After two weeks of free Barre classes that weren’t really doing it for me (re: Week One and Week Two), I decided to make a pivot: Orangetheory time! When you tell other people you’re going to try an Orangetheory class, the usual reaction lies somewhere between disgust and shock (typically accompanied by an actual physical shift away from you). After the initial reaction, people usually say something along the lines of “my friend who tried that hated that” or “my friend who does that is a freak, she’s obsessed.”
So– Orangetheory has a reputation– and its polarizing. Glancing through the r/orangetheory subreddit will leave you believing that these classes will transform your life, change how you think about fitness, give you superpowers, make you lose weight, and bring your childhood cat back from the dead. Or something. Orangetheory subscribers treat these fitness classes as a sort of religion, and I needed to find out why.
This week, as part of my Free Group Fitness challenge, I took a step into the orange light, and I came out… actually really liking it?
Made it this far and still wondering who I am or what I’m doing? Check out my About page!
Before Class
Signing up for your first free class at Orangetheory is super easy– there’s tons of locations nearby to choose from, and once you sign up, you can share your class link with friends to sign up with you. The only thing that’s tricky is that you have to sign up with your email/phone number before you can view the class schedule. If you sign up a couple weeks out, and schedule your class later like I did, Orangetheory will call and text you too much until you schedule your class. I would recommend just calling the studios to find out their upcoming class schedule to avoid the onslaught of “Your first class at Orangetheory is waiting for you!” texts. I got 5 texts and 13 calls over 10 days from one of the locations I had signed up for to see their schedule. I did not go to that location.
I ended up choosing the Orangetheory location in Wheaton, IL, but there are over 5 locations within a 25 minute drive from my home or work. If you get a membership at one location, you can go to any other location whenever you’d like, so it’s nice that there’s so many of them!
I was super excited to try something that wasn’t barre this weekend, so I showed up to class with Carl, my super strong and handsome boyfriend, in tow, over 30 minutes early (as directed of course).
Facility
Walking through the front doors, I was greeted with a lot to take in. On one wall, there was a screen with a bunch of moving numbers and different colored boxes, Halloween-themed merchandise, and a giant orange and black quilt with skulls on fire. On the opposite wall were 3 all-gender, single-stall restrooms and a decorated wall. Facing us was the front desk, covered in Halloween decor, a giant glowing orange “Splat”, more skulls, and a chalkboard sign reading ‘HELL WEEK 10/21 – 10/31‘.
It was was October 30th.
The entire workout room is bathed in a red-orange light (I confirmed this is the normal lighting, not just Hell Week lighting), but the lighting shows up as more red on camera. There are free lockers before you walk into the studio. As we were given a tour of the space, the first thing I noticed was how chilly it was. “Don’t worry, you’ll appreciate the cool air once you get moving,” said the instructor, pretty much reading my mind. Spoiler alert: we definitely appreciated it.
On one wall is a line of treadmills, and opposite that is a line of water rowing machines. each piece of equipment has a large screen in front of it that connects to your personal heart monitor– we were each given a band to put around our arm; these monitors were calibrated to our likely heart rate zones based on our height/weight/age. Every 5 classes taken at OT will re-calibrate the zones. Something they don’t tell you at your trial: these monitors cost $150 and you’ll have to buy them yourself on top of the membership if you want to use it during classes… but we’ll get to that later.
Beyond the “treads” and the rowing machines is the weight room, which wraps around the back and is lined with mirrors. Stations were set up with weights (8lbs – 25 lbs), small mats for ab work, and TRX bands. In the middle of this space were lots more dumbbells, going up to 65 lbs. Two TVs are set up on either side of the weight space that show a little animated guy going through the workout steps.
Last but not least, here’s the bathrooms!
Class – Orangetheory Classic “Hell Week”
Before class started, our instructor, Angel, asked if Carl and I had used the water rowers before, and since I had never, she gave us a quick tutorial on how to row properly. I am so grateful she showed me, because I definitely would not have known how to do it intuitively. We were also warned that since it was “Hell Week” the exercises would be a bit more intense than usual.
Right at class time, 6:45 PM, the rest of the group rolled in, each taking a spot either at the treads or at the rowers. Carl and I started at the rowers as instructed. We clicked our names on the screen, and the interface immediately paired to our heart monitors. We all began warming up. Angel instructed us to try to reach the green zone (the one right before the orange zone) during this warmup. Once we were all warm, we pushed a little harder, and then Angel had us go over the weights section. The transitions felt very quick, and a little chaotic.
Angel had 2 stopwatches that she was using to take turns between instructing each half of the class on what to do next. As we transitioned over to the weight room, Angel briefly modeled each of the motions displayed on the screen, offered some modifications, and encouraged us to pick a weight from the “heavy” rack for the first exercise: dumbbell split squats. All of this happened while half the class ran on the treadmills and music played over the speakers; it was chaos but it was also sort of invigorating. You had no time to think about being tired or confused. As soon as we got started, the instructor turned to the treadmill runners and gave them their next steps.
The lowest weight available at the “heavy” rack was 30 lbs, so that’s what I picked up. I have NEVER in my LIFE picked up a 30 lb dumbbell. That thing is heavy!!! I started to feel the burn in my thighs after only one split squat. And I didn’t even go that deep! Over to my side, I see Carl doing the most perfect form ever with his 45 lb weight, and I am probably doing half a squat. As I continued through the weightlifting circuit, which only required a few reps of each step, Angel came over to check on me. Apparently my heart rate monitor was reading very low, so she helped me to adjust it. Suddenly my heart rate jumped from the gray zone to the green zone.
After about 8-10 minutes of doing the weightlifting sets, Angel came over and instructed us on the next set of exercises. One of these moves involved jumping– like maybe 6 sumo squat jumps. Immediately my heart rate went to the red zone (92%+). Angel came up to me a little later and asked if I was okay. I hadn’t even noticed my heart rate went up, but I assured her that I just tend to have a higher heart rate when doing cardio. It felt good that I had a trainer actually watching over my heart as I worked out.
We then were told to switch over to the rowing machines for one last sprint. The goal was to reach 400 meters in a time limit (I do not remember the time limit– here’s where my memory of this experience starts to fade. It was chaos and I succumbed to it). Once we did our 400 meters, we did a 1 minute plank; this was KILLER!
Halfway through the class, it was time for us to switch to the treadmills, and the treadmill runners to switch over to the weight room. We were told to find zones that felt good (green), a push (green – orange), and then an all out (orange). Starting at a Level 1 incline, we began jogging. There was also an option to speed walk, and the parameters for each were available on the treadmill screen. After a few rounds of pushing when Angel told us to push, and then cooling off when Angel told us to cool off, I was feeling tired but also great. I felt like I had a really good understanding of when to go slower or faster based on the giant heart rate and colors appearing on the screen in front of me.
During the final 15 minutes of class, we did a “mini Everest challenge”, where we gradually increased our incline from 1 to 15, and then decreased gradually back down to 15. This was brutal!!! We spent about 30 seconds at each incline and I wanted to die. I think the only reason I was able to make it through was because I didn’t know we were going to go to incline 10 after 9. I didn’t know we were going to incline 11 after 10. I really honestly thought we’d stop and go back down after incline 12. By the end of the treadmill class, Angel pushed us to go all out one last time– and I really did!– and then the class sort of just ended. People stretched out a little bit, and everyone hung around to congratulate Carl and I on our first class. Everyone there was super friendly, and wanted to make sure we knew that class wasn’t usually as insane as today.
After class, all your info automatically goes to the Orangetheory app. I’ve included my screenshot here! Splat points are equal to the amount of time you spend in the orange or red zones, and the goal is to get 12 in order to burn fat for 24 hours after class.
Orangetheory Pricing
Let’s talk about money. Orangetheory is expensive. I think I finally understand why people treat this thing like its a religion; it makes you feel great, probably will make you look great if you stick to it, but most importantly, you have to sacrifice an arm and a leg and a lot of time to join the cult. I’m just joking here, but let’s take a look at the prices we were shown after our class:
https://www.orangetheory.com/en-us/memberships
| Option | Price | Rate |
| 5 Class Pack | $130 | $26 / Class |
| 10 Class Pack | $245 | $25 / Class |
| 20 Class Pack | $380 | $19 / Class |
| 30 Class Pack | $510 | $17 / Class |
| Basic Membership | $89 / month | $22.25 / Class |
| Elite Membership | $129 / month | $16.13 / Class |
| Premier Membership (month to month) | $189 / month | ~$15.75 / Class (3x/wk) |
| Premier Membership (6 month purchase) | $169 / month | ~$14.08 / Class (3x/wk) |
| Premier Membership (12 month purchase) | $149 / month | ~$12.42 / Class (3x/wk) |
And don’t forget you would need to buy a $150 heart rate monitor to track your HR during class…
Carl’s Gym Bro Critique
I asked Carl to give me his thoughts on the class, so here’s his blurb written in his own words:
I enjoyed orange theory overall, but I think the weight training aspect of the class we took was a bit of a wash. We were instructed to do 8-12 sets in roughly 8 minutes, which made it difficult to really focus on the movements and exert the necessary effort to get the most out of each individual exercise. It felt more like they were designed to make us tired, rather than build strength, which may be why I hardly felt sore on the areas we worked with weights. I couldn’t imagine doing these after the cardio section of the class.
I also had issues with some of the exercises specifically:
Dumbbell front raise
- These can aggravate any shoulder injuries, and the front deltoid is activated by many chest exercises so it doesn’t often need to be targeted in isolation.
Dumbbell overhead press
- We were instructed to keep our elbows forward during these, again putting strain on the shoulder and targeting the front deltoid and tricep. I think an Arnold press, where the elbows are rotated outwards, would do much better.
Hollow Holds
- We were told to rock back and forth during these, which did very little to improve the exercise and made me feel a little silly. Additionally rocking back and forth like this hurt my tailbone, but luckily they had mats. I think standard leg raises work much better for abs.
We also did some of these exercises in combination with others which I found awkward and ineffective. For example, we had to hold a sumo squat while we did dumbbell front raises, and chest press dumbbells while doing a hollow hold. I personally think doing exercises like these in tandem detracts from both involved, and underscores my previous point that it felt like these were designed to make us tired.
It’s important to note that Orange theory offers classes that focus on weights exclusively, which may have a better regiment. I know I sound overly critical of the class, but I actually think the cardio section was great. The treadmill and rowing sections were tough and well-thought out, and the heart rate data is a huge bonus for tracking your progress. I think if your goal is to lose weight and build stamina, Orange theory is a great option. However, if you want to build muscle and functional strength, you should probably look elsewhere.
Final Thoughts and Scorecard
Honestly, I LOVED Orangetheory. I felt like I got a really great workout, I was pushed, the lighting was cool, and I had fun! I never had a chance to think about how tired my body was, since everything was just so fast paced. I love numbers, and I loved being able to see where my heart was at as I worked through the class.
After class, we were approached by a handful of other class-goers who were encouraging us to keep it up. They said that they had really found a community there, and that a group of them now hang out outside of class all the time.
Now, let me show you where my body burned after class. Also Carl drew his own version!
And here’s my personal scorecard of the Orangetheory fitness class:
| Category | Grade | Notes |
| Instructor vibe/energy | A | Angel definitely had a few coffees before class |
| Class difficulty | A | I was pooped! |
| Cleanliness of space | A | felt clean! |
| Music quality/volume | B+ | worked! |
| Class size / crowding | A | Everything is evenly spaced for the number of people present |
| Variety of classes offered / schedule convenience | B | Classes focus on cardio for the most part |
| Price after trial | B- | Prices are expensive unless you make a serious commitment to go all the time |
| How my body felt after | A | I felt so sore, especially in my legs, for several days after |
| Sweat factor | A | Great combination of a sweaty workout with A/C blasting |
| Fun factor | A | This was chaotic and fun! |
| Number of people wearing coordinated outfits | — | probably half of the class was wearing OT merchandise (… cult?) |
| Number of people who said Hi | — | 7+, before and after class, super friendly group, feels like a community |
Top 3 Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
| Rowing machines are awesome! | Carl didn’t like the weight lifting section |
| Biometric tracking! | Pretty pricey |
| Felt like a community! | No instruction on stretching before/after class |
Honestly, I really like Orangetheory. I can see myself wanting to come back to this class and get really into it. I do wish there was a bit more variety in class options, and that smaller class packs were a little less expensive, but I loved how much I felt pushed during the class.
Final grade for Orangetheory Fitness: A-
I’ve already started my Week Four classes (yep– plural), any guesses as to where I’m going next? Hint: Carl was not interested in joining.
ttyl, Cait
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