Fitness Review: Switch Playground Group Class

When my early morning trampoline was cancelled this morning on account of heavy rain, I jumped onto ClassPass and registered for a class at Switch Playground.

High Intensity Interval Training

Switch classes fall into the category of High Intensity Interval Training workouts (HIIT). I don’t take HIIT classes often, so I figured it would be a good stretch of my comfort zone, and good cross training.

The class was structured with 20 stations. You get paired up with a buddy and spend 2 minutes at each station, doing 2 different exercises in 30-second intervals.

The room is dark and the music — played by a DJ in the corner — is loud. A team of trainers oversees the activity, giving you a quick demo of the exercises and telling you when to switch it up. The head instructor roams the floor barking the final 10 seconds of each interval into his microphone and providing a running commentary of personal development and fitness cliches:

Hustle. Push harder. Move faster. Sweat more.

Sweating hard and moving fast seems to be a big part of the ethos here. The encouragement is to “leave it all out on the floor” and walk out exhausted.

If you’ve still got energy, you didn’t work hard enough.

Sweating is Not the Sign of a “Good” Workout

There seems to be a common perception — at least as evidenced by reviews that people leave on ClassPass — that the sign of a “good workout” is that you sweat a lot and you left exhausted.

Sample ClassPass review:

It wasn’t a good workout. I didn’t even break a sweat.

That came from a review of a restorative yoga class.

I don’t claim to be a fitness expert, but I have a lot of fitness experience in a wide range of disciplines. And my experience and research has shown me that the just because you sweat doesn’t mean your workout was effective.

First, not everyone has the same sweat response. Maybe you have a higher threshold for sweating.

Second, there are many types of exercise where you might not break a sweat but you still work the muscles effectively. Sometimes more effectively. Disciplines like pilates and gyrotonic often feel like you’re not doing much because they are more subtle. They work deeper layers of muscles. In fact, in pilates the muscles that aren’t moving are typically working harder.

Third, what it means to have a “good workout” is subjective, and likely based on your desired outcomes for your workout. Do you want to burn calories and shed fat, bulk up your muscles, get stronger, improve your agility, improve your balance, clear your mind?

The workout in which you’re not sweating may actually be more effective in terms of building strength, endurance, agility, or balance.

And just because you’re sweating doesn’t mean your workout is effective.

Good vs Effective

By the end of the Switch class, I had worked up a sweat, but I didn’t feel like I had done an effective workout.

I didn’t dwell on it much after the class. The sky had cleared a little and I learned I could grab a spot in the 11 am trampoline class. (Suddenly my energy was back.)

As I walked across town, I realized what felt off for me in the HIIT class:

I felt rushed.

I hate feeling rushed.

The fast pace of the class didn’t allow me to focus on proper form. Despite a team of trainers on the floor, the 2-minute sets and short breaks in between don’t allow much time for proper demonstration or correction.

I could hardly get into the rhythm of any station before it was time to switch. The rushed pace of the class didn’t allow the time to really work any muscle to fatigue.

My fatigue was more a product of the constant switching than from actually pushing my muscles to their limits.

This was the fitness equivalent of “busy work.” A lot of moving around and hustling that left me drained, but didn’t actually help me make meaningful progress toward my outcomes.

Unless my outcome was to sweat a lot.

Rushing is Not Effective

One of my trapeze coaches points out that when I try to rush my swing, I bend my knees. This makes my swing less effective. I can’t build height without power.

In flying trapeze, power comes from good form, which includes straight legs.

My trampoline coach reminds me every week to ride up off the trampoline, to wait before initiating the trick.

Rushing doesn’t get you anywhere faster.

Patience is a Muscle Too

Waiting, taking more time, cultivating patience, paying attention to form — these are difficult things to do. They are the hardest muscles to build.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t ever need to hustle or move quickly. I’m the first to admit that I struggle to move slowly.

That is why this is my practice.

There are times when there is merit to hustling. But without proper technique and alignment, the sweat and hustle won’t produce results.

It’s just activity without results.