After being awake for over 24 hours including a day at work and travelling from London to New York, I finally arrived in NYC ready to fully commit myself into a hardcore workout at F45 Flatiron.

On the morning of the class I arrived early in order to scope out the location and get my bearings. F45 Flatiron is situated in the Flatiron district in the prime location for all things NYC. Right around the corner is both the Empire State building as well as the famous Flatiron building or as I like to call it, the location for the Daily Bugle!

To begin with I met up with both Luke and Jeff Catenacci the guys I had been in contact with prior to arriving. I was then swiftly introduced to Mark Larson who was there as F45’s new branch coordinator in America. All of these guys were top blokes and super welcoming and friendly. Exactly what you need when you’re 3,500 miles away from home.

The class I attended is named ‘Romans’ after the Roman Spartans! That’s all the information I needed to know that the class was going to be no walk in central park!

The studio was beautifully laid out and all the equipment was state of the art. I even loved how all the kettle bells were either Red, White or Blue. Given that this gym only opened 6 days before I arrived there was the scent of fresh paint rather than your more regular sweaty gym sock smell. All the walls are white and the gym has a really light easy going feel about it but don’t be fooled! Once the klaxon sounds there is no time for lollygaging.

The class

Mark and Luke flew through a quick demonstration of each workout station we were completing and gave us a number between 1-4 as to which station we were starting on. The idea was to complete 30 seconds of exercise and get 15 seconds rest. Two sets of each exercise, three exercise in a group and four groups and complete each group three times. There’s your 45 minutes of pure hell! The class was as tough as it sounds. For me it was straight into TRX fly rows followed by resistance band push ups and single arm shoulder presses.

At the end of the class I felt that I had done well however I wished I was more alert and fresh before starting the class but that couldn’t have been helped. Like with other classes I generally challenge myself to only chose the heaviest weights on offer and fight through the pain. In my opinion the easiest exercise was the dumbbell chest presses on a Swiss ball purely because of my yoga practice I now have great balance and core strength to keep the ball still as well as being comfortable with any weighted chest exercise. However for me the hardest exercise had to be the Kettle bell lunges. I was so tired, jet lagged and fatigued each lunge felt like a sucker punch to the thigh from Conor Mcgregor repeatedly for 30 sounds.

In conclusion I absolutely loved this class and I would go back in a heartbeat. The guys were all super friendly from the moment I arrived to the moment I left and if you want a class that gives you something different and challenges you then this is the class for you. Every person in there had a smile on their face as they left and to me that tells the story in itself. If you find yourself in New York City or you’re simply from there then I heavily suggest that you give F45 Flatiron a go. You will not regret it.

Have you tried a F45 class, how did you find it?