At a Glance:
Website: http://www.brickwesthollywood.com
Address: 7811 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA, 90046
Length: 60 minutes
Price: 1 class/$25, 10 classes/$220, month unlimited/$239 w no commitment
Sweat scale: high
Energy level: medium
To someone who frequents barre and pilates classes, CrossFit is definitely one of the more daunting workouts. Graceful pliés are replaced by grunts as CrossFitters try to break personal lifting records. I decided to suck it up and try it out.
Pre Sweat
Brick has a parking lot right next to the studio entrance and tandem parking across the street behind The Body Factory. Since it was Memorial Day, I took advantage of the free street parking and parked on Santa Monica Blvd. The entrance to the gym is in the middle of the parking lot (not right out front). When you walk in, head straight and to the right to find the front desk. I signed in, filled out a waiver, and was shown around. There are a few different rooms—two that were being used for group classes and one as an open CrossFit gym where people were intimidatingly lifting weights twice my size. There is a water fountain and two sets of restrooms. I headed into the room, put my stuff by the window, and met Amanda, the instructor.
Sweat
We did some stretching and ran 5 laps around the parking lot to warm up. Amanda went over the hero’s themed workout of the day, in honor of Memorial Day. There were 7 stations that we went through 7 times, doing each exercise for 45 seconds with a 45 second break at the completion of each round. After she explained each exercise, we all grabbed weights to use throughout the class. There were about 3-5 people at each station, rotating as a group.
Our workout of the day was:
- Squat with dumbbell overhead press
- V-ups—full sit up to a V shape
- Kettlebell squat and row
- Burpees
- Kettlebell thrust
- Wall ball with squat
- Handstand pushup—either a push up from a hand stand or with your knees on a tall box
Because we started a bit late, we cheated and only had to go through 6 times, but as the class went on, the exercises seemed harder and harder. When class was over, everyone was free to leave (no group stretch).
Post Sweat
Whole Foods is one block away for some fresh, healthy (expensive) treats. Brick is 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 Training Mate.
Tricks of the Trade
- If you walk into class late you have to do 5 burpees for every minute late you were.
- Watch the signs at The Body Factory parking lot. Also, fill out a blue slip with your info in you’re in tandem parking so you can be notified if you need to move your car.
- Bring a towel if you tend to get really sweaty.
sweat and repeat 