In November I was invited to the Hacking Your Health Live Pop-up in Chicago at Lateral Fitness. It was hosted by GF Mom Certified and brought together wellness influencers and brands. Part of the event featured a tough workout by Lateral Fitness’ owner. He included a free class as part of our goodie bags, and I finally used my class this month.
As I mentioned in the previous post, the gym has nice amenities! It has a pilates room, weight room and a yoga/meditation room, along with a workout room with all sorts of equipment and more. You can attend group fitness classes or work with a personal trainer.
I chose a Inferno45 HIIT class to try for my free workout. It was similar to the workout we did during the Hacking Your Health event in that we switched from different stations. The class description says it incorporates strength training, TRX and Rogue suspension training, “as well as body weight exercises organized in timed circuits.” It is supposed to be fast-paced and feature different full body exercises each week. I took the class along with five other people on a Saturday morning. The trainer was helpful, and she demonstrated exactly how to do each exercise in each station. She also walked around and adjusted you or helped you during class. While I found it to be a challenging class, it wasn’t as fast-paced as I expected, but it could have to do with my own effort.
We did stuff such as sprints on the treadmill, rowing, different movements on the TRX strap, ropes and riding the bikes. We also used various weighted and bodyweight exercises. It was a nice mix of everything.
During class, the instructor told us to switch at one point, but we were not done with our set. One of the students became visibly irritated, which I could not understand. It’s not a big deal! The instructor handled it well, by suggesting she finish that exercise if she wanted to while the rest of us moved on to the final portion of class because time was running out. The instructor had an issue with her playlist, so the music was not my taste. I like fast-paced and slightly louder music for my workouts. I would still go to this class again in the future because it is interesting to do different workouts each time to avoid boredom.
Classes include reformer pilates, meditation, HIIT and circuit training. Services include chiropractor, acupuncture, physical therapy, massage, among others, reformer pilates and other coaching. Full lists are on the Lateral Fitness website. The prices are reasonable for a group fitness class at 3 classes for $33 for first-time members and $25 drop-ins. There are also many packages to chose from, including eight classes for $160. ($20 for a class is excellent.)
The locker rooms have everything you might need and there are showers to use as well as lockers.
I parked at a meter just outside the gym for regular Chicago parking rates, but the L train would be ideal as the station is nearby.
