Three Wheelers + One Hour = E60

In an attempt to get reacclimated with the fitness community in Northern Virginia, Lisa and John introduced me to E60. Full disclosure: we have done this workout twice, so I will be drawing from both experiences.

There are several locations, and that caused some confusion in booking. Lisa said to book, "Alex" There is an Alexandria location, but the trainer at the Arlington (Rosslyn, to be exact) at the time we were booking named Alex. So, my first experience with the gym was trying to move my booking from Arlington to Alexandria. It was refreshingly easy to do. Minutes after I found my mistake I was booked properly.

The Alexandria location is in a mini town-center at the corner of N Beauregard and Rt 7. Oddly, most of everything I've had to do since being back has been in that area. Construction was completed, and it has that "new town center" smell.

Parking was plentiful on a Sunday morning and I chose the garage attached to the Harris Teeter. By all accounts one of the nicest ,and obviously newest, HT's in the area. The quickest way to exit the garage to the gym is through the ramp. It is discouraged, but I saw a lot of fitness minded people go that way. Hug the wall and you'll be fine.

The gym itself has a nice, standard town center entrance. Glass doors, a few steps down, and you're there.

I had already paid for the class and signed the normal, "In the event of your death the gym is held harmless and obligated to drag your corpse no farther than 20 yards from the facility" papers, so check in was quick and easy.

It helped that John and Lisa were there already to usher me in the the studio and give me a brief overview. We needed to pick our spot.

E60 Fitness is circuit type training, but done in clusters. The floor is arranged with treadmills in one area, rowers and air bike in another, squat racks (not used for squats) in another, and benches with dumbbells.

Lisa and John know the gym well and know the routines, so they determined where we wanted to start each time. The second time we started at the treadmills.

A word about the Jetsons style Treadmills. They do not require one to set a speed or any sort of resistance. I am certain they have some sort of program, but for what amounts to a 90 second increment, it's easier to just run. Lisa said they take some getting used to. Clearly more than I had time for. The tread is convex and comfortable, but the speed will increase based on your stride. In a nutshell: If you take a particularly long, or fast stride, the treadmill thinks, "Oh, we want to go fast now." Without controlling that with your feet, you could lap Usain Bolt in a matter of seconds. The handrails are strong and useful, and I used them a lot. I imagine a graph of my run would look like I was running on the moon. One stride = 50 yards because I had to pick my feet off the tread so often.

Each station is not simply one exercise. When the coach calls time, we move to something else. With the treadmills it was a variation of sit-ups, and then another core exercise.

There's a great variety of exercises, and nothing overwhelming. At the cages there was a hanging knee raise that was difficult at my current weight. The core part was easy enough, but my grip was bad. But, doing them in clusters of five worked fine.

The main point is the class is something you can pace for yourself and your abilities. Having a group of three provides enough competition to push you a little, but ultimately it's up to you. The final push is a bit more competitive, in that the group is trying to achieve a certain number of reps to finish. In the first instance it was 125 battle rope slams. Each team member had a certain time to do as many as possible and then we'd rotate. We did well as a team.

For me, this program seems perfect for people coming out of COVID lockdowns or people of a certain age, or someone like me who is not in the best shape of his life. I was able to push pretty hard, but never felt like I was in danger of injury or falling out.

The gym has different programs for different days so you can get a well-rounded routine of you keep at it. It's worth checking out and you can get a full week trial. I wasn't able to do that this time and I wish I had. I think getting the full routine would have been beneficial.

It may be worth timing your trial week it to end on a Sunday. Silver Diner is a short walk from the Alexandria location.