Fitness Classes That Keep Heart Rate Top of Mind
OrangeTheory exercise classes use intervals on a rowing machine, treadmill and free weights to produce an ‘afterburn effect’
By Jen Murphy
June 29, 2015 1:31 p.m. ET
Stacey Kives Bigley, of Beverly Hills Mich., attends an OrangeTheory Fitness class three or four days a week. The class targets participants’ heart rates as they switch between treadmill, rowing machine and weights. Photo: Fabrizio Costantini for the Wall Street Journal Stacey Kives Bigley thought she was in great shape when she ran her first half marathon in 2012. “I was running all the time,” she recalls. Then, in December 2014, she took her first OrangeTheory class and realized she wasn’t as fit as she thought. “I was sore for three days following the first class,” she says.
OrangeTheory is a boutique fitness studio where the workouts combine rowing, interval training on treadmills and resistance training with TRX straps, small free weights and a person’s own body weight.
“My girlfriends told me if I could run, I could do OrangeTheory,” says Ms. Kives Bigley, the 41-year-old chief executive and co-founder of BK International LLC, a Beverly Hills, Mich., manufacturer-representative firm specializing in highly technical parts for the automotive and wind energy industries. But after her first OrangeTheory workout, Ms. Kives Bigley says she realized that not supplementing her running with other exercise had left her weak. “I’d never rowed in my life and I struggled to stay in the orange zone,” she says. “But that only made me want to work harder.”
The “orange” in OrangeTheory refers to a heart-rate zone. In an OrangeTheory workout, participants wear heart-rate monitors and look at a digital screen to monitor which zone they are in throughout the 60-minute class. Participants perform intervals designed to produce 12 to 20 minutes of training at 84% or more of their maximum heart rate, which is the orange zone.
Training in this zone produces is said to produce a workout “afterburn effect,” or an increased metabolic rate lasting for 24 to 36 hours after the workout.
Ms. Kives Bigley loved the chal
lenge of the class so much that she found herself going five days a week. “It feels like having a personal trainer for one hour,” she says. “The workout hits every major muscle group, and someone is telling you exactly what to do, tweaking your form.”
Participants receive an email summary of their workout stats, so they can see how they’ve improved over time. Ms. Kives Bigley says it took her nearly two months to be able to do all of the exercises in the right zone.
“Mixing up my routine has given me more energy and endurance and a stronger core and legs,” she says. “My arms have never looked better thanks to the rowing and weights.” Ms. Kives Bigley got her parents and her two younger brothers to try it too. “I’m still trying to get my husband there,” she says.
Exercise using free weights and TRX straps makes up one portion of the workout, which also includes rowing and intervals on a treadmill. Photo: Fabrizio Costantini for the Wall Street Journal She hasn’t given up on running all together. She still gets outside for a 3- to 5-mile run once a week and practices Bikram yoga twice a week.
The Workout
Ms. Kives Bigley attends OrangeTheory classes three to four days a week at a studio in Birmingham, Mich., a five-minute drive from her home. “I realized every day was a bit obsessive,” she says. She attends class either at 7:15 or 9:45 a.m. Classes are held in a dark studio, softly lit with an orange-tinted light and set to a soundtrack of upbeat music.
OrangeTheory Fitness classes focus on heart rate. Classes are held in a studio, dimly lit with orange light, and upbeat music. Photo: Fabrizio Costantini for the Wall Street Journal Groups of about 20 students each split up between treadmill, rowing machine and strength stations and an instructor yells out what should be done at each. A typical 60-minute workout might include 30 minutes on the treadmill, alternating between sprints where Ms. Kives Bigley tries to push her heart rate to the orange zone, and recovery jogs, varied at different incline levels. She then alternates between rowing and resistance training. She might row all-out for 250 meters, then jog over to the weights and do three sets of burpees, incline chest presses with the TRX and squats. Then she might return to the rowing machine and row 500 meters, and continue alternating for 30 minutes. The class always finishes with a five-minute cool down of stretches.
Twice a week, Ms. Kives Bigley practices yoga for 90 minutes. Bikram yoga is practiced in a room heated to around 104 degrees Fahrenheit; it consists of the same series of 26 postures, including two breathing exercises. Ms. Kives Bigley says she has tried many forms of yoga but could never catch on. “The studios were too dark, the music was distracting and people were flowing too fast,” she says.
When she first tried Bikram two years ago, she had to leave the room due to the heat. “I thought I was going to pass out, but I came back and finished,” she recalls. Ms. Kives Bigley said she liked that the class was done in silence in a well-lit room with mirrors so she could watch her alignment.
“Not only does Bikram make you physically stronger, but you become mentally stronger,” she says.
“I became laser focused on getting the postures right and breathing correctly. I consistently want to be better for the next class.”
Ms. Kives Bigley says it’s rewarding to master a new pose, like standing head to knee pose, where you grip the bottom of one foot with both hands and bring it upward so that your knee bends into the chest. You then extend the leg straight out and bend your head to the knee while balancing on the opposite leg. “That pose took moths but you know when your body is finally ready to do it,” she says.
The Diet
For breakfast, Ms. Kives Bigley makes an omelet and fruit, or she will make a shake from almond milk, Greek yogurt and berries. Lunch is a Greek salad topped with chicken. For dinner she prepares a lean meat, such as chicken, and a salad or side of vegetables. Sunday is her cheat day where she eats her mother’s eggplant parm or pizza.
Gear & Cost
Ms. Kives Bigley signed up for a six-month plan with OrangeTheory, which costs $139 a month. She pays $99 for her unlimited monthly pass at Detroit Bikram. She wears Asics Gel GT-2000 sneakers, which retail for $120. She likes Lululemon’s Run: Speed Short, which retails for $54 and mesh Energize tanks by Athleta, which retail for $64.
The Playlist
“I cannot run without music,” says Ms. Kives Bigley, whose playlist includes Maroon 5, Snow Patrol, Kid Rock and Eminem.
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