Looking to kick things into high gear? Meet your biggest challenger: F45 Training, a high-intensity workout studio in West University.

In 2018, I completed over 200 spin classes at CycleBar. Yeah, you’re right, wow. But going into this year, I knew I had to break out of my workout rut. Don’t get me wrong, spin is my favorite workout still! But I needed something challenging. I joined ClassPass (get your first month free here) and started doing more pilates and barre, but results were mixed, and I wasn’t having as much fun as I would in a cycle class.

Then, I met F45.

Class structure

When you walk into F45, you sign in, stretch out, etc. Then, your instructors will tell you what all you’ll be doing that day — they even show you the moves of each station (there are about 25 of each workout exercise).

After a brief warm up, you’re assigned a number of what station to start at. You have a quick 10 or so seconds to get to your station.

The stations snake around the gym. At the front of the room are a few TVs that show the workouts form and reps. You do each workout for 45 seconds before rotating to the next one.

The types of exercises are so diverse — everything from strength training (squats, push ups, curls, lunges, etc) to cardio (cycling, sprints, jumping jacks, and more). You do two rounds through the course, and there’s always a mix of heavy and light weights.

Why I’m now obsessed

The speed. Kimmy Schmidt says you can do anything for 10 seconds, but I see your 10 secs and raise you to 45. Literally every workout was so do-able because you know you’ll be done so soon.

The people. F45 is lead by the nicest army bootcamp instructors I’ve ever met. Kidding, of course, but while they are yelling at you or coming around to correct your form, they are using positive language and high fives all around. Plus, at the end of class, everyone high-fives because you all just survived what seemed impossible at the beginning of class.

The music. Big part of why I love cycling is that it’s set to music. F45 has some jams and I never felt like I was zoning out of the workout — mostly because you gotta focus on what your next move was.

Know before you go

• Parking kinda sucks. The studio is in West U, so be aware of both parking and traffic challenges. (Note: There are other Houston locations!)
• No towels. BYO-towel. And water bottle — though there is a refill station.
• Pricing. Your first week is free! But after that, it’s $60 for 4 classes, or $159 unlimited per month. Bummer, but there’s no ClassPass location.