I worked out with Trevor Linden
… and lived to tell the sweaty tale — there were squats, hamstring pulls and planks
I know, I know, the headline is pretty sensational.
All joking aside, though, I was legitimately concerned about whether or not I could make it through an intense workout led by retired professional hockey player (and current president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks), Trevor Linden. But, I knew I wanted to try. So, on a cold, rainy evening, I bused to the Orangetheory Fitness location on Davie Street to work out with Linden and test the latest training gear from New Balance Canada.
After signing the typical waivers, I was handed a small orange backpack containing my outfit for the evening’s class. The all-black Fresh Foam Crush sneakers were slick, the sports bra-top was surprisingly chic, the mesh-accented leggings felt cool, and the shirt ... well, there wasn’t one of those.
After a momentary panic attack imaging having to run, squat and row my way through what had been described as an “intense workout” clad only in leggings and a bra-top, I assured myself the modesty topper must have accidentally been forgotten from my bag.
But, once I rejoined my fitness classmates (a few of whom looked to be full-on fitness bloggers) I realized this was, in fact, the outfit. In its totality.
Pushing the panic from my mind, I decided to run with the look. Literally.
The class started on the treadmills with interval training. I chose a modest 4.0 speed for my “base” speed and a more ambitious 6.5 for the “power” minutes. For the sprints, it was up to 7.0. After one set of intervals, I was covered in a dewy sheen. After two, I was full-on sweating. And, after the third, well, it simply wasn’t cute.
I peeked down the line of treadmills at Linden, and saw he too was soaked, but a glance at the heart rate monitor on the screen displayed to the class that, while he was indeed breaking a sweat, this was akin to a walk in the park for him.
What followed were several “blocks” of squats and hamstring pulls, planks and rowing exercises, at the end of which I was gasping for air. But, I made it through.
As we stretched our used-and-abused muscles in a circle while seated on the floor, Linden joked he hadn’t, in fact, liked the circuit we’d just completed.
“I promised myself I’d never do another squat once I was done being a professional hockey player,” he said with a laugh of the squat-heavy routine. But, of course, he did. In fact, he nearly touched his backside to the ground with each move, making my squats look sad.
As we thanked Linden for leading us through our 60-minute fitness crusade, the chipper class instructor piped in with a delightful fact to wash down with my fresh-pressed juice.
“And, he’s going to do it all again with the next class!” he practically sang, motioning to the group of bloggers and journalists who were crowded near the lockers waiting for their fitness class to begin.
Of course he was.