Wanna know the only place more packed than a Whole Foods on a weekend morning? TurnStyle Ink Block. One can surmise the stadium-style studio was filled with three types: those sweating off a hangover, those working up an appetite for brunch or those who fall into both categories. We’re not divulging which applied to us…ahem…but impressively the level of motivation was equally high for all scenarios. We felt right at home!

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

The triple threat of Taylor, Calvin and One Direction inspired the setlist for this ride. And like any love triangle, it was full of ups and downs–hills that is! Beginners beware: The tempo of this class was fast, with Swift transitions (see what we did there?), and no shortage of tap backs, isolations and jumps. If you fall off cue, you’ll likely find yourself playing catch up ‘til the next sequence or two.

INSTRUCTOR

Dani Demarco led a smooth, timely and challenging class full of good transitions, easy-to-follow cues and kick-butt choreography–a trifecta in its own right. The themes at TurnStyle always keep things fun, but the degree of challenge definitely varies by instructor. If you’re looking for the best of both worlds, the One Direction we’d steer you towards is Dani’s class.

Katrina is the definition of a morning person. She was so pleasant, we almost forgot how early it was. Before class started she asked everyone’s names, trying to get to know her 6am crazy ladies better. It’s always a definite plus when instructors take the time to get to know their regulars. Katrina worked her butt off right along with us, making every resistance turn and taking every sprint she called. We loved her for her positive motivational techniques. If you’re new to spin class, she’s a great instructor to break you in.

Maggi is so good, people were clamoring to get in to her Monday class. At 6am. The class was so full, Maggi even gave her instructor bike away. Much respect. Although Maggi wasn’t even on the bike, she was still able to provide a high-energy, challenging spin class. It was actually really impressive. Through verbal cues alone, she kept the packed class on the beat and synced with choreography. Great tunes, great energy…Maggi is legit! Just make sure you sign up early to ride with this fan-favorite.

We are still not sure if we were at the TurnStyle Cycle light show or if Caitlin was trying signal to the Coast Guard for help. But the light show aside, Caitlin delivered a very basic class that hit all the necessary check boxes. Flat road, hill, sprint, choreography, a few motivating lines, arm weights and some more sprints. While everything was delivered directly out of the TurnStyle playbook we couldn’t help but walk away wishing there had been a few more boxes to check.

Sunday mornings are perfect for a little R&R. Instead of rest and relaxation, we most often lean in favor of a rejuvenating & restorative workout. While you typically wouldn’t think a Rhianna/R3hab themed spin class would fit that criteria, we found that Lauren Reed’s class did just that.

Showcasing her versatility, Lauren quickly transitioned from teaching a TRX Bootcamp, right into the 45-minute ride. She offered a pleasant change of pace from some of the more competitive, high-intensity options in town. If you’re not a fan of chasing others on a leaderboard, this is the class for you. Lauren’s routines were well-synced and provided a good variety of jumps, tap backs and dip-crunch combos, but we felt the degree of challenge was lacking. Like most instructors, Lauren fed off the energy of our class; which had us wondering if she was holding out on us a bit, because admittedly, we could’ve given off a little more energy ourselves.

We are usually suckers for packed classes and being surrounded by large groups of like-minded people. But on a morning when it was raining and cold a smaller class (5 people) gave us room to breathe a little. Brittany’s class was as predictable as predictable gets at TurnStyle. And you can take that comment how you wish. If you are new to the world of spin and are looking for an unintimidating instructor to get your feet wet in the world of indoor cycling classes, Brittany is a great place to start. Her class will not scare you off or have you running for the closest exit. The only wild thing we did were a few fast sprints out of the saddle. Everything else was well within anyone’s reach.

Steph has a following and we are well aware of it. Her classes are sometimes hard to get into and she typically makes the basement fog up after one song which is a sure sign that her riders work hard. Steph is “Classic Turnstyle”; delivering a solid spin class with pep and charisma that reminded us of Jane Fonda circa 1980. Our only complaint would be that that while riding to the beat of the music is totally our thing, the music beats alternated between the same two speeds. Fast, slow, fast, slow. With little variation in the BPMs the class felt a little monotonous.

Straight off his Academy Award winning performance in “Be a Marketer” Matt delivered a class just as we imagine cycling classes to be back in 2002.  You know, before the influx of expensive studios, snobby clientele and excessive choreography. Matt’s class was simple but straight up tough. This might have possibly been one of the toughest spin classes we’ve taken to date. There was a solid mix of heavy (HEAVY) hills and all out sprints. He hit us with isolations – both in second and third – and then we peeled the resistance back, hit the saddle and SPRIIIIINTed. Our legs were absolutely demolished. We repeated this multiple times throughout the class. By the end of class, we were absolute toast.

Joe likes a good sprint, that’s for sure. Seated (in the saddle, hands at 1), standing (booty up, hands at 2) or running (booty up AND back, hands at 3) he will get you moving. If you’re not all about moving at a super speed, don’t worry Joe kept things well rounded sprinkling in some tap back push-ups and heavy resistance climb songs here and there. He constantly spoke to us through the mic, coaxing all the riders (I mean all… it was a packed house!) to find the beat with their stomp. There was a pretty serious variance of skill level in the studio, and it didn’t matter at all. Whether you’re familiar with the workout and all the spin lingo, or your first time ever clipping in and totally confused by what the heck ‘tap it back’ even means, we were all working hard and we’ve got the sweat to prove it.

WORKOUT

You will be covered in sweat, muscles fatigued, obliques quivering and then all of a sudden class will be over. As each person entered the room for class Jill made sure we knew what equipment was needed (2 medium sized weights, 1 heavy weight and a resistance tube) so that at exactly 6:15 we could kick things off with 30 second intervals of jumping jacks, high knees and planks. We sailed through arm work with some typical isolated bicep and shoulder press work, and then some unexpected resistance band uppercuts into mountain climbers (3 sets 30 seconds each). Core work was quick and dirty with knee to chest sit ups, side jacks (laying on your side bring your upper body to meet your lower body in the air) and minute long low planks 2x through. Class ended with sit-ups to a 45 degree angle with a build up of shoulder presses… OMG we were burning it up in there.

INSTRUCTOR

Jill has mad flow… She’s the Biggie Smalls of bootcamp keeping the energy of the room at an eleven for the entire class. She never once disrupted our workout to describe an exercise, making sure we got the most our of our time at the gym. She explained the next movement while we were finishing the last one, making it easy to follow along and stay focused. During high knees she will not only get you moving, she’ll join in showing us exactly what she wants to see from us, and believe us when we say she wants you to give it your ALL. She kicked our booties into high gear for the entire class and we didn’t mind one bit.

So Nick clearly isn’t into small talk, but he will get you sweating your money’s worth almost immediately in his bootcamp. Our entire body was absolutely hammered by the end of class thanks to short instructions and Nick’s ‘get to it’ attitude. Nick mixed the cardio piece into the warm-up as well as integrating it into each circuit throughout class. We totally appreciated not having that dreaded block of fast moving cardio at the end of class. You can’t fear cardio if you don’t know when it’s coming 😉

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Class started with a quick cardio warm up which included a few minutes of 30 seconds of alternating jumping jacks and air squats. From there we got into weight work where every single movement was super multi functional (renegade rows, lunge pulses with one larger weight over head or push-up mountain climber combos). The arm focus was a curl and press ladder that will certainly get our Michelle Obama arms going by tank top season. Some burpees into v-sit holds broke up the weight work before going back to circuits with heavily weighted turned out squats, a 30 second wall sit followed by some vertical mountain climbers (hands on the wall, body at an angle, high knees). We may have been slightly sluggish in that last round of vertical mountain climbers, but for good reason!

INSTRUCTOR

Nick wasted zero time getting us into his meticulously planned workout and made the most of the 45 minutes we were in class. His timing was spot on, and we loved how he counted down the last 10 seconds of each movement – it really motivated us to push it a little harder and to move a little bit faster. He’s a bit hands off as far as correcting individuals in class, but big on giving overarching corrections to the room. His instructions were super clear and concise plus, he’s all about demoing each exercise which we didn’t mind one bit… he’s pretty easy on the eyes.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” should be Erin C’s mantra. Her class follows the classic Turnstyle format – some rolling hills, an arm song, one steep and hill and one final sprint. There’s a reason nearly every studio in Boston follows this structure – that sh*t works! So if you find yourself at the Ink Block on an early Sunday morning, pop-in to Erin C’s class. She’ll give you a dependable workout so that you can sweat out that Saturday night.

If you’re looking for a soft, cuddly instructor who will pepper you with compliments all class, than Ashley isn’t for you. She is straightforward and tough – a similar style to other Turnstyle colleagues. Her choreography was pretty standard across the board with nothing overly fancy. She also didn’t fill the class with unnecessary commentary or motivational speeches. If you’re looking for a solid, no fuss class – Ashley is your girl.