New Year New You
About 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians began the tradition of New Year’s resolutions, celebrating their spring barley harvest by resolving to improve something about their lives. Today, on every New Year’s Eve, three quarters of adult Americans make similar promises to themselves: our resolutions to eat better, workout more, or knock that bad habit. Nobody can make you quit smoking or stick to a good workout routine (which is what 48 percent of Americans resolved to do in 2022), but we can provide you with some great options for a fit, healthy lifestyle. If you’re a real go-getter, maybe you’ll try all of these gyms, find the perfect fit for you, and sign up for a yearly membership to hold yourself accountable in 2023.
To save you from that daunting task, we’ve provided a range of choices for you to peruse, from traditional workouts like Pilates, to funkier options like kickboxing, to the completely unique experience you can have contorted high in the air on the silks at Forever Aerial. All of these gyms offer some form of membership to keep you coming back, and several of them even offer free classes so you can try them out first. So, pull on those yoga pants, strap on your Fitbit, and join the vaunted club of Americans who successfully keep their New Year’s resolutions. We’ll see you back in 2024!
Forever Aerial
There’s no doubt that other studios veer more to the traditional side when it comes to fitness. However, if you’re looking to really shake up your routine, Forever Aerial is a great place to start. With sessions on silks, lyra hoops, and poles, the studio offers aerial classes sure to leave you with the delicious soreness of a good workout – and a new skill. Our favorite is the silks.
While hanging from the ceiling on silks might not seem so challenging, it requires a lot of strength and stability. From using your arms to climb up the silk to maneuvering your legs overhead for intricate poses, each trick requires you to engage your entire body, working muscles that you might not get to in your average gym. Aerial fitness also offers a slew of health benefits like strengthening postural alignment muscles, increasing circulation to the pituitary gland, and improving flexibility, stability, and balance.
Whether you’re new to the aerial scene or have been there a while, Forever Aerial stresses the importance of working your way up through small progressions to decrease the risk of injury. Each class begins with a warm-up consisting of stretches and core exercises to prepare your body to be twisted, turned, and generally contorted. Once your muscles are properly stretched, the instructor takes you through conditioning exercises designed to build strength and endurance.
The instructor personalizes the session to each student, meeting you at your skill level and introducing you to new things only when you’re ready. The class is open to all levels, so if you see someone doing something you couldn’t imagine yourself doing, don’t worry – you’ll get there.
For newbies, the first thing you’ll work on is “climbing” the silk, twisting your feet around the cloth to give yourself the appearance of stepping up. Once you can do that, you’ll move on to creating a foot lock, which serves as a foundation for many of the poses you’ll learn. After twisting, turning, soaring, and dropping through the air, you’ll end the class by moving through a series of stretches that relax the muscles and reduce the accumulation of lactic acid in the body.
A single class is $30, with new students receiving a 15 percent discount on their first purchase. The studio also offers packages of two, four, and 10 classes at $50, $80, and $180, respectively, as well as an unlimited week at $100 and an unlimited month at $300. Check foreveraerial.com for the full schedule of classes and their descriptions.
Forever Aerial
1001 Ponce de Leon, Unit B
786.361.7710
Orangetheory Fitness
You’re probably familiar with HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, which has become a fitness phenom in the last few years. HIIT is characterized by short periods of intense anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods, designed to max out your heart rate, burn fat, and build muscle. As a bonus, it also boosts your metabolism. Many people have turned to HIIT since its explosive fitness strategy saves more time than if you were to work out at a steady pace, plus it requires little to no equipment.
Orangetheory Fitness is just one studio in Coral Gables that does HIIT, but its unique approach makes it one of our favorites. Combining running, rowing, and weightlifting, you get a little bit
of everything in each 45 to 60-minute workout. Each group class involves all three types of exercise, usually split somewhat evenly between treadmill running and strength training with shorter spurts of rowing between. Guided by a trained coach, each session is different, focusing on different kinds of workouts (for example, “endurance days” involve longer stints on the treadmill, while “power days” tend to involve more sprints) and different muscle groups (some days it’s a full-body workout, while on other days you’ll focus on upper or lower body).
If you’re not a runner, don’t worry – Orangetheory has three levels for treadmill usage, from power walking to jogging to running. Power walkers remain at a fast walk through the whole treadmill stint but increase their elevation. Joggers and runners spend more time at a faster base pace with occasional all-out sprints. And if you don’t know what you’re doing with those weights, that’s what the coaches are there for!
Started in South Florida back in 2010, Orangetheory also makes an interesting claim: if you earn enough “splat points,” you’ll burn up to half the calories you burned in class for roughly 36 hours after. You earn splat points by spending time in “The Orange Zone,” which is when your heart rate reaches the peak level for calorie-burning. Spend 12 minutes in the orange zone and you’ll do your body a favor – and Orangetheory makes it easy to reach those 12 minutes.
The first class is free if you’d like to try it out, and there are two membership options – Elite members get eight classes a month for a monthly fee of $119, while Premier members can take unlimited classes for a monthly fee of $169. There’s also an option to buy class- es in packs of 10 ($225), 20 ($375), or 30 ($499) if you can’t make it on a regular basis. Classes run every day, roughly every 75 minutes. For more information, visit orangetheory.com.
Orangetheory Fitness
2300 Salzedo St.
305.460.6006
Sweat 440
Another boutique gym focusing on high-intensity interval training, SWEAT440 has comparable exercises to OrangeTheory Fitness. But that’s where the similarities end. For those who want a high intensity session but need a flexible workout schedule – or for those who run on “Cuban time” – this is the gym for you.
At SWEAT440, you’re never late. Classes start every 10 minutes, meaning you never have to plan your day around your workout. The 40-minute sessions rely on circuit training, meaning you’ll do four 10-minute circuits of exercises. During each circuit, you complete three exercises for 45 seconds each, repeating them three times for a total of nine sets with short breaks in between. At the end of each 10-minute circuit, you get a slightly longer break to cool down and move to the next set of exercises. These range from resistance training to weight lifting to cardio, all designed to work up a sweat and shred calories while building muscle. Even better, SWEAT440 claims you can burn up to 800 calories during your workout, and you’ll still be burning calories up to 48 hours after completing the class.It can be difficult to make a workout plan when you don’t know which muscle groups you’ll be working out beforehand. At SWEAT440, you know exactly what you’ll be getting: Mondays and Thursdays are focused on lower body, Tuesdays and Fridays are devoted to upper body, Wednesdays are all about core conditioning, and weekends put it all together with total body conditioning.
At each station, you’ll find everything you need for your sets, whether it’s dumbbells, medicine balls, benches, or resistance bands. Coaches are also on-hand for advice and positive reinforcement. Members get free monthly guest passes if they want to bring a friend, so it makes sense to bring a gym buddy – and the first SWEAT440 class is free for everyone.
With no contract, memberships are flexible, running from four visits per month ($79) to an unlimited annual plan ($1,099) with plenty of options between. There are also class packs, ranging from single classes at $27 to 20 classes at $349. Memberships also get you discounts at other venues, from healthy restaurants in the Gables like Laki Bowls, Carrot Express, and Pura Vida, to wellness spots like Anais Nail Spa, Cryo Miami, and Cima Med Spa. For a full list of membership options and perks, call or visit SWEAT440 Gables.
Sweat 440 Gables
301 Altara Ave., Suite 111 (Shops at Merrick Manor)
888.507.9328
Bünda
If you love interval training, but don’t like the stress it puts on your joints, low-impact interval training (LIIT) might be for you. Like high-intensity interval training, LIIT pairs an intense workout period with a slower recovery to maximize results. However, the impact is lower and the recovery time longer.
One of our favorite LIIT studios is Bünda Coral Gables, which bases its workouts on form and progression and targets the lower body – specifically the glutes. This is because the glutes stabilize your lower back and knee joints, and strengthening them decreases your risk of injury, according to Bünda. They also offer classes targeting the arms, abs, and full body.
Backed by science, the 50-minute workout alternates between the floor station and the StairMaster. On the floor, strength workouts target the muscle group of the day with exercises like goblet squats, hip thrusts, and side lunges. During the StairMaster portion, you’ll start at your “base” speed, a level of intensity you can easily maintain while having a conversation. From there, you’ll be taken through a series of step-based movements that you wouldn’t normally do on a stair stepper. Some step differentiations include skipping a step, stepping sideways, and crossing one foot over the other as you step up. There’s also a “push” period, where you can increase your speed up to three levels above your base. It’s during this period that you maximize your caloric burn and tap into fat storage instead of burning sugar, which can sometimes be the case with HIIT workouts. The StairMaster is also great for those who are susceptible to injury since it’s a low-impact workout that strengthens the joints and allows participants to move in all three planes of motion – laterally, rotationally, and front to back.
The class is led by a certified personal trainer who demonstrates each floor exercise before the round begins and leads the step pattern variations.The instructor watches over each person to ensure proper form, correct mistakes, and prevent injury.
For those interested in trying a workout at Bünda, the first class is free – just bring a water bottle and a towel. For those who choose to continue, the studio offers both credit packs and monthly membership options ranging from three class credits at $40 to a paid-in-full six-month membership at $1,199. You can also drop in at a rate of $30 per class. For more information about classes and membership options, visit trainbunda.com.
Bünda Coral Gables
25 Merrick Way
305.200.3117
Pilates Strong Studio
Chances are you’ve heard of Pilates. It’s currently all the rage in the fitness community, combining exercise of both the mind and body for a low-impact workout that focuses on slow, controlled movements to target different muscle groups. It strengthens the core, improves posture and flexibility, and leaves gym-goers with long, lean muscles.
The first form of Pilates was introduced in the early 1920s and relied on six principles: breath, concentration, centering, control, precision, and flow. Founder Joseph Pilates used these principles as the basis for his conditioning workouts to teach his students how to control their bodies.While this form is still alive and in-use today, there are lots of variations now, including the intense megaformer Pilates, which incorporates aspects of cardio, as well as toned down sequences like mat Pilates, which can be practiced without the use of any equipment.
When it comes to true, contemporary Pilates classes, Pilates Strong Studio is your best bet in Coral Gables. Its classes combine the traditional with the new, utilizing the classic Pilates reformer machine to provide users with resistance training in different positions, as well as other, less common equipment, like spine correctors, Cadillacs (a specialized piece of equipment that can tone almost every muscle group in your body), and ladder barrels (used for core strength and flexibility exercises). During your 45-minute class, you’ll be taken through a series of movements that target the entire body, from leg lifts that activate the core to cable pulls that target the triceps. Since each movement requires precision to form, Pilates Strong Studio keeps its classes small – seven people or less – so that the instructor can give proper attention to each student and provide corrections throughout the session.
Although the studio does offer classes seven days a week, there are limited evening sessions, and the earliest morning classes start at 7 am, meaning you’ll have to have a somewhat flexible schedule to attend. Your first class will cost $20, a special newbie rate, but the studio also offers packages of five, 10, and 20 classes, as well as private classes that start at $65. Private classes are a great way to focus on your individual goals if you want a more personalized fitness approach. Monthly memberships with unlimited classes are $259 per month. For more information, visit pilatesstrongstudio.com.
Pilates Strong Studio
320 Miracle Mile, Suite
204 305.401.2665
Tapout Fitness
Have you ever wondered how supermodels like Adriana Lima, Gigi Hadid, and Gisele Bündchen are able to maintain their toned physiques? While a lot goes into physical aesthetics, like genetics, diet, etc., one workout all three have credited with sculpting their bodies is boxing. Unlike other strength programs that focus on one muscle group at a time, kickboxing works out your entire body, with the shoulders, arms, core, and legs being the primary muscles used. However, boxing isn’t just good for dropping extra pounds; it enhances heart health, decreases stress, and improves balance.
Tapout Fitness Coral Gables, located just steps away from Miracle Mile, combines martial arts with cardio, weight training, and HIIT in 45 to 60-minute classes. The studio has a little something for everyone, offering five uniquely formatted classes for adults and one for children, all involving some form of boxing. For kids, there’s martial arts training, and for those who want something a little less intense, there’s Power Pilates.
The Tapout Fusion class is the best way to experience all three areas of the gym before you decide which specific session you might like best. The 45-minute class begins with striking the Focusmaster G-1000 machines, which are essentially soft mannequin dummies with targets positioned for the accompanying strike combination. After rotating through a few machines and combos, you’ll then move on to the 100-pound heavy bag, where an instructor demonstrates the combination before you try it. Finishing the class is the strength training portion, where you’ll use dumbbells and other weightlifting gear to target different muscle groups and achieve a full-body burn.
Other classes include Tapout Fit, which combines striking and weight exercises; Tapout Strike, which focuses entirely on boxing; Tapout Sweat, which uses modern equipment like kettlebells and battle ropes; and Tapout Strong, a total body workout that combines strength building and striking. Tapout Martial Arts for children teaches kids self-defense in a fun, engaging class that builds self-confidence and focus.
The studio offers your first session free and has membership packages for those who wish to continue their kickboxing fitness. Pre-paid packages start at $135 for five classes and go up to $950 for a pack of 50 classes. Basic monthly and yearly memberships (eight classes per month or unlimited) are also available with prices upon request. Classes run seven days a week, starting as early as 6:30 am and ending as late as 7:15 pm, with two morning classes on the weekends. Go to tapoutfitness.com for all the offerings and be aware that the gym will soon be changing its name to Method X Fitness – classes will not be affected. ■
Tapout Fitness
475 Biltmore Way
305.299.9666
By: Gabrielle Lord and Kylie Wang