Orange Theory: Preston Hollow

Layout

If you hate the color orange, don't bother checking this place out.  They adhere to the theme very strongly. Everything is orange, and in many different shades as well.  You have the front desk area,

that has all the swag you could want.  They also have cubby holes and two single, but very nice, bathrooms. I believe they also have a shower, but I only caught a glimpse of it.

After you enter through the front desk area you then, when it's your class's time, go through some glass doors into the exercise area.  The exercise area is in a L-shape (at least at this location). In the longer part of the L there is a row of treadmills lined up and facing the wall, a row of rowers behind them.  In the short leg is the strength area, a rack of dumbbells, and small mats, and TRX suspension ropes.  Very clean and very new.  I really liked the treadmills in that they were easy on my feet, very soft and had some bounce, which was nice for my shin splints.  The rowing ergs are the kind that use water for resistance, like what Frank Underwood uses.  I didn't like that I couldn't adjust the resistance.  That made it difficult to raise my heart rate (which is very important in this class), but otherwise excellent machines.

Class experience

This is really similar to Beyond 500 in that both are circuit training that put you in a group that goes from one station to the next.  Beyond 500 seemed to be a bit more focused on pilates type movements while Orange Theory (OT) is focused more on conditioning. OT's focus on making your heart stronger makes sense because the whole deal with Orangetheory, the basis for it's very name, is that the program is designed to keep your heart rate in the 85-92% max rate, aka the "orange zone".  Doing this for an hour is supposed to help burn the most calories.

So how do you know if you're in the orange zone? Well, you wear a hear rate monitor of course! To participate in an OT class, you have to wear one of their heart rate monitors.  They multiple TVs in the room that show everyone's name with their heart rate below them.  So whenever you look up you will see your name and your heart rate, with the corresponding color (grey, blue, green, orange, and red).  You actually do have anonymity in this situation, provided no one knows your name.  However, you do see how you're doing relative to the group, so that can give you that competitive edge to drive you.

The first class I attended our instructor had us divide up into two groups, the treadmill group and the strength/erg group.  For the first 30 minutes the same group is on the treadmills, while the erg group switches out with the strength group after short periods of time.  The whole time things are changing, for the treads they're changing incline and speed, same with the ergs.  The strength group cycles through various exercises, as many rounds as possible.

It was fun to push myself, to try to get my heart rate up.  It is strange, when the instructor said that "alright you're supposed to feel uncomfortable here", it really made it easy to embrace the discomfort of pushing myself.  I have to say I enjoyed the class, this program.

Surfability

This is pretty easy to surf. You sign up for your free first class.  As a bonus, if you wait a week or so they'll offer you a second class for free as well.