CONTROLLED BURN
Orangetheory Fitness is set to open a gym in Spring Township with a focus on giving clients a heart-healthy workout each time they visit.
It’s the Goldilocks aspect of almost any workout: No matter how many times you’ve done the same routine, it’s hard to tell whether it’s asking too much of your body, giving your muscles an unintended easy day or hitting the just right mark.
A new group exercise format coming to Berks County for the first time aims to resolve that dilemma.
Orangetheory Fitness combines personal training with instant biometric feedback to help participants get a heart-healthy workout each time they step into the gym.
The chain’s Spring Township location — part of a rapidly growing national network — is set to open mid-January in Broadcasting Square.
Chelsea Gartner is the owner, and she’s also a very satisfied customer. The mom of two has shed 60 pounds since joining Orangetheory’s Collegeville location about two years ago.
You can find Gartner in the treadmill-rowing-weights class up to six times a week.
During each, she wears a lightweight band (an OT Beat, in Orangetheory lingo) around her forearm. It measures blood flow to calculate her heart rate. The data is sent instantly to largescreen TVs where Gartner can watch her progress and adjust her effort as the class continues. (Others wear different bands around a biceps or their chest.)
The Orangetheory goal for each participant is to record at least 12 minutes of every workout in the orange zone, meaning the heart is beating at 84% to 91% of its maximum rate.
“It’s not just a gym where you show up, do a class and leave,” Gartner said. “There’s accountability, and trainers who get to know you. I hit those benchmarks, and I know I worked hard for that. It makes me feel like it really works.”
The key to the Orangetheory concept is in “splat” points, awarded for hitting the target heart rate and fueling optimal caloric burn during and up to 36 hours after a workout. In marketing materials, Orangetheory co-founder Ellen Latham has likened the word to the sound fat cells make when they explode.
Students earn points in group classes, which is the only type of workout the franchises offer. Don’t expect to drop in and thumb through a magazine while on an elliptical trainer at an Orangetheory. You won’t even find one.
Gartner’s roughly 3,000-square-foot space will accommodate 13 treadmills, 13 rowers and 13 weight-training set-ups. Striders and bikes will be limited and reserved for injured participants who can’t use a treadmill for cardio work.
Orangetheory classes usually have up to 26 students split into two groups, which then switch between stations as instructed by a certified coach. Students sign up in advance. If 39 attend, the class can be broken into three groups.
Every Orangetheory offers the exact same class all day, in 45-minute or 60-minute versions. But each day’s class is unique and won’t repeat after that day.
Last Monday, Collegeville coach Laura Fried started a strength session with one group on treadmills and another on rowers, alternating every six minutes or so.
Students ran or walked at steep inclines called out by Fried. They completed a variety of core and upper-body moves including planks, pullovers and biceps curls. They slowed their rowing strokes to focus on driving through the legs at higher watts.
Fried delivered cues and demonstrated moves and modifications as needed.
After three rounds backed by upbeat music, students cooled down with a brief stretch, followed by a final shot of the day’s data sent directly to email.
In her first 45-minute session, this reporter burned 440 calories, spent 5 minutes in the desirable orange zone and 13 in the red — meaning the heart was beating at an all-out effort.
Gartner and Fried said many newcomers spend too much time in red as they start the Orangetheory approach. Fried, for her part, tried to encourage participants to spend some time in the lower-range blue and green zones, ribbing some regulars who sprinted on the rowers.
Both women said it can take as many as five classes to get familiar with coaching prompts and learn to adjust equipment for desired cardio efforts.
But Orangetheory’s technology provides insights that allow exercisers to see their progress and constantly set new goals from Day One.
In addition to noting splat points, the post-workout email and the company’s app allow users to see more specific feedback, such as fastest mile time or quickest 500-meter row.
Setting personal goals and getting to them safely efficiently is what the concept is all about, said George Ceniviva, who owns the Collegeville location and another in Audubon.
“Nobody in that class is watching you or judging you on your stats,” he said. “That’s all for you.”
And Americans do like their data.
The in-gym heart-rate monitoring concept has taken off despite — or maybe because of — the fact that so many people now track their own daily movement through Apple watches and similar devices.
Ceniviva’s business has grown consistently, with many classes waitlisted as word of the Orangetheory method spread. He said that’s because the workout is easily adjusted for each member’s ability, whether they are a Navy seal or weigh more than 400 pounds.
Gartner, who lives in Schwenksville, Montgomery County, hopes that increasing brand recognition will boost her success in Berks. She plans to work at the location several days a week but will still workout in Collegeville too.
Nationally, Orangetheory has more than 1,000 locations worldwide and claims about 1 million members.
“What I want people to understand is that it’s not out of reach for anyone,” Gartner said. “I hear it all the time: ‘I’m not fit enough for this.’ But if you show up, you’ll walk out feeling proud regardless of where you started.”