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When you can’t classify a fitness method as yoga, mind/body, pilates, strength training, targeted muscle training, or cardio, you know it breaks the traditional boundaries.
I’ve been a yoga practitioner for over 15 years and a general enthusiast of the latest Barre, Tracy Anderson, and Physique 57 workouts, so I ventured to try Taryn Toomey’s new fitness method, “the class,” a wait-listed phenomena in Tribeca.
Toomey’s concept of “the class” sprouted from her training in yoga and desire for a vigorous workout that maintained a mind-body connection, and her method has grown organically and spread through word of mouth over the past several years.
“the class” combines physicality with the concept of “clearing your space,” something she acquired from a teacher and beloved mentor of hers, Mama Kia, who ran a Peruvian orphanage and inspired Toomey along her path and vision. Toomey let the concept marinate while experimenting in her gym with a few people.
As her method became more popular, Toomey, who formerly worked in fashion at companies like Ralph Lauren and Dior, couldn’t nail a name to classify her vision, so “the class” is what stuck.
“I really just didn’t know how to classify it, and I purposely use lower-case letters so people wouldn’t think I meant this class is the bomb. It’s not about that,” Toomey said in an interview.
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‘the class’ Experience
I recently attended a special 90-minute session of “the class” hosted by the athletic apparel company Lululemon, as part of a larger fitness/yoga event located at the Chelsea Market.
There were over 100 attendees, and eagerness was in the air before the class started. I arrived after everyone had set up and the only mat left was smack dab in the center next to Toomey. I was intimidated by this, but my placement also gave me a unique vantage point, allowing me to feel not only how I experienced “the class” but also see how others did as well.
It was quite a ride, or as Toomey likes to say before hand, “The wheels will come off after the first song.”
We started off slow with breathing to ground us and set the rhythm, but it didn’t take long to get into the burn and deliberate muscle-sculpting, which worked our quads, butts, and inner and outer thighs. The repetitive squats, thigh lifts, and pilates moves were punctuated with bursts of intense cardio. As the class progressed, Toomey instructed us to “close your eyes and get inside.”
With my muscles burning and my heart pumping, my mind started getting involved saying things like, “I can’t do another squat…is she kidding?” This is when the cues from Toomey came into play and set this experience apart.
“Allow the flow to happen, change the way your mind talks to your body, and stay on it…IT’S HAPPENING,” these words all spoke to me and helped me push through what felt like a hundred squats that I didn’t think I could endure.
Toomey said later that she intentionally uses the cues to help people push their boundaries.
“The cues focus on taking you to the edge of pain and exhaustion, that point in your head that says, ‘I can’t, it’s too much,’ that is when you need to push through, to transform and change,” she said.
Toomey doesn’t prepare the cues in advance but rather “shuts her head off” and feels like she is speaking from a deeper place she said.
She inspires those in her session to dig deep and push ourselves beyond what we thought possible without feeling like we were being scolded. During the session my endorphins really kicked in as my heart and will found the strength to push through.
