DOGPOUND

You’ll hear this gym before you see it. In this gym, the team is VERY serious about the vibe that their receptionist/DJ is setting and, on nice days, the garage doors are thrown wide open for the world to share in their sweaty glory. Now, with massive trainers named “Tiny” and “The Beast” and a legitimate truck tire laying in the corner, we wouldn’t blame you for feeling intimidated. But we are here to tell you that you will always be made to feel like family at the pound. Their fearless head trainer, Kirk, is just about the sweetest buff guy you will ever meet and takes more interest than any studio head we’ve ever seen in this city. And guys, this is team who has a celebrity client list a mile long. But whether you’re a walking through the door as a Victoria’s Secret model (um, yes, many of them actually do train here) or a regular Joane – you’re treated equally, with a warm greeting and a good sweat.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Kick it back to your school yard days here kids, because the workout incorporates a TON of jump rope. And we’re not talking a little simple skip-to-my-loo, either. The “warm up” is 10 solid minutes of varying combinations from crossovers, double jumps, run skips, and high knees – don’t worry, we didn’t know other versions existed either. Then we covered solid technique during the shadow boxing sessions. Since the classes are capped at about six people, you really get one on one time and review of your form. Of course, the actual boxing piece felt like it went by in the blink of an eye: about 10 minutes of shadow boxing and maybe eight or so minutes on the heavy bag.  The class really was weighted more heavily toward conditioning, which isn’t a bad thing, just a bit of a bummer. If we’d wanted that, we could have just gone to a bootcamp class. But no matter what, the quality of the workout cannot be questioned. Let’s just say you leave there looking like you took a ride on splash mountain.

INSTRUCTOR

Luca is just straight up tough love. Not the “deep down, I want you to succeed” kind, but the “I’ve had a long day and now I have to teach this F-ing class” kind. So what does that mean for you, his students? You better dig in and not waste his time. Oh and modifications or excuses don’t even register on his radar. Ummmmm okay, so no warm and fuzzies, we can deal, but there was a clear motivational piece – the kind that makes you dig down in the depths of your soul because you don’t want to disappoint the instructor – missing from his style. That said, that may be his strategy all together. Cause guys, by the end of the class we were just straight up pissed and pushing to prove him wrong.

SPACE

It’s pretty clear that this gym is really going for that “friends working out in a gym at 5am” aura inspired by the founding story. That said, this whole image is covered in a layer of shine, chrome, and giant mirrors that would look a bit more at home in a SoHo loft but somehow works. It’s not quite a no frills spot, but it hasn’t completely sold its soul to the boutique fitness world. Peel back all of the layers though and you really do get the sense that it’s good friends putting in the time and grinding it out. Outside of their boxing classes, this is a true gym with a 90% focus on high end personal training, so the amount of “toys” (torture devices) and machines available are endless. The cool thing is that the equipment really suits all types of workouts – it works for the ballerina client who wants to use the bosu for balance drills AND the gains guy who wants to push a sled around the gym’s TriBeCa sidewalks.

Amenities wise, there is just a single hallway with self-locking lockers (finally don’t have to bring our own lock to a boxing gym) and two single stall bathrooms. To our knowledge, there’s no public place to get squeaky clean. But, with all the glitterati hanging around here, we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a secret one not available to us common folks.