Overview

The Class: EVF 360

Location: Lincoln Center / Upper West Side (See on map here)

Duration: 60 Minutes

Instructor: Chris

Classpass? Yes

The Space

EVF 360 is a cross-fit gym in the Upper West side, a little bit west of Lincoln Center. I hustled to the class on a Tuesday morning after an unexpected late night on Monday. (It involved margaritas and fireball shots at Applebee’s. Don’t ask.) Due to my less than perky demeanor, I was a little nervous about trying a new class, but dutifully crawled out of bed and shoved on my sneakers anyway.

The actual workout space was in the basement of the center. EVF 360 shares its studios with a RowHouse studio on the first floor. The workout space in the basement is similar to other cross-fit gyms: pull-up bars, ergs, plenty of kettlebells and free weights, and of course squat racks.

The Workout

Chris warmed us up fairly quickly with push-ups, squats and jumping jacks. It was a short 5 minutes, and although it got me a little warm, I still didn’t feel nearly enough awake for this class. As a newbie, I was asked to share my name and a fun fact about myself. The rest of the class shared their name and what they did over the weekend. This was the first time I had been to a class where people formally introduced themselves, which was nice. Although the actual class didn’t have much of a communal atmosphere, it alluded to the possibility that if you kept coming regularly, it might.

Chris split us into two groups. The workout, written on a dry erase board, was: 400 m sprint or 250 m row, 10 med ball wall tosses and 10 leg raises hanging from a bar repeated 3 times. I chose to do the 400 meter sprint outside, which was very cold and not much of a sprint on my part. The second part of the workout was 9-15-24 lunges (each leg) and kettlebell swings holding a 15-25 lb. weight. Part three consisted of: 24-15-9 weighted squats with an overhead press and burpee to box step-ups. Group one (my group) started on part 1 first and group two started on part 2 first. We all had 35 minutes to complete the workout or get as far as we could.

Written down, this workout sounds intense and like a good workout. However, once I had finished, I didn’t feel like I had done very much at all. My heart rate barely got up (I suppose I could have run faster to alleviate that issue. Whoops.) and mostly I felt like I could have been worked harder. Which, given my prior night activities, is saying something.

The Bottom Line

I would use a EVF 360 class to supplement another kind of training, particularly if that other training is cardio. Also, if you are not comfortable with using weights and kettlebells, perhaps steer clear, or make sure you are comfortable asking the instructor for help before you dive in. A lot of the moves in the class could hurt your back if you do them incorrectly.