Social Workout

Buns of Steal

Humbled but Beaming at Crunch

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I was a gymnast. I wasn't great, but I was good (a "Level 8" out of 10). Still, I dreaded the balance beam. Two-and-half inches for flipping and pirouetting is viable only for uber-tiny, uber-fit, uber-muscular munchkins. The typical Level 8 beam routine looks something like this. I haven't missed it for a second, and yet last week, for the first time in 15 years, I stepped on to a beam of sorts. 

Turns out Crunch has a class called Beaming™, which features soft, friendly, doublewide beams which sit safely on the ground. The class is meant to improve your balance and alignment, and to work your core. (Naturally, they claim it will also "change your life.")

I'll admit, I felt a little snobby stepping onto this flaccid apparatus. I mean, my toes didn't even hang off the edges! That haughtiness disappeared as soon as I attempted an absent-minded pirouette and stumbled onto the (thankfully nearby) floor. Attempting gymnastics, even the watered down kind, is NOT like riding a bike. A few stumbles later, however, I remembered a trick that helped me balance back in the gymnastics days (and gave me a sick 6-pack to boot).

If you tighten all of your core muscles — I mean, clench them as if you're trying to hold credit cards between every ab and oblique — your body will naturally stabilize. Try it. Stand on one leg, and clench all your muscles (just try to keep breathing). Or, if you're feeling really daring, sit on top of a stability ball, lift your legs off the ground, clench and try to balance. It's a killer ab workout, and its incredible how accomplished you can feel by just staying in one place.

Bottom line: I left the class slightly humbled and mildly beaming.

The Deets....

• Location: Crunch Union Square
• Pass: Free 2 week pass
• Money saved: $35

For the ongoing adventures of Buns of Steal, an impoverished but equally resourceful law student in New York City, hoping to make it through 2010 without ever paying for a gym membership, visit "Buns of Steal."