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There are a few things I miss about living in Australia, but almost on par with friends, family, and my Chihuahua-Pomeranian is Sydney fitness class F45. That was, until I overheard at bloggers chatting at a fitness launch about the intense 45-minute circuit workout expanding across the United States. This is exciting news, guys, and let me tell you why.
F45 whips your body into shape fast—after doing the class three or four times per week for two or three weeks, I saw a dramatic improvement in muscle tone all over my body. While there are dozens of high intensity workouts available on Classpass, I’m yet to find anything quite as effective in New York, where I now live.
During an F45 class I never burned less than 500 calories and the format—which involves changing exercises every minute from a roster of over 2,500, pumping music, and nine plasma TV screens counting down the time until your next break—makes it impossible to feel bored or demotivated. One minute you could be sprinting, and the next rowing, squatting, lunging, or setting your abs on fire with planks. It is the holy grail of fitness classes, IMO, and I’ve tried an absolute ton. It also happens to be the class everyone—including Aussie models and fitness bloggers—wants to Instagram.
While the $60-a-week financial commitment to join F45 is hard to swallow, the fee gives you a free pass to as many classes as you like. And, considering my gym membership in New York is basically on par, this doesn’t seem like such a bad deal.
Right now there are classes open in across California, New York, Michigan, and Ohio, with a bunch more about to open across the country. “This is merely the beginning of the expansion,” founder Rob Deutsch told us. “Our head office is in the process of relocating to the U.S., and we’re aiming to sell 150 franchises by the end of the year.” To work out whether there’s a class near you, check out the F45 website.
