BODYATTACK

When I walked into the BodyAttack class, I was greeted by Regina — the class’ instructor and essentially a bouncing ball of enthusiasm. Fully equipped with a microphone headset, cute exercise clothes and leg muscles that put us all to shame, Regina guided us through each song with instructions and constant encouragement.

At one point, the 40 participants (all ladies except for one brave man) were running around in circles, and Regina gave us high-fives on the way by. She interrupted her own instructions with “Woo!”, “Yeah!”, and “You go girl!” Her cheers were great, but the music pumped us up even more.

While my favorite track was a techno remix of the Cranberries’ 1994 song “Zombie” (who knew that existed?), we also kicked butt to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Kesha’s “Tik Tok.” With each new song, Regina led us in a routine that meshed seamlessly with the beat. We did jumping jacks, lunges, running-man shuffles with arm movements and kung fu kicks, all with a bit of clapping and cheering on the final beats.

Some of the moves, especially one that eerily resembled an Irish jig I think I saw at a Riverdance show, make you feel absolutely ridiculous when you see yourself in the mirror. My advice is to bring a friend so that you a) have someone to laugh with and b) can pass your lack of coordination off as a “joke between friends.”

Certain songs targeted certain areas of the body: we had a song for outer legs; a song for triceps and biceps; and a song for the core. The workout had two intense heart-rate-boosting peaks with milder exercises in between. And while Regina wanted us to push ourselves, she also made sure we weren’t about to keel over by suggesting easier moves we could do in lieu of the difficult ones.

I learned that the good thing about group classes is that if you’re feeling tired or lazy, you can always just slack off a little. Between the crowd and the music, no one will notice if you’re a little behind. I certainly got a good workout at BodyAttack and if I went every Monday and Wednesday, I might stand a chance of looking like Regina.

But the best thing about the class was that it worked my muscles while still being bearable and, dare I say, fun. I left BodyAttack with techno music ringing in my ears and some nicely sore hamstrings. Who could ask for more?