TAKE YOUR GYM ROUTINE FOR A SPIN
The newest fitness center in town may be the hippest and coolest place to burn all the carbs away. Promising to take away the “work” in “workout,” Zink is a fitness center offering indoor cycling, high intensity interval training (HIIT), total resistance exercise (TRX) and dance classes.
The studio opened last Nov. 8, 2016 and has since been flooded with patrons from all walks of life, all in the process of reaching one goal and one goal only: getting fit. Zink has a stateof-the-art studio dedicated for indoor cycling while beside it is the Studio Z which is for dance, TRX and HIIT classes.
As per owner and manager Elizalde “Zalde” Berdon, while indoor cycling is a hard program to teach—not because it’s hard to do but because all you do is cycle—it has been a mainstay fitness program since the 1980s because it brings in great results.
“People become stronger; people lose weight,” Zalde said. “Spinning is largely because of the sensory (aspect). It’s the sound, the lights, the cues from the instructor that make you want to keep going.”
Zink’s indoor cycling is an intense workout regimen that proves to burn up to 600 to 800 calories per 50-minute session. It’s the best way to reach one’s fitness goal in so little time.
Students start the session on a seated position, doing a warm-up on the stationary bike. Following the trainer’s instructions, the class progresses and the students pedal faster as they are asked to do varied
movements from standing flat or doing the standing hill climb all while adjusting the bike resistance in different intervals.
What makes this workout more exciting and fun is the upbeat, loud music that accompanies each labored push of the pedal and the enthralling neon lights that change through the beat of the music. It’s a sensory experience that makes one push himself through higher heart rates and steeper bike resistance.
For the strong ones who love to challenge their bodies, the HIIT and TRX are the programs fit for their fitness goals.
HIIT is a total body workout that’s composed of several kinds of exercises settled in different stations. It’s a high energy workout that gets you moving from one exercise to another. After completing a set, a student is given a short water break and then has to go through the same cycle again for at least two more rounds.
TRX, on the other hand, is suspension training, which means a student will use his own body mass in doing the exercises. This type of workout makes one focus more since there are so many things happening at the same time, which means that it actually burns more calories. One second, one is lifting oneself upright and engaging one’s core, then next second, one is on the floor doing a push-up.
But the best part about Zink, aside from its fun and effective workouts, is probably the positivity that resonates in its walls. From the people who greet patrons at the door to the instructors to the members themselves, everyone is supportive of each one’s fitness goals regardless of who you are, what you’re wearing or where you come from. At Zink, everyone is family—a fit, happy and good-looking one at that.
“We just take away the work in workout and make it fun so that people get hooked and get addicted to the program and ultimately they live longer, they look better and, I always say this in almost all my classes, they’ll look yummy,” Zalde said, quite cheekily, with an infectious smile.
Zink is located at the second floor of the Banilad Town Center. Classes start from 6:30 a.m. and end at about 8 p.m.
Your brain is always engaged, and if you do that, you’re more focused and you burn more calories, so that’s why this program is very, very effective. ELIZALDE “ZALDE” BERDON