HIIT IT! By Daphnie Yang

I am a HIIT IT fan and try to do this workout at least once a week. At this point I think I’ve met and worked out with all of the trainers. They each have a slightly different personality and style but the workout routine is always very consistent and good. Daphnie seems to pick people that have her same enthusiasm for life, which is really refreshing and keeps me coming back.

I had a taste of HIIT IT with Daphne Yang when they had a free class at the new Athleta Flatiron class studio. I really enjoyed the workout because of the high intensity intervals. So I decided to come check out their class at their «studio». I honestly thought they had their own fitness studio but they actually share it with other classes and organizations at CAP21. So I was a bit surprised when I walked in and thought I walked into the wrong place. Turns out the entire floor is full of classrooms with different stuff going on (i.e., ballet, Zumba, singing (??)). Reminds me of going back to school. I took the class with the instructor named Natalie, who has a very funky personality. She’s nice but I don’t think she’s a really good instructor. She was literally reading off the workout cues from her phone and didn’t really do the workouts along with us. For $ 20 (new student special), I felt I got gypped. I could have easily blasted some music at home and done the workouts myself. The point of having instructors is so that they can motivate and inspire you and I felt Daphne Yang did that when I took the first class. But with Natalie, it was a bit of disappointment. Also, the studio reeked of body odor because of a prior class. There was no ventilation and you can tell by everyone’s faces that they were getting a bit annoyed. Some people had to walk out of the class to breathe. The floor was grimey and wish they offered mats during the floor workouts. No props. Nothing. Just you, a mirror, and a dirty floor.

I took a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) IT! Class and really enjoyed it! The focus of the class is around 20 second of effort and 10 second of active recovery. We went through 5 rounds of alternating exercises, for example, you would do burpees for 20 seconds, jog in place for 10 second and then do squat jumps for 20 seconds and repeat. The rounds focused on all the muscle groups and included floor work as well.
The instructor for the class was Helene, who is a certified trainer and group instructor getting advanced degree in physical therapy. She was great at adjusting exercises for skill levels and making corrections so people didn’t hurt themselves. I also broke my hair tie right before class started (which is every long-​haired girl’s nightmare) and she gave me her extra! The class kept me moving and sweaty and had great music. The studio space on the 6^th floor and has a mirror across the entire room. My only complaint is that the floor was really dusty and it was everywhere during floor work.