4 Great Group Exercise Classes

You know the saying less is more? Well, forget about it, because when it comes to working out, more is totally more. We're talking about friends, that is. They're there to get you off your couch, there to share an exhaustive eye-roll (how many more sit-ups?!) and there for a post-workout treat. Here, four of our favorite group-exercise classes.

1. Step Aerobics For the 21st Century

fitwalker

Cappuccinos. Salami. The Italians have been good to us. But their latest export shockingly falls on the other end of the health spectrum.

Introducing the Fitwalker Class.

Offered for first time in the U.S. at Tribeca's new Superstar Gym, it uses self-powered treadmills -- meaning you control everything with your steps, not with buttons. But it's nothing like your run-of-the-mill cardio session.

Fitwalker classes ($30 each) are taught in the same vein as SoulCycle or JumpLife. There's a room full of machines, an instructor at the head (mic attached), pumping tunes and even a few disco lights (it is from Italy, after all). Once the music kicks in, you begin with a light stroll to get acquainted with the machine, but before long you're stepping from side to side, lifting your knees and even using the machine to do pull-ups and crunches. And yes, you get real sweaty.

2. Disco Tech Spin Classes

Two new spin studio brands just opened in our saturated market -- we're thinking of them as Disco and Tech.

First, the Disco: It's called Aura Cycle and is the first studio from former equities trader José Palau and his business partner, pro swimmer Maurizio Pelone. What's unique here is a crazy, patent-pending lighting design: In an otherwise dim room, rows of multicolored LEDs flash along walls in time with the music. This EDM effect hypnotized us, so the usual 45 minutes of hills, upper-body weights and jumps sped by. Post-workout, we enjoyed a complimentary chilled eucalyptus-scented washcloth.

Aura Cycle, 8231 W. Third St.; 323-570-0570 or aurapulse.com

Next, the Tech: Flywheel is the new venture from Ruth Zukerman, who pioneered hard-core spinning as a cofounder of SoulCycle. At West Hollywood and Larchmont Village studios, she’s built a better mousetrap with new bikes displaying real-time performance metrics for resistance, speed and even calories. This class didn't whiz by, since our numbers shamed us into adding more resistance than usual. But our tender thighs the next day told us it was 45 minutes well spent.

Flywheel, 8599 Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hollywood, 310-360-7200; 147 N. Larchmont Blvd., 323-446-2425; flywheelsports.com

3. The New Way To Get A Dancer's Body

informed technique

We thought we'd seen it all when it comes to exercise crazes: cycling in a pool, a workout that involves napping ^[4] . Then we had our arms and legs strung up like a marionette's and did some grand pliés.

It's called the Informed Technique, and it was developed by Bay Area dancer and Pilates instructor Jill Harris. The 55-minute class combines Pilates and ballet techniques, using a custom suspension system to create resistance.

Sound a little intimidating? Um, yeah. But once Harris started rattling off the benefits, we were on board: The workout strengthens and tones your muscles without bulking them up, because you don't do a gazillion repetitions. And the suspension system takes pressure off of your joints, so you're less likely to have aches afterward. Emboldened, we put our legs and arms in the straps. It immediately felt as though our butt had been lifted. Harris patiently led us through a series of leg, arm and core exercises that were challenging but never exhausting. Though some of the combinations -- like alternately lifting our heels while twisting our shoulders -- required some serious coordination.

4. A Celebrity Trainer's New Dallas Studio

Ex-L.A. fitness guru John Terlingo once had the responsibility of whipping folks like Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman into shape.

So we're inclined to trust him with our slightly, um, less streamlined bodies. At the Dallas native's Terlingo Cycle (also called TGO), an exciting new Uptown indoor-cycling studio, exercise is treated like a “journey.”

A typical 45-minute class has you climbing aboard one of 31 A.C. Performance Plus Schwinn bikes and working your butt off with routines that range from saddle jumps to interval training.

But the focus is on your mental as well as your physical well-being. Terlingo is all about melding the conditioning aspects of cycling with yoga-like aphorisms, so while you can expect encouragement from your instructor as you power-pedal to Madonna to Kanye, the atmosphere doesn't have the frenetic, competitive vibe of other studios.

And when the sprints and all-out climbs are in the rearview, the instructor pops the proverbial wheelie -- and leads you through a brief meditation.

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Antigravity Yoga

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's -- yoga, in a suspended hammock?

Antigravity Yoga (also referred to as Suspension Yoga, Upside-Down Yoga and Aerial Yoga) is not for the faint of heart. The practice incorporates traditional yoga poses mixed with acrobatics in a silk hammock suspended from the ceiling.

What are the benefits of yoga off the ground? Kayda Norman, <a href="http://news.health.com/2012/08/07/aerial-yoga-learning-to-fly/" target="_hplink">who documented her Aerial Yoga experience for Health.com</a> writes, "Aerial yoga allows you to stretch further and hold positions longer than other types of yoga. Suspension yoga also helps to decompress tight joints and relieve pressure."

Alexandra Sifferlin, a reporter for Time, <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/22/we-tried-this-aerial-vinyasa-or-upside-down-yoga/" target="_hplink">also shared her go with a Suspension Yoga class</a>. She <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/22/we-tried-this-aerial-vinyasa-or-upside-down-yoga/" target="_hplink">reported in a video of her experience</a> that the aerial class was helpful for "better controlled movements as you strengthen your core muscles."

And for those without the strength and control for traditional inversions like headstands, Aerial Yoga gives us a chance to try these out.

Tantrum Yoga

Tantrum Yoga can help you access your inner child: the grumpy one, who needs to throw a tantrum to get back to center.

It isn't violent; instead, it's an outlet -- a release -- that combines traditional yoga poses, dancing and, yes, some yelling.

<a href="http://www.hemalayaa.com/" target="_hplink">Yoga teacher Hemalaaya </a>developed this therapeutic kind of yoga as the next step in her fusion-focused classes. And, as <a href="http://www.hemalayaa.com/?p=1629" target="_hplink">she puts it</a>, throwing a little tantrum works to relieve her own frustrations. She encourages her students to release stress by yelling, chest-pounding and laughing.

"I believe we are emotional beings and there are times we need to express in order to let go of emotion, especially old stuff that is sitting in there, festering. Otherwise it gets stuck in our bodies and could turn into stress, disease, etc." she told <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8666290" target="_hplink">ABC News</a>.

Wheelchair Yoga

Perhaps it is Wheelchair Yoga that best demonstrates the versatility of the yoga practice.

Many of the actions performed in Wheelchair Yoga (or, similarly Chair Yoga) are traditional poses adapted for those who are in wheelchairs. The <a href="http://www.livestrong.com/article/319124-yoga-exercises-for-someone-in-a-wheelchair/" target="_hplink">Cat Stretch, Cow Pose and Eagle Pose</a>, for example, have all been modified to be performed while sitting.

Chair Yoga prioritizes breath-work and physical postures and can be incredibly beneficial for those with limited mobility. The activity can help to <a href="http://www.ncpad.org/disability/fact_sheet.php?sheet=345&view=all" target="_hplink">decrease physical pain and tension</a> and it promotes the many benefits of physical activity to those with disabilities might not otherwise have access.

Harmonica Yoga

Harmonica Yoga is a form of Raja Yoga (yoga for both the body and the mind). Harmonica playing and yoga are both based on the control of the breath, making this a fun way to work on mindfulness.

"Harmonica is the easiest and most accessible way to practice breath control," <a href="http://www.davidharp.com/" target="_hplink">David Harp</a>, the founder and originator of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=David Harp&ie=UTF8&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank" target="_hplink">HarmonicaYoga™</a> and HuffPost blogger wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. "This allows practitioners to short-circuit mental patterns such as fight or flight responses, and thus develop mindfulness," he continued.

Laughter Yoga

If laughter is the best medicine and yoga touts countless health benefits, the combination of the two must be infallible.

In this silly practice (its founder, Sebastien Gendry, <a href="ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/06/laughter-yoga-benefits_n_1478960.html" target="_hplink">called it "bizarre" and "weird"</a>) you might find yourself clapping joyously, milking imaginary cows and pretending to be a lion, just as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/06/laughter-yoga-benefits_n_1478960.html" target="_hplink">Catherine Pearson did in her Laughter Yoga class, as she reported</a> in HuffPost's Healthy Living.

Laughter Yoga incorporates much less of the physical aspects of yoga and much more of the social and mindful aspects. Still, the physical benefits are not completely lost: laughter has been found to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16652129" target="_hplink">burn calories </a> and <a href="http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/5/1651.full" target="_hplink">lower blood sugar levels</a>.

Karaoke Yoga

Karaoke Yoga, developed by Los Angeles-based yoga instructor <a href="http://jenniferpastiloff.com/" target="_hplink">Jennifer Pastiloff</a>, gives people the opportunity to stretch their limbs and their vocal chords.

The class is equipped with a TV screen to display song lyrics and, luckily for those with stage fright, there are no solo performances. You can expect to sing along with the whole class to songs from Adele, Elton John and Journey.

The focus of the class is joy, not the perfecting of poses. "It's not about alignment, it's about connecting to your joy," Pasiloff <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8713322" target="_hplink">said in an ABC News interview</a>. Though not about the yoga, per se, it's still about the workout: "It's longer exhales, it's sweating, dancing," she insists.

Pasiloff wrote in a<a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5085/What-the-Heck-Is-Karaoke-Yoga.html" target="_hplink"> blog post for Mind Body Green,</a>"It is connecting some of the greatest pleasures I know of in life: dancing, singing, yoga, connecting and good old fashioned rock 'n' roll."

Yoga Raves

Yoga Raves bring the yoga studio to the club -- so don't forget your glow sticks (and glitter).

Combining music, movement and meditation in a single space, Yoga Raves also promote drug-free fun. Many of these raves begin with a guided meditation as a warm up, to lead into a more free movement.

According to the not-for-profit movement's website <a href="http://Yoga Rave" target="_hplink">Yogarave.org</a>, "The Yoga Rave Project will bring the spiritual element back to celebration and the way we have fun, offering a drug free alternative for our youth to gather and release their energy and tension."

<a href="http://www.artofliving.org/us-en" target="_hplink">The Art Of Living Foundation</a>, which funds and organizes <a href="http://Yogaraves.org" target="_hplink">Yogaraves.org</a>, is not the only initiative propelling the yoga dance party. <a href="http://www.jivamuktiyoga.com/" target="_hplink">Jivamukti</a> and <a href="http://www.laughinglotus.com/" target="_hplink">Laughing </a>Lotus are among the yoga schools supporting the combination of yoga and "getting down."

<a href="http://www.yogadork.com/news/grab-your-glow-ga-sticks-yoga-raves-all-the-rage/" target="_hplink">Yogadork.com might have said it best:</a> "The Yoga Rave: a place where you can totally trip out drug free, get friendly with your fellow man/woman and wake up in your own bed the next morning (if you so choose)."

The World's Oldest Yoga Teacher

And just for fun, here's a video of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/14/tao-porchon-lynch-93-worlds-oldest-yoga-teacher_n_1515579.html" target="_hplink">the world's oldest yoga teacher</a>, 93-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch, showing off all she's got.