's offerings would be intense, because Gelband is
famous for training Victoria's Secret Angels, and we all know they work
out HARD. (Some of
my colleagues have even seen it firsthand.) But when I started taking classes there, I found many of them were way,
way
easier than the Barry’s Bootcamp and SoulCycle sessions I was used to. I
was confused. Do the Karlie Klosses and Candice Swanepoels of the world
only have to work out like this to look like THAT? I mean, obviously
they've largely got the body that's so often strived for in women's
exercise classes— “long and lean,” the holy grail—due to genetics. But
they're also ridiculously toned, so this stuff must work somehow, right?
After my first session, I wasn't so sure.
During my first "Sculpt" class in modelFIT's sleek, glossy studio, I
was told to "slow downnnnn" with my movements so often it felt like my
first driving lesson as a 16-year-old. And it was off-putting: I was so
indoctrinated with the idea of high intensity interval training that I
just wanted to GO GO GO at everything—at all those leg raises, crunches,
and arm lifts that make up the bulk of the class. The friend I brought
felt the same way: We were both used to measuring the success/failure of
a class on a sweat barometer, and her fresh blowout was barely damp
afterward. At dinner, over Shiraz and kale salads (I'm basic,
remember?), we talked about how we weren't sure it was gonna be that
effective.
Then the day two soreness hit, and it cut deeeeeep. I returned to
modelFIT with a new outlook, and asked its co-founders, Vanessa Packer
and Justin Gelband, how exactly my body generated so little sweat but
so, so much soreness. Packer laughed, because apparently I had just
figured out the modelFIT "philosophy." It's all about doing those "small
movements at a slow pace," she said, for "mindful exercise that tones
and strengthens your entire body." And sneakily, at that. I mean, I know
less cardio-heavy classes are nothing new, that there are women that
love barre, ballet, and Pilates. But could that sort of workout, which
modelFIT seemed to be mostly, deliver the sort of definition and toning
seen on the Victoria's Secret runway? Could it really be that effective?
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