A couple of weeks ago, I headed over to The Street in Chestnut Hill to check out their free summer fitness series.

The Street hosts free fitness classes for the public all summer long on The Green right outside of The Shake Shack (kind of funny), but the night I went was a little different. The City Sports store located just a few shops down from The Green hosted an after bootcamp party that involved shopping, music, and refreshments, and folks at The Street invited me to do a Boston blogger kick off for the event. Of course I agreed – how fun! I also thought it would be cool to speak at an event for a store that I attended the grand opening of back in 2013. Side note: after you finish reading this post, check out HOW DIFFERENT I look in that other one. I’d say what a difference two years makes, but I think I look better now, so I’m going to say what a difference strength training makes. 😉

Anyways!

The bootcamp class (held every Tuesday at 6pm) was taught by trainers Jake Maulin and Corey Comeau of TriJake Fitness in Wellesley. They were quite the funny duo and really played off each other throughout the entire class. Since the class was all bodyweight, we did a lot of lunges, squats, jumping jacks, planks, pushups, toe taps, mountain climbers, sprints, and more. I conveniently stepped away to snap some photos during my least favorite exercise, jumping lunges. Tell me I’m not the only person that despises those bad boys?

My friend Dawn from work, her friend Marina, and another person I know from work, Liz, all came to the event. Look at them GO on these power jacks:

I think that it’s really hard to tailor free classes for the public to meet everyone’s needs. You don’t want to make the classes too easy in case fitness fanatics like yours truly show up, but you don’t want to scare newbies away either. I thought that the level of the class was perfectly designed for that middle of the road fitness level. That said, while I definitely got my heart rate up and a little sweaty, I’ve definitely taken harder bootcamp classes before and was glad I lifted on my own that morning already. There were longer rest periods than I’m used to, but Jake and Corey took time to explain and demonstrate the exercises instead of have everyone move super quickly through them like I’m used to and teach myself in more advanced level classes. If you are looking for an intermediate level class that’s conducive to beginners as well, then I definitely recommend Jake and Corey on Tuesday nights at The Street. They’ll take good care of you, and they’ll also name exercises after you! They called the side planks Greek columns in honor of me hosting the event. 😉

The workout lasted about 40 minutes all together, and they gave everyone free water bottles and a towel as a thank you for coming by.

After class we headed over to City Sports. They were still setting up when we arrived, so people spent some time browsing before I said a few words. When it was time for me to speak, I gathered everyone around and talked for a few minutes about the Boston fitness community.

I first thanked Jake and Corey for class and said that as a fitness instructor, I think it’s important to experience different teaching styles and continuously expose yourself to new ideas and ways of doing things. I then said that when it comes to new ideas and trying new things, I think the Boston fitness community is pretty amazing because it gives people SO many options for trying new things. There are more and more individuals, teams, and businesses offering fitness options to the community that go beyond going into a traditional gym setting and hopping on a machine. There’s been an explosion of boutique fitness studios ranging from indoor cycling to hot yoga and more, but there’s also been a huge shift into making fitness an experience for people. It’s brilliant, really, this concept of bringing us together where we can socialize in addition to getting fit.

I emphasized that not only is the Boston fitness community moving toward making fitness fun, but it’s giving people an opportunity to form relationships with each other by connecting with like minded people. I shared with the group that I’ve met some of my best friends through fitness, and I closed by thanking The Street for hosting a whole summer of free fitness for the community and City Sports for bringing us together to socialize afterward. After I finished up, it was time to shop at a 20% off discount, enjoy the live DJ, get complimentary Glow N Go facials by Skoah, and taste some other treats from Davids Tea and Treat Cupcake Bar.

I bought myself a new tank and two pairs of running shorts with the discount, I hung out with Dawn for a bit, and I introduced myself to several new people who were at the event. All in all, a fun night, and I want to thank The Street and City Sports for inviting me to be a part of it. Oh yeah, and for the awesome swag bag of goodies they sent me home with too… Tim and I already had a date night at The Cottage with that gift card! 🙂

Readers, let’s chat! What do you expect from free fitness classes? How do you make fitness social? What’s your least favorite exercise that you would have skipped to take pictures during?

Have a good one!