For the past few months I could not solve the mystery of the variety of orange-painted bicycles scattered up and down Park Road at Quail Corners, and it was driving me crazy. Well, mystery solved last Tuesday when I stepped into the new ORANGETHEORY FITNESS studio at Quail Corners Shopping Center to try my first class ~ and spotted them there in the lobby. Let me start by saying that my workout regimen rarely strays from outdoor running and yoga, but when the opportunity arose to test this new workout I met it with both excitement and a bit of fear.
After the staff quickly registered me, I was handed a heart rate monitor to wear throughout my workout. Frank, our trainer for the 5:15pm class, took me through the studio before class to make sure I felt comfortable operating the various machinery.
Orangetheory combines both strength training and cardio for a high-intensity 60-minute workouts, split into intervals of cardiovascular and strength training with heart rate monitors to track intensity and maximize metabolic burn. Their mission is to maximize excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, otherwise know as the afterburn effect. Clients strive to stay in their “orange zone,” and this is where the heart-rate monitor comes in.  Frank explained after class, I would continue burning calories for up to 36 hours. That’s the Orange Effect.
It’s a 3 part fitness platform – combining Heart-Rate Based Treadmill Interval Training, the efficiency of Indoor Rowing for increased power, and the proven concept of Weight Training Blocks interspersed.
As I entered the glowing orange studio with about 25 other willing participants, most of whom were women, I couldn’t helped but feel slightly intimidated. I quickly grabbed a treadmill (half the class starts on the treadmill and the other half with the water rower) and those feelings subsided. I run marathons so a little 30-minute treadmill session couldn’t hurt me, right?
Part of the Orangetheory magic is that working out in a group provides accountability and structure, and their belief that you are more likely to get a great workout and better results from a group setting where you motivate each other to pick up the pace and reach beyond plateaus. OTF maintians that people who workout in groups stick to their goals more consistently than those that workout alone, and their studio results confirm that.
Each class is a little different ~ since ours was the “Endurance” class we spent a little more time on both the treadmill and water rower with a few strength training moves in between. As soon as I started running my intervals, I notice my heart rate on blast on the overhead screens. Being the competitor that I am, I had a hard time not looking at the girls next to me and upping my speed in response. Frank tells us to start at about 80 percent of our max effort, working up to intervals of 90 and 100 percent effort. I have to give it to him, it’s a great feat to keep me running on a treadmill for 30 minutes but I did it before switching to the water rowers and strength training exercises.
Trainer Frank stopped by several times throughout the class to check on my comfort level, and when the water rower started bothering my bad knee he led me over to an alternate machine to get my remaining cardio in. After another 30 minutes of cardio mixed with some weights, TRX exercises and plyometrics, the class was over. I made it and, according to my results, burned a total of 631 calories!
There are five different heart rate zones: gray, blue, green, orange and red and the orange zone represents 84-91% of your max heart rate. This is the targeted range that helps keep your metabolism going like the Energizer bunny post workout and you want to strive to stay in the orange for 12-20 minutes. And being the overachiever I am, I ended up at 25 minutes, oops.
I definitely left the class feeling like I got a great workout and some education on why my running rhythm may not always be optimal for burning fat. And while I’m not trying to lose any weight, I can definitely see how a few OT classes a month would contribute to bettering my running efforts and make me a faster and stronger runner. I’ll definitely be back.
8402 Park Road
Charlotte, NC 28210
View Map | (704) 247-6137
Corner of Park Rd. and Sharon Rd. W
