Confessions Of A Former Fitness Flake

Accountability has always been my biggest hurdle when it comes to exercise. I wish I was the type of person who’s self-motivated and can work out alone, but that’s just not who I am.

I was a competitive lacrosse player from childhood through college, but I was never able to stay consistent in my training when I had to do it alone. Every season, I would show up out of shape and then get injured when the intense practices started.

Once I left college, staying committed to exercise became even more difficult. I had always thrived off of the group dynamic I felt when working out with my teammates. Now that I was no longer on a team, I was always thinking: What do I do now? I want to be fit, but I can’t hold myself accountable for the life of me.

I kept trying different ways to work out, but I couldn’t stick to anything. I did long-distance hiking for a month and thought that would be my thing, but realized it was impractical due to the time investment and the fact that I live in a big city. I got into rock climbing—even bought all the fancy equipment—then quit after a couple of months when my friends stopped going. I tried getting into running, but I found it really difficult to pace myself when running outdoors. I decided I wanted to do fitness classes, so I tried dance cardio and yoga, but I didn’t really like those either.

It was a frustrating cycle: I would start something new, do it for a little while, then get lazy and sit around feeling guilty for not exercising.

I needed something I could do with a group of people instead of trying to exercise on my own. I missed the workouts I used to do with my lacrosse team—a lot of interval training and core exercises—and I missed how competitive they were. Luckily, right when I was about to give up, I found Orangetheory Fitness.

Discovering The Right Fitness Class

My girlfriend and I had just moved to a new neighborhood and wanted to start working out again, so we were shopping for a gym. There was an Orangetheory down the street where she tried a class and loved it immediately. She’s also a former competitive athlete—a figure skater and rower—and has struggled the same way I have with not having the structure of a team.

After she went to Orangetheory a couple of times and raved, I decided to try it out. The first class was definitely tough, but I was able to personalize my weights, speed, and intensity to make it just as hard as I could handle without overdoing it. It was clear to me right away that this was different from all the other classes I had tried. For example, in my first dance cardio class, I didn’t know any of the moves and felt like everyone was staring at me and judging every mistake I made. Here, I didn’t feel like anyone knew or cared that it was my first time. At Orangetheory, exercises like running, squats, and other basic resistance-training exercises were things I had done before, so I felt confident in what I was doing.

Mitchell has found the motivating team atmosphere in Orangetheory that she thrived on as a college athlete.

That was eight months ago, and I’ve been going to Orangetheory three to five days a week ever since—I’m closing in on 100 classes. The fact that I’m exercising five days a week for an hour each time is a big deal for me. I didn’t know it was possible for me to be that committed. The heart rate-based interval training, technology that tells me in real-time where my intensity needs to be, and, of course, the results have made Orangetheory a routine I plan to stick to long term. The workouts are still hard, but in the best way possible. I’m still pushing myself, so it’s never easy. I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been, and I absolutely love it.

Running, Rowing, And Lifting My Way To Better Fitness

Orangetheory workouts can be done in three components—rowing, interval cardio, and strength training—in whichever order you chose. Rowing was the toughest for me, since it takes specific skills. But with the help of an Orangetheory coach I was able to learn the proper way to do it and now it’s a really fun workout.

Every Orangetheory class is designed with treadmill, rower, and resistance training to drive results in cardiovascular health, VO2 max, strength, and flexibility.

The treadmill portion is my favorite. I was so out of shape when I started at Orangetheory that my goal was simply to be able to jog at the slowest possible pace for the entire time. Now I’m full-on running for the entire 14-24-minute block. Running speed varies from “base” to “push” to “all-out” as instructed by a coach. For someone who struggles with keeping my own pace when running, the ability to just do what the coach says and shut off my brain has been life-changing; I’m planning on running my first 5K in a few months.

Orangetheory treadmill intervals have helped Mitchell boost her endurance and prepare for her first 5K race.

The strength portion of the workout is great because it changes from day to day. One workout you’re targeting your arms or legs, another day you’re jumping across the floor with all your might while the coach yells, “Remember the floor is lava!,” and the next you’re doing core circuits and your abs are burning.

Since joining Orangetheory I’ve noticed such a difference in my body. I purposely don’t own a scale because I don’t want to focus on that number, but I know for a fact that I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. I’ve discovered muscles I didn’t even know existed—hello, deltoids!—and my biceps are looking stronger every day. I can run up steps without getting winded and I just generally feel better.