(Image courtesy of Unicus Fitness)

Studio: Unicus Fitness, 625 N. Michigan Avenue, 6th floor

Class Focus: Intense interval training with that both tones and gets the heart rate up

Cost per class: There are two options at this studio

• $60/month for personal training classes
• $150/month for bootcamps, including a Beach Body Emergency and a Wedding Day Bootcamp (both of which I have taken in the past and have loved)

Money saving offers:

• You can try the fitness classes ($60/month membership) for a week for free
• You can try the Wedding Day Bootcamp, just sign up for the free trial class

Who should take the class:

• The fitness classes are built around the lives of working professionals, there are 12 pm classes every weekday that are 40 minutes of tough work – so if you can sneak out of the office, this is a great way to fit a workout into your day

The Fab Fit take:

This workout is tough and you will burn out your muscles during each interval!

Frank, the co-owner of the Unicus took two of my coworkers and me through the GUTS workout, which is described as “military inspired training using body weight type exercises and various equipment.” Frank used every opportunity throughout the class to explain why we were doing what we were doing. I hate to say I need that, but I was that kid who always asked “why?” so this made me work harder. He explained why the format of this class was, according to all research he had, the most efficient way to tone and burn calories.

We did 40 minutes of work, including a warm-up and cool-down. All of the hard work took place during 4 sets of exercise in which we did three minutes of intense work (I would go so far as to say we exhausted ourselves) followed by two minutes of rest.

During the first set, we held a plank for a minute followed by a minute of squats with a resistance band under our feet with the ends held shoulder-height and finished with the last minute spent squat-jumping on a Jog ‘n Shape. The Jog ‘n Shape acted as a cushion as we landed our jumps. A lot of jumping is usually a no-go for my knees, but this really helped to lower the impact. Frank, who has had two intense knee surgeries could do the moves on the Job ‘n Shape too.

The second set burned out our arms – we did a minute of push-ups, a minute of triceps extensions with the resistance band and finished with a minute of high knees on the Jog ‘n Shape. Our third set started with an ab move I’ve done in the Unicus bootcamps called “dead roach,” which starts with arms and legs straight in the air, and finishes by using the abs to lift both arms and legs. We followed that by another minutes of wide squats and finished with a minute jumping from side on the Jog ‘n Shape.

The last set was was an old-fashioned circuit. My co-workers and I each started on a station and rotated through. I started by doing a minute of lunges with heavy weights (15 lbs in each hand). I was offered lighter weights, but I took the opportunity to act like a tough guy, which I regretted around the 45 second mark. I then rotated to the station with long heavy ropes. I don’t know what to call this move except whipping ropes until my arms didn’t want to move any more. The final station was a version of killers in which we ran out and back to two different cones at varied lengths for the final minute.

The verdict: This is a great workout and is a great option for the days when you can barely make time.

Date taken: 11/2/12