Row House Columbus Circle

A little less “row, row, row your boat” and a little more “You have 30 seconds to row 200 meters. Then, go straight into your burpees.” Row House brings a variety of strength training and bootcamp style workouts to the rower, complete with dim lighting and themed rows. Our personal favorite? The Hamilrow. The best part, however, is that this workout is crazy low impact and hits 85% of the muscles in your body. The Columbus Circle location brings all of the grit and flare that Chelsea does. But, between the location being crazy far from the subway and the minimal space for showering and changing, we can’t help but find ourselves opting to go downtown instead.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

This class SLAYED the Row House game for us. It was the perfect mix of work on the erg and time spent in interval training. Warm ups began as they do for most Row House classes, by breaking down each portion of the stroke – adding first the arms, then legs, then the full movement. Once we had a chance to climb the stroke rate ladder (24, 26, 28, 30) each for 60 seconds, we hopped off and went right into EMOMs (every minute on the minute). Throughout there were patterns of explosive movements like squat jumps and then low impact burners like delayed sit ups. After that, we went into rep intervals that involved rowing to certain meter portions and then 10-15 burpees, lunges, push ups – you name it sister! Leaving class, we heard several guys say, “I thought there would be more rowing …” This is totally something that Row House has heard before, but now with its nifty chart that ranks classes by “rowing time” and “workout intensity,” there is no question of what kind of sweat you’re getting in each class.

INSTRUCTOR

We can’t deny that Kristi designs a kickass class: Diversity in moves, check. Pace, rip roaring. Difficulty level, totally a 7 or 8. Clear instructions and transitions, hell to the yea! But guys, her motivation levels couldn’t be further from Tony Robbins. She is perfectly friendly and positive. Yet, it’s like her pump up is being channeled to you through that set of crappy earbuds you keep as a back up – it’s a little fuzzy and she sounds really far away. We certainly don’t expect every instructor to get up there and give a Broadway-worthy performance. But a lack of motivational energy can seriously harsh our fitness buzz. She also doesn’t have the best playlist selection. Much like her teaching style, it brings us a little low at times we really should be digging in. Kristi is a solid instructor; she just needs a dose of adrenaline stat!   

SPACE

NYC real estate is crazy expensive. If we flinch at writing our rent check each month, we can only imagine what it’s like for studios. But for F$&# sake, this studio might as well be in NJ. Located out on 10th Ave, a million miles from civilization and the closest subway stop, this one is not easy to get to – even for Upper West Siders. This studio is a shared space with EVF CrossFit, but don’t worry: the staff is very clear about who needs to head where. And what it lacks in locker rooms (one individual changing room and one single bathroom), it more than makes up in rowing space. Between the exposed brick and the steely gray scene of the Hudson, you know that you have come to work, work, work, work, work. This is a super great grab and go studio, but we wouldn’t suggest it for pre-work where you need time and space to shower. We hereby start the petition to move this place a little closer to Columbus Circle.