I was lucky to be invited to a rooftop fitness class Wednesday night at 45 Province Street, a luxury condo building with spa amenities for its building occupants. A two-bedroom, two-bathroom goes for $1.2 million so you can imagine the benefits which include parking, a pool, a gym, movie theater room, available conference rooms for luncheons and private spa services for residents only. The building offers fitness classes by Exhale on occasion and this week was Cardio Core Fusion. The view from the top was breathtaking!
I’ve taken Core Fusion via DVD before but never in person. Since I’ve been doing The Bar Method, I knew what I could expect but wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing. 
I posed above before class began and rewarded myself with a glass of wine at the end. In between, we were given an intermediate workout that seemed disheveled. Exercises were only done for 1 set, so you always had to be looking at the instructor for cues which was difficult in the positions of our mats. There was little repetition except for the absurd amount of mountain climbers we did in between each “strength” interval. That was the only cardio move really we did the entire hour! Seriously?! We must have pumped out at least 15 sets of 16-40 reps. Is this how Core Fusion usually works? I reviewed the Core Fusion DVD awhile back and had to take a look to remember:
I thought there was too much shoulder work going on to be honest and rather repetitive. The only type of cardio came from a squat thrust that was featured in 2 different segments. [Core Fusion Bootcamp review]
So, yes I guess it does… My shoulders and hip flexors wanted variety. By the end, I was that girl doing my own thing and ignoring the instructor with hover jacks and knee to elbow crunches. The abs at the end were identical to my beloved Bar Method and challenging (but still only 1/3 of the intensity from Bar).
Will I try Core Fusion again? Probably. I will probably skip the cardio and bootcamp classes though. When I take a group exercise class, having my own fitness certification, I quickly will write off any instructor that incorrectly does a standard fitness move. In this case, the instructor asked us to do tricep extensions and brought the weights all the way back to her arm pits using 2 lb dumbbells… Maybe this is part of their method, but I’m pretty sure you stop once your elbow is at a 90-degree angle to keep tension on the muscle during the entire set. 
Blogger buddies Bridget (yellow), Kristen (black) and Alli (blue) were also in attendance. The class ended at 7:30 PM and by the time I got home, it was already 8:30. I saved 1/2 of my lunch to use for dinner since I’m trying to empty out my fridge. I used the left over BBQ chicken from the Red Bones food truck on a 70-calorie Joseph’s Tortilla with 1 Laughing Cow Wedge in Light Creamy Swiss. I folded it over and cooked up on my skillet.
The cheese was creamy and the chicken sweet. The tortilla crisped up nicely and made perfect for eating with my hands. Look how crispy the tortilla gets with just a spray of EVOO!
Question: Have you taken a group exercise class that you weren’t thrilled about? Did you share your experience or keep it to yourself?
Hi Sarah! It was great to meet you last night. I’m going to check out the barre classes you mentioned next.
Kristen! I’m so glad you thought to come take a quick peak at my blog! I wanted to link to you but could not remember your URL! So nice to meet you too. It’s The Bar Method on Clarendon. LOVE! If you want to try it out you can use SARAHFIT1 for a $10 first class and for 1-month unlimited if you love it, try it for $100 using SARAHFIT2.
Great overview of the class! I’m in Va Beach and would love to try something like this, but I’m not the biggest fan of these sorts of workouts, generally speaking. As you pointed out, since you’re a fitness instructor, you can easily identify when someone’s guiding a class incorrectly. I’m not one, and I just started getting back into working out, so I get worried in classes like this because I tend to trust and will do whatever I’m being guided to do. After all, I don’t want anyone to think I’m wimping out! If I used the dumbbell the way it was being shown in this class, I definitely would have been hurtin’. I’ll stick with my running and Hot Yoga right now, until I really get myself back in the shape I know I can be in! Then, I’ll test the waters a bit. 🙂
That view is amazing!
Yeah, I’m glad I went. Now I’ve got an invite to the Core Fusion! I think I’m joining Bar regularly.
That view is almost worth the annoying class!!!
That was my first thought, too! Even if I felt “meh” about a class, I’d probably keep going anyway if it was in such a pretty spot.
I’ve taken a bunch of Core Fusion classes, Barre and Sport. That doesn’t NOT sound like a good Core Fusion class. In the Core Fusion Sport classes I’ve done, I can remember doing mountain climbers once per class. We did a lot of pushups I remember, which is probably a good thing! But the exercises were challenging and built upon the movement prior to them. I’m sorry you had such a mediocre experience with Core Fusion. I think a lot of any fitness experience is based on the instructor. I found the few I REALLY like, that REALLY challenge me & keep things interesting, and I just keep going back to them only. Try it again and hopefully you will change your mind!
I agree with you Taylor 100% which is why I didn’t mention the instructor because I felt kinda bad. She just had a lazy approach and repeatedly did this one move that looked unsafe! I got a few teacher recommendations and am going again in a couple weeks!