At a Glance:

Website: http://trainingmatela.com
Address: 7825 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046
Length: 45 minutes
Price: first class free, 1 class/$25, 10 classes/$230, month unlimited/$240
Sweat scale: medium
Energy level: medium

G’day mate! If you’ve been wondering where all the (perfectly tanned, toned, and gorgeous) Aussies in LA hang out, I’ve got you’re answer!

Pre Sweat

Parking in this area can be a bit of a hassle. The neighborhood requires permits but there are meters on Santa Monica Blvd–$1.50/hour and you don’t have to pay after 8 pm. If you take a class before 6 pm, the side lot near Whole Foods is $1/hour. Unfortunately, after 6 it goes up to a flat fee of $6. I walked into the studio, filled out a waiver, grabbed a towel, and topped off my BKR water bottle. There are cubbies in the far back of the studio and two restrooms.

Sweat

Training Mate is a high intensity interval training studio where you rotate three times through three workouts at three stations, doing each exercise for 45 seconds with a 10 second break in between (I know that’s kind of hard to follow). After you finish a full station, you get a two-minute break and move to the next. Edwina (who had a super thick Aussie accent—as did everyone who worked there!) demonstrated each station quickly before we began. My class went down like this:

Station one:

1. TRX one legged squat
2. High knees
3. Heavy rope slams with squat

Station two:

1. Deadlift with dumbbell
2. Stationary bike hill
3. Bridge hip thrusts

Station three:

1. Squat hold with dumbbell
2. Jump lunges on buso ball
3. 4×4 (4 squats then 4 jump squats)

Although 45 seconds seemed like a long time during the harder exercises, it helped the class go by SO quickly. Music was blasting and Edwina came around often with high fives and encouraging words. Once we were done with intervals, we grabbed mats and headed to the outside patio for ab exercises. The chilly air was the perfect place for planks, crunches, flutter kicks, bicycles, and leg lifts. We ended in child’s pose and Edwina urged us to stretch on our own later.

 

Post Sweat

Training Mate is one block from Whole Foods and close to the very popular bars Laurel Hardware, Surly Goat, and Bar Lubitsch (some of my favorite places to go out in LA). The studio is also next door to Brick Crossfit.

Tricks of the Trade

• Training Mate has four signature classes that focus on different muscle groups: Thunder Down Under (lower body), Bondi Burn (upper body), Mighty Mate (their traditional full body circuit class), and Sydney Circuit (overall conditioning).
• I’ve heard that some of the instructors are hilarious. There weren’t any laughs in my class but I’m eager to return to check out the other instructors.