No, they aren’t. In my opinion, the personality of the instructor can make or break the workout.  Any workout is what you make of it but lets face it – we all need some motivation to help get us through it and why not have some fun while we’re at it? Most workouts look the same but they all don’t “feel” the same.  The instructor is the deciding factor as to whether I would take that particular class again under their lead.  And apparently, I’m not alone on this. There is an interactive site called “Rate Your Burn” for users to share their opinions of various gym classes and review the fitness instructors that teach that class.  It also provides trending reviews and fitness articles from their blog.  A good reference for any fitness guru like myself.

I love a good workout and have made my Equinox gym membership worth every penny.  With all of the classes I’ve attended, I’ve been fortunate to have found some amazing instructors.  One of them is Gerren Liles, aka The People’s Trainer.  He teaches Equinox’s cardio conditioning classes called Whipped and 30/60/90, even an Abs class, but my favorite class is his killer class, and I mean it in a good way, his ViPR class.  This is a class that gets your heart rate up and works muscles throughout your entire body using a long weighted rubber tube.  He has a fun & exuberant attitude mixed with a strong and vocal supportive excitement that pushes you to that next level of believing in yourself and working to your best all while having fun – AND he’s not bad to look at! His Wednesday morning ViPR class in Brooklyn Heights is well worth the 6am wake-up call.

For those of you not willing or able to fork over the monthly dues for Equinox, there are many opportunities to get a good workout in for free across the city.  Gerren recently teamed up with his friends at the Brooklyn Lululemon Athletica store to organize a FREE Saturday morning boot camp called “Lu’t Camp“.  Yesterday was the 2nd of the 5 series (ending October 6th) and it is a great way to start the day.  About 35 of us showed up to the Meadow in Prospect Park to burn maximum calories under the morning sun doing a mix of intense cardio drills with strengthening exercises.  The hour workout is totally fun and as my teammate perfectly stated this morning “that went fast!”

I apologize for spreading the word halfway through the series but its never too late to get on board and participate in the fun over the remaining 3 Saturdays.  For more and updated information regarding the class, be sure to check out the Lu’t Camp page in Facebook as well as the lululemon athletica Brooklyn page for additional free yoga and running sessions.

For more free workout ideas around NYC feel free to contact me!  I’m always looking to mix it up.