Deep Work

Deep Work is the new trendy functional fitness training class at the moment and I decided that I had to try it out myself.

My gym offers a Deep Work class each Monday and members have to register upfront for a given day (usually 1-2 weeks before the class takes place) to avoid a big crowd because it is so popular and the maximum number of places per class is only 12. I registered two weeks ago and I was the last on the list for this Monday!

I arrived to the gym early because I have planned a treadmill run for my 5K training plan and after finishing the run, I took 15 minutes break to recover before the class. As I entered the class room I was totally excited that I will be trying something new and felt fit enough and overly confident that I could totally do this. Oh boy, was I wrong!

All the girls had a mat, no other equipment, and were barefoot so I prepared myself too while the trainer was introducing herself and the concept of Deep Work to the newbies like me.

As the trainer also said at the beginning, the class started slow with alternating child and cat pose followed by alternating child pose with downward facing dog and finally alternating push ups with child pose. We did some more easy moves for 5-10 minutes to a slow music while doing a breathing exercise and as I was wondering if this was all, the music picked up the pace and the trainer yelled at us to let’s get started. I actually thought we have already started and at this point I started to get scared!

What followed was 30 minutes of continuous dynamic fast-paced flow with variations of jumps, squats, push-ups, lunges, mountain climbers, planks that I have never tried before during which the trainer constantly came to us and yelled to not stop moving and do it faster and go higher or go lower and to hold it and hold it and hold it some more while sweat was dripping from us all.

You can only imagine how happy I was as the trainer let us lie down on the mat and relax in the end. Needless to say that I could’ve survived without the treadmill run that day and I won’t be able to walk right for the next few days.

I was planning to go on the next day again to the gym for a weight training session but I had to postpone it for one day because I have such sore muscles!