Workout Wednesday: YMCA Athletic Conditioning

Vitals

Class: YMCA Athletic Conditioning (45-minute express class at Childress Klein)
Location: class is taught at Harris, Gateway Village, Dowd, Morrison Family, Steele Creek, Sally’s, Siskey, Childress Klein, Lake Norman, University City, Johnston, Stratford Richardson, McCrorey and Wesley Chapel locations
Class schedule: check your local branch for dates/times
Class duration: 45 – 60 minutes
Drop-in rate: free one-day guest pass for new members; daily guest passes are $20 for adults
Monthly membership: $67/month (or submit income verification for subsidized ‘My Y Pricing‘)
Good for: self-motivated people who can push themselves
Bad for: people recovering from injury or in need of a lot of coaching (these are big classes with minimal instruction)

How to dress and what to bring

Classes are hosted inside a gymnasium so no need to dress for the elements. Gym shoes and comfortable clothes will do the trick. Prepare to sweat. Bring water and a towel but leave them on the sidelines since there’s a lot of running around.

What to expect in class

Because there are so many different instructors at so many different branches, each class will vary. In general, Athletic Conditioning is a mix of circuit strength and cardio conditioning. This could include sprints, squats, lunges, push-ups and other boot camp-style exercises.

For our class at Childress Klein, we did some self-guided warm-ups (most of us with jump ropes) while 7 stations were set up around the gym with signs indicating what to do at each stop. We traveled in packs of about 8 people and were at each station for 2 minutes with 30 seconds to rotate between stations. On our second round through, we did just 1 minute at each station. Stations included: shoulder press/rear delt fly, sprints, ladders, push-ups/sit-ups, burpees/mountain climbers, lunges/squats, bear crawl.

Where you’ll feel it the next day

This will depend on your instructor’s programming. For example, our instructor Demi said she set up a cardio-heavy day for us at Childress Klein. Weights were optional at the shoulder press/rear delt fly and squat/lunge stations but otherwise everything was bodyweight.

Locker room situation

Again, this will vary by Y location but the two I frequent (Childress Klein and Dowd) have ample changing space, lockers, showers, hair dryers, etc.

My take

I’m a HUGE fan of the Greater Charlotte YMCA and their group fitness programming in general, and yet this was my first time taking Athletic Conditioning which is one of the more popular classes. Given that the Childress Klein Y is inside Wells Fargo and that this was a lunchtime class, it felt a little like gym class for grown-ups where everyone comes every day like it’s part of their class schedule. You could tell a lot of people were friends, coworkers or at least regular workout buddies. I got there 10 minutes early and followed the regulars’ lead as they set up their mats, jump ropes and weights only to have the instructor arrive and tell us to put it all away for a “station” class. As a first-timer I felt pretty lost in the free-for-all of the first 10 minutes of set up, but once we got moving it was easy to follow.

I like the idea of using this as a quick mid-day workout when I’m Uptown but it’s worth pointing out that the 6:30 p.m. class on Thursday at the Dowd is a super popular post-work option.