Calisthenics Academy

As an intermediate Calisthenics student, I went mainly to check out the gym and get some pointers. I signed up for a General Class, but it being Thanksgiving, only one regular showed up. While the regular did some basic Calisthenics movements for a workout of the day (well not all basic: She was working on Handstand Pushups!) the instructor gave me some great pointers on Handstands and Muscle Ups, basically giving me a private lesson. He was pretty spot on (except when trying to explain how to bail out of a bad handstand kick-​up: I couldn’t get it no matter how many times he tried to explain it! But that might be me.) I improved greatly at both.
After my lesson, a younger kid showed up for a private lesson. The kid clearly enjoyed it and they did some novel moves like a partial handstand from an exercise ball as well as some more basic calisthenics/​explosive moves.
It’s a neat way to get moving and a great way to improve some of the more advanced moves. It’s relatively rare to get spot on Calisthenics teaching and I definitely got it here. Come to improve your moves or just stay in shape!

As a generally vegetative individual, who talks about getting toned and getting strong, I was in for an ass-​kicking when I ventured over the 195 into beautiful people territory.
For background, I have been a yogi for the past 5 years of my life. It’s not so consistent, but I’m there for the peace, rather than the burn. So when I finally mastered some inversions and balances, I had it in my head that I was ready for some more challenges.
Calisthenics Academy came to me by way of Groupon. They have a great one-​month unlimited deal going right now, but they also offer your very first class free. Obviously, I need to try it out before I invest… and I’m glad I did.
Though they offer several hour-​long classes every day, I tried out a 7pm class, walking in with no clue what was in store for me except for some inspiring youtube videos. Trainer Gabriel greeted us, introduced himself and let us people watch the acrobatics happening in the back of the studio. They cray. And upside down. Right at 7pm, Trainer Gabriel started us off with warm-​ups. Music is bass-​heavy and makes me want to punch some bags from sheer adrenaline. The room is kept breezy with constant A/​C. 7:05 and 50 jumping jacks in, I was clearly prepared. Like, I’m not even sweating at this point.
Then we moved into handstand practice, their «Technique of the Week» as noted by their whiteboard. I’m gold here, because shoot, what have I been mastering these past 5 years in a 90 degree room of sweaty strangers?
Then it was time for the actual work. 3 rounds of pull-​ups, dips, chin-​ups, push-​ups, and L-​sits. Now is when I started sweating. From my eyes. Luckily, for the utterly new students like my glorious and regretful self, there are elastic bands to wind over the bars, to offset your weight as you pull-​up, dip, and chin-​up. Thank god, because I think I would’ve been flailing, trying to kick my way into a real pull-​up. (I may or may not have done so anyways.)
The others moved on to a rougher 3 rounds of extreme pull-​ups, dips, chin-​ups, push-​ups, and L-​sits. I did not. I struggled to do round 2 of chin-​ups. I ended up leaving a bit early, because I was clearly not ready to do anything more than hang like a monkey on these bars… though not for lack of trying. And sweating.
However, I was pretty concerned that nobody asked us to sign a waiver, or register in general. And there was really only one bar for those shorter than 5’8″ — I tried using the other bars as a small statured-​individual, but in truth, the 3 of us shorter participants alternated using the shorter bar. And I felt like the other students in the class helped the newcomers more than the trainer did, but the trainer was present for the important parts, like introducing the next section and demonstrating.
TL;DR — it was a great experience, and had I the internal motivation, I would come back. But I am not yet in a place where sore arms for 3 days post-​workout is a good thing.