Tone Up: NYC's Tone House Is the Ultimate Workout
Tap into your inner athlete with a visit to NYC’s Tone House--in just one hour, attendees receive full-body sports conditioning, using equipment such as sandbags, harnesses, sleds, ropes, medicine balls, and weights to achieve optimal results.
The 2,000 square-foot NoMad location was founded by former pro athlete Alonzo Wilson, who was determined to create a top training space. “Our goal at Tone House is to make you better at what you like doing through our sports performance conditioning classes,” he explains. “If you like playing with your kids, Tone House will get you in condition to keep up and play with them. If you like taking group classes, Tone House will make you better at all other types of cross-training out there. If you're a pro athlete, Tone House will help you show up to camp ready to go. Nothing prepares you for Tone House, but Tone House prepares you for anything." The company is also highly team-oriented: each class in the “house” begins and ends with a familial group huddle and chant, establishing a sense of community to encourage greater motivation during the workout.
The studio is illuminated by intense red lighting, helping to set the mood for the rigorous workout to follow. The first section of their TH101 class--the “warm-up”--features a series of repetitive conditioning drills across the floor performed quickly and efficiently, such as tuck jumps over hurdles, lateral drop downs, sprints and more. Next, men and women alternate between different pieces of equipment; some of these exercises involve pushing and pulling weighted sleds across the Turf, box jumps, and a variety of pull-up drills. Perhaps the most rigorous of all is the weighted harness, which contains 80 pounds of resistance as one attempts to walk. The class concludes with sprints across the floor reminiscent of a Field Day rally, where athletes run from one side of the room to the other in a tag-team-like fashion.
After the workout, Tone House offers a variety of recovery options: a myofascial release session with Dr. Kamraan Husain ($100 for 30 minutes), which includes movement analysis and active release techniques to relieve muscle tension; NormaTec pulse systems ($20 for 30 minutes) that massage your legs and expedite recovery using the NormaTec Pulse Massage Pattern; cold tub therapy to reduce swelling and eliminate any excess lactic acid after the workout that may cause fatigue; and Piezo Wave 2 ($100 per session), which targets tissues to treat soreness and muscle pain using acoustic waves.
Although Tone House presents quite the physical challenge, participants ultimately leave feeling one step closer toward achieving their fitness goals. Indeed, situps, sprints, and sandbags successfully take attendees outside of themselves, a temporary escape from reality where they are encouraged to take risks, push their limits, and “unleash their inner athlete.”
Tone House NoMad is located at 32 East 31st Street in Manhattan.