Smart Living Hawaii Does OrangeTheory

Smart Living Hawaii had our first "official" event this past weekend at OrangeTheory Kaka'ako! It was a FREE workout for 32 participants from all walks of life, different workout regimes and a wide age range. Orangetheory is a place to workout and is relatively new to Oahu and the Kaka'ako location just opened up at Salt at Our Kaka'ako. It has been growing rapidly across the country and we wanted to see what all the hype was about. I then decided to pull an entire class together, try this workout and blog about it. Here we go...

What is Orangetheory Fitness you ask? Well, it’s an intense 1 hour group training workout with a fitness coach that concentrates on visible toning and calorie burning. They focus on intervals and use a heart rate monitor to help keep you in the “Orange” zone or “afterburn”, that stimulates metabolism and increases energy. Typically one burns 500-1000 calories in 1 hour and keeps burning calories up to 36 hours! They play upbeat music, everyone has their own equipment during each interval and it’s a workout for anyone at any athletic level. It’s based off of yourself, your heart and your physical abilities.

Now that we have a rundown of what it is, here is my opinion and others feedback after the workout. For me, I like to say I am a "Jack of All Trades" when it comes to working out. I get bored with the same workout every day and I also believe in muscle confusion, cardio, endurance and stretching as the key components to a balanced workout regime. With that said, I enjoy running/trail running, hiking, weight training, cardio equipment, circuit training, sprints, tennis, kickboxing, paddling outriggers, swimming, cycling, jump roping, intramural sports, yoga sculpt, yoga and now ORANGETHEORY! Orangetheory covers cardio, light weights and circuit training at high intensities and I can see how it will help burn the fat, get you lean and toned while building endurance. Adding stretching or yoga will be a great supplement. If you wanted to bulk up after you trim the fat, perhaps adding heavier weights at lower reps would be an option.

For those with less discipline, needing direction/education and enjoy group workouts in a clean and reputable environment, this may be perfect for you!

You Will:

1. Have the motivation and direction from your fitness coach.

2. Build relationships in a team atmosphere with energetic music.

3. Encounter friendly competition that helps push yourself harder than you would alone.

4. Use a cool Orangetheory App to book your classes so you are guaranteed your personal spot without the lines. Unlike 24 Hr Fitness and Core Power Yoga's full classes.

5. Workout on quality equipment in a clean facility with a small locker room, bathrooms and shower(s).

Now you are wondering, how much does this cost? And yes, it's more expensive than a regular gym like 24 Fitness (about $30-$45/mo) or Planet Fitness (about $10-/$20/mo). The unlimited full access membership is closer to the price of the Honolulu Club (about $150-$200+), Core Power Yoga (CPY) Black Tag membership (about $132-$180) or other higher-end fitness facilities & country clubs. But extremely lower than hiring a personal fitness trainer that can run you about $60-$90/1hr session. If you really need to get off your butt, workout and lose weight, this price point will keep you committed to going because it will be too painful to waste the money. Whereas Planet Fitness banks on the fact that you don't show up because wasting $10-$20/mo doesn't break the piggybank for most. For the unlimited package, the more you go, the less it costs per session and you feel better about the total/mo. If you go 5 days a week you are probably paying less than $10/session and broken down like that seems very reasonable. Even $15/session once a week seems reasonable for a workout of this caliber.

Lastly, they plan to open more Oahu locations in the near future! They already have Kaka'ako, Waikiki, Kapiolani & Kapolei and 3 more are slated but not set in stone: Pearl City, Kailua and Hawaii Kai. I highly recommend trying Orangetheory out if you haven't already. Everyone gets a FREE class, so stop in today to check it out! It will kick your butt no matter what physical level you are at and if butt-kicking is what you need to be healthy, it comes with a cost but worth every penny...stay healthy, live SMART!

Big Mahalo and shout out to a few awesome companies who supported our event:

● OrangeTheory Kaka'ako for hosting this event with an amazing fully stocked staff! Big thanks to our fitness coach for the event, Ryan Martin their head coach there.

● GC Media Hawaii for creating our video.

● Good Clean Food Hawaii who donated beef stew and chicken samples of their meal prep items for after our workout.

● Juicd Life Hawaii for donating samples of their pressed juices and offering discounts.

● Kunoa Cattle for donating samples of their beef bars.