Gym: Lateral Fitness, 314 West Superior LL-E

Class Focus: Body Tone is like yoga sculpt on steroids (but just to be clear, no steroids were used in the writing of this post). It uses functional and bodyweight exercises in partnership with isometric and small movements. (Offered Tuesdays at 7 am. Schedule here)

Cost per workout: $25

Money saving offers:

• $33 3-class starter package

The Fab Fit take:

Just steps from the Chicago brown line stop, Lateral Fitness offers everything from personal training to triathlon training to group fitness classes. You know group fitness is my jam, but I’ve got a shiny new Trek bike, a terrifying lack of swimming knowledge and a glimmer of a sprint triathlon in my eye.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Body Tone, is done barefoot, but don’t let that trick you into thinking that you’re not going to get after it the second the Katarina turns on the music.  Incidentally, I’m obsessed with the instructor for two reasons: 1. she’s tough 2. she signs her emails “peace and carrots.”

To warm up, we did things with the sliding disks that my my core say, “Oh OK, it’s that kind of party.” We started by placing the sliding disks under our hands and pushed ourselves around the studio with our legs. Like a mountain climber, but with the satisfaction of getting somewhere.

(Image courtesy of Lateral Fitness) 

Following that, we moved the disks under our feet and in a plank position, we pulled ourselves around the room with our hands. I did the class two times, and we did this warmup both times – I saw those disks hit the floor in our second class and I braced myself. If you ever want to take your plank up a level or vary it, put something that slides under your feet and drag yourself around for a while. Thank me later.

After getting warmed up, class used small movements within traditional yoga poses to lengthen and strengthen muscles. Plank was a standby, but we mixed it up to keep it interesting. A shoulder shrug motion added more oomph to the upper back work we were doing in one plank. And in another trip to plank-ville, we held for over 2 minutes.

Our legs weren’t ignored. We used a warrior 3 with pulses to the lifted leg to really get at the butt and threw in some variations of squats and lunges to make the thighs scream. After a long series of calf raises with some barre work mixed in, we called it a day.

All movements were done with body weight alone, but body weight got the job done. Try this class for a lengthening, strengthening challenge.

And take a tour of the gym before stopping in!

(Images courtesy of Lateral Fitness) 

Date taken: 8/20/13