By Alexandra McCray
“Up, down, left, right, now double tap!” Concourse Athletic Club director of fitness & group exercise, Marianne Baker says enthusiastically holding two fluorescent green drum sticks in the air and demonstrating the next set of moves we’ll attempt.
My legs are already burning, I’m panting and I can hear the rest of us trying just as hard to catch a breath.
Recently, our Atlanta Best Media team tried out the funkiest exercise class to arrive at Concourse Athletic Club, POUND Fitness. Created by two former drummers, Kirsten Potenza and Cristina Peerenboom, POUND Fitness torches calories through a full-body, cardio-drumming workout with specially-designed Ripstix™.
POUND routines accelerate the traditional workout moves, such as squats and lunges, with fast-paced pop beats and companion motions with Ripstix™ (which actually weigh twice as much as normal drum sticks, but are slightly shorter). Don’t let the seemingly lightweight Ripstix™ and simple moves fool you though … 30-plus minutes of this workout and you’ll be feeling muscles you didn’t even know you had.
Rapid fire rounds of sets — like pounding the floor and popping back up to side step into a lunge — will get your heart racing and your core engaged. When you feel like giving up and calling quits the rhythmic drumming motion accompanying each move keeps your momentum going. Plus, it’s just plain fun to clang your sticks to the beat along with fellow classmates. Feel free to envision an ex, the person that cut you off in traffic today or a terrible boss if you need a little extra motivation to drum as hard as you can.
By the end of our half hour class, our entire team was sweaty, tired and reaching for our water bottles, but definitely happy. If you’re looking for a class to slam some variety into your workout routine, a POUND class is the way to go. Just be prepared to have a hard time climbing stairs or walking the next day.
