AKT - Upper East Side

With a name like 4Play, we really weren’t sure what to expect. It sounds playful, but it really turned out to be AKT for “torture”. Now friends, we love love a good burn. But when you pair some of the more advanced or challenging level “fitness toys” out there like resistance bands and gliding discs (or in AKT’s case, your sweat towel) all into the same workout – we’re going to flinch a little. We were very much torn with this workout because the music was bumpin and we were having fun, yet breaks or even brief rests were very few and far between. Guess that’s the magic of this type of toning, right? The nice thing about this class is that everything comes in 4’s – four circuits, four exercises, completed four times through. Easy, right? Well … the speed and intensity goes up each round, so getting form down in the first couple of rounds is key. And when it comes to the circuits, they really incorporate both a good mix of cardio and strength training (think curtsy lunge curls into burpees). We think it’s fair to say that this one pushed us out of our comfort zone, was empowering, and fun in parts. Much like mood swings, we had ALL the feels, from highs to lows. When the resistance bands with handles went over the pipes in the ceiling and jumping squat work got going, we couldn’t help but crack a bit of a smile through the pain.