Social Workout

Poet Laureate

Rules For Fitness Trade Shows

Sunday, just past 3:00pm. I’m in Midtown. Spring has finally arrived, her sunshine trumpeting down Broadway and smashing into gaggles of tourists and staggering winter survivors, all of them acting as if recently baptized—smiling, confused, blessed, and more than a little slow. But sun is not for me today. I head into the fluorescent glow of the Mariott Marquis, my leather jacket thrown over my shoulder, and my fedora tucked tight and low on my head. I walk past a table of complimentary tea and a box of protein bars and head straight into ECA NYC 2010's trade show, where the fitness industry gathers to show off its wares. What follows are the few things I learned about attending a fitness convention.

Scenes

Best and Worst ECA Fitness Class Names

Today on the fitness class agenda at the ECA Conference in Times Square, approximately 50 classes. Some sound grand, others, well, you'll see. 

Best Sounding Classes:

• Beam-lates. Gymnastics plus Pilates? Potentially awesome.
• 7-Layer Step. Sounds like 7-Layer Dip! 
• Hip Hop Theater. Jazz hands meet fly girls, everyone wins.

Classes That Makes Us Want to Run for the Hills:

• Monday Morning Moves. A laxative tea or a workout?
• Periodizing in the Real World. Mysterious and vaguely menstrual sounding.
• Four Dimensional Step. Time travel? Back to the 90s? 

Sadly, what seems to be missing are the explicit class names a la Equinox. Climb-Max, where are you?

Scenes

Live From ECA: Flags are the Future

The ECA Convention, Marriott Marquis, Times Square. Fitness instructors from around the country gathered to take the hottest new classes...Ridin' Dirty, Hi/Low Fix... You haven't heard of these classes? You will soon. A sea of seriously sculpted arm muscles, fake tans, and extreme color coordinated spandex. 

In the main ballroom Calvin Wiley preaches on the virtues of adapting what you're learning at the convention to your students out there in Middle America. "I'm in an urban center where they get me. You have to take this and make it work for your students. I can't make a lesson plan for your students." 

Then he wraps his audience up in flags and makes them do a procession, waving their body bars as they sashay across the room to Madonna. 

This Weekend's ECA Convention

Anyone know what's up with the free trade show tix SW offered up a few days ago?

Charity??

Thanks!

New York

Events

Hang Out With Social Workout at the ECA Convention This Weekend

NYC workout junkies with a sixth sense, you should be all keyed up right now, because there's a major fitness event in the offing: The ECA Convention. What's the ECA Convention, you ask? It's the biannual event where all the big name fitness gurus and the aspiring gurus looking for enlightenment get together to chat and show each other their classes. Sort of like the Knights of the Round Table getting together for a round table meeting followed by a jousting tournament. Wonder what Flirty Girl Fitness is? Yo Chi Glow? Indo Row? Show up this weekend, and you can take these and all the other crazy new classes and find out for yourself.  

Pricing and details after the jump, but two big things to note: 1) Social Workout will be there! Stop by our table and say hi: 2) We have free passes to the trade show, so if sniffing around the latest in fitness and wellness goods and services sounds like your idea of a good time, leave a note in the comments, and we'll hook you up. 

New York