Location: New York, NY (Chelsea)

Co-Founders: Brian Gallagher, Ryan Wilke

Why You Should Check It Out: Looking for a bit more interaction and camaraderie during your workouts? Throwback Fitness is New York City’s first team fitness experience! Throwback is gamifying fitness by harnessing the feelings of accomplishment, confidence, and camaraderie that come from being part of a team, and the excitement felt when working together to achieve a common goal. Throwback's workouts channel the nostalgia of adolescence by modeling unique, competitive, partner- and team-based workouts after such childhood favorites as Tag and Capture the Flag, or even dorm room-inspired games like Flip Cup. 

It takes hard work to get in shape, but the Throwback team thinks enjoyment and encouragement from your friends can make it a lot more rewarding.

"You always seemed to play a little better when you were having fun. The same can be true for exercise! "

Rowing is the Granddaddy of Exercise Movements: The Throwback team challenges you to find a more well-rounded piece of gym equipment than the indoor rower. The explosive, yet rhythmic motion, combined with the cardiovascular nature of the movement engages fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, promoting muscle growth and helping to build speed and power. This total body movement draws on the power and coordination of over 20 different muscle groups, making it one of the most efficient forms of exercise available while also being one of the safest for joints and bones. Want to learn more? Check out these 10 Reasons to Try Indoor Rowing. 

Throwback's advice for first timers: Bring your buddies! The most fun part of a Throwback workout is the team component and it’s even more exciting when you’re competing with your friends. You all will push each other to work hard, you will work every muscle group, you will sweat, and you will have fun, all in a non-intimidating environment. You all will walk out with a sense of accomplishment, but only half of you will walk out with a victory! Oh, and come dressed as you would for any physical activity – standard gym clothing, sneakers and a bottle of water. 

Throwback's fitness advice for GoRecess users: Keep the intensity up for short bouts! Who wants to spend 60-90 minutes a day in the gym when there are so many other things out there to see and do? It’s impossible to keep the intensity up for that long anyway, so long, low-intensity sessions end up being riddled with lots of rest, and sometimes even reading and television watching. You come to exercise, right? Results are directly correlated with effort so give it all you’ve got! 

Ready to try Throwback for yourself? Check out the schedule here.