"It was a little weird, but it made me laugh and in fitness we always want it to be fun, and I'd give it a 10 on the fun scale," said Fitz Koehler, a fitness expert at Fitzness.com.
Koehler spent the day at a Jamba Juice Pop Up Event at Brasil Brasil Cultural Center.
The goal was to educate fitness bloggers about innovative classes offered on the West Coast. Some highlights? Hoopnotica, a class using weighted hula hoops, along with a cardio jump-rope class, and hard hitting Pound, known as the drumstick workout, where weighted drumsticks help you sweat with a smile.
Equinox brought in ViPR, which stands for Vitality, Performance and Re-conditioning using weighted rubber tubes with three-dimensional moves that mimic real-life actions.
But the freshest idea comes from the East Coast: It's called SurfSET.
"I started surfing at home in New Hampshire, I loved it too. And the idea came up," said Bill Ninteau, SurfSET Fitness.
Ninteau and his buddy have finance jobs they'd love to give up to make their SurfSET program a full-time gig.
Experimenting with plywood and PVC piping, they spent more than a year evolving a board to mimic the real deal.
One reason gals like it is that you can learn to pop up and "hang ten" without the grit of the sand or getting your hair wet.
"So you're doing 30, 40 minutes sprint of paddling to bring your heart rate up, then you're going to a pop up to doing a squat or a lunge or leg lift. There's a bunch of different things you can go to from there," said Ninteau.
Rowing cables hit the triceps, shoulders and upper back hard. There's also loads of core and all kinds of moves using stabilizing muscles.
But Ninteau stresses that while you will get in the best surf shape of your life, "It's surf-inspired fitness, so it's not learning to surf."
