What do you think of when you hear the words “traditional cardio”? Running, elliptical, stationary bike, spinning? Boring? Overrated? I love a good sweat, but cardio can feel outdated at times. Equinox is working to change how you see cardio with two new class offerings in its Miami gyms.THE CUT: Jump Rope, will elevate your cardiovascular capacities and introduce some fun tricks on the way. ELEVATE is a high intensity, yet low impact, 45-minute incline walking class based on real hiking trails.
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Jump rope makes me think of crazy double-unders at boxing gyms and childhood double dutch, neither of which I enjoy. So, I was a little nervous about THE CUT: Jump Rope. Before class, National Manager and Brand Ambassador of THE CUT, Christa DiPaolo, explained the format.After a warm-up, the class starts with seven minutes of agility using a light jump rope. The segments use a ladder format, with one minute of jump rope followed by one minute of conditioning. You move up to two minutes, and then three minutes. Each round ends with a burnout of jumping rope as fast as you can. The next segment tests your strength with the Fury rope. A fair warning about the Fury: it’s heavy! Expect to be slowed down, out of breath, and get a killer bicep workout. The last seven-minute segment is freestyle, so you choose the rope.
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I left class sweaty, motivated, and humbled. Jump rope is an ultimate cardiovascular test, and even more amazing, people can do super cool tricks with consistency and practice. THE CUT: Jump Rope is offered on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in the Aventura, Brickell, Brickell Heights, and Coral Gables locations.ELEVATE challenges the idea that cardio has to be high impact to be effective. Walking is an essential movement and low impact, and you can take it to new heights (literally) with ELEVATE.Group fitness manager and instructor Russell Smith explained that ELEVATE is designed to offer a cardio class that’s accessible and scalable for all levels. There’s a designated speed range for the class, and you can adjust your speed within that range. The inclines are mandatory, and killer. The class format involves a warm-up, followed by three long form incline intervals. The trails are designed after intense and challenging real life trails, like the Skyline Trail in Washington. Since Miami wasn’t blessed with mountain terrain, basing the intervals on real trails, gives the experience of an intense hiking without the elements.During the class, Smith gives important form cues and makes sure you don’t cheat by grabbing the handles (you can’t do that in a real class!). The cardio burn is real and the class goes by surprisingly fast! Check out ELEVATE Monday through Thursday in Aventura and South Beach, and Sunday in Aventura and Coral Gables.
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