New York City: City Row – A Review

While in New York, I was determined to try out the fitness scene. I have read about many of the classes from my fellow bloggers, and just knew I needed to get into see what they were all about.

I did a little research, and figured that CityRow was something I definitely wanted to try out. Before this, I had been to one indo row class at Burn, a studio in Boston, which luck would have it opened literally across the street from my apartment, two years ago. I have to say, I didn’t take enough advantage of that while I could. Another one of my favorite studios, BTone, just added row classes to their schedule. While these places all offer rowing, there is no studio in Boston, solely dedicated to Indo-Row, something I found very unique.

I was signed up for a class on Thursday at 12:30. Well, I showed up on Thursday at 11:45 and told the desk attendant, that I thought I was a little bit early for my 12 PM class, only to find out it was actually at 12:30. I was signed up for Lyon’s Den Power Yoga in Soho at 1:30, so Asher was kind enough to let me come back on Friday at 12:30 PM – a second shot! Friday, I came into the building and was happy enough to be giving it a shot.

The class started promptly at 12:30 on Friday and there were about 8 or 10 of us in the class, with our instructor in the middle, allowing us to all see her. She instructed us on the proper setup and use of the rower, and then we were on our way. Before class started, we were also instructed to get two sets of weights – a lighter and a heavier set, for our time on the mat.

This class was truly a workout. We did a few different intervals, time trials, and races on the rower. Each set of 5 minutes or so, was followed by another set of core or weights on the mat, a perfect mix of weights and rowing. While I feel like you still get the weight training with the rower, it’s definitely different than working on your core. This workout worked us from head to toe.

Our instructor gave the proper instruction, especially given that many of us in the class were newbies, in order to successful enjoy, learn, and get the entire workout. I was quite impressed with her and also loved the dropping of ya’ll a few times (I guess everyone in NYC is really a transplant, ha!).

If I lived in NYC, I would definitely add this to my routine, although hopefully via ClassPass. I heard multiple people mention they were there on ClassPass, but that it was a very hard class to get into.

Thank you again to Asher and CityRow for allowing me to come into see CityRow. I was bad and didn’t take any pictures while at the studios, but I’ve learned that needs to be done next time or at least a selfie out front!

*While this review is all of my own thoughts and opinions, CityRow was kind enough to compensate me with a free first class.*

Have you tried out CityRow? Any other favorite unique classes?