It’s time to revisit a neighbourhood
The popular Gravity class is ‘as hard as you want to make it’
All this time I’ve been reviewing boutique studios, niche gyms and fitness chains, flitting from place to place, week after week, one place has served as my own little sanctuary.
For more than two years, the West End YMCA has been my space to work up some energy ahead of a long day or burn off frustration after a rough one.
I recently gave up my membership after moving to a building with an inhouse gym. So I figured it was time to take a second look at the Y.
For the record, I hardly took any classes as a member.
There was a short stretch in 2009 when I did a great 90-minute class every Saturday afternoon — Box Rocs with Sonia, for those interested — but that’s not the one I chose to critique, for obvious reasons.
Instead, I revisited Gravity, a pulley-based workout I test drove at Goodlife Fitness in another review.
It’s a popular class at the Y and with less than a dozen machines, participants have to sign up half an hour in advance just to get in.
Instructor Eleni Kessari isn’t someone I know — I’ve never made it to the gym at this time before — but she’s on a first-name basis with almost everyone else.
This is a mixed-level class, so she starts by explaining how to adjust the intensity by changing the machine’s incline. For now, mine is set at an angle about two-thirds up, considered intermediate.
“It’s as hard as you want to make it,” says Cathyann White, the club’s general manager, in an interview a few days after the class.
Even people who regularly hit the weights realize Gravity, which uses body weight for resistance, is tougher than they think once the incline is steep enough, she adds.
We warm up with squats. Feet firmly planted on the squat board, we push off so the backboard glides along the rails. That turns into single-leg hops on alternating sides.
Kessari throws in basic core work: while sinking into squats, we lift our head and shoulder blades off the board in a crunch. The instability adds a challenge, but nothing compared with the more advanced core moves later in the workout.
Next come one-legged side squats, side crunches and leg circles. The latter two are performed without moving the board, but they’re still tricky because of the angle. Each move gets two sets of about 30 to 45 seconds, with a break in between.
That’s when the pulleys kick in. Kessari tells us to hook straps to the board; we’ll use them to pull ourselves up and down. It’s a good time to lower the incline since the upper body is generally weaker than the legs and glutes.
We begin with a combination lat pull and crunch. Lying on our backs with our knees bent and feet on the board, we pull down on the straps, hoisting ourselves up while performing a crunch at the same time. After the second set, we repeat with legs in tabletop position, then lift them halfway in a V-sit.
Switching between exercises is surprisingly seamless. Still, for some of the more complex moves, verbal cues aren’t always enough.
Kessari, who circles the group throughout the 45 minutes, makes up for it by commandeering a machine every so often to demonstrate. She apologizes each time and hops off after only few reps. It breaks up the flow of the class, but it’s a minor and momentary disruption and probably saves us a lot of embarrassment.
All of the Y’s certified Gravity instructors are encouraged to “be creative with their classes” and let personal styles shine, White says.
Some prefer Pilates-inspired routines while others work in bursts of cardio — either way, “you’re not doing complicated choreography,” which may explain the class’s broad appeal, she says.
Kessari clearly favours basic moves and simple combinations. We mostly stick with the straps for the rest of the class, mixing in chest presses, back rows and torso twists.
Near the end, we lower the board until it’s nearly flat for tricep pushups and planks. The slight incline means the board wobbles, an added challenge. Then it’s back up for a combination sit-up and hamstring curl using the foot stirrups.
My favourite part comes when we hang off the pulleys, letting the weight lengthen our muscles. Apparently I’m not the only one who appreciates the stretch — White says some people use the machines just for that.
Verdict: A basic class that makes good use of Gravity’s unique features and delivers a challenging strength and core workout. Paola Loriggio is a freelance writer in Toronto. She owns more workout clothes than real ones.