What it is: Alchemy 365 is a multi-location gym offering a blend of yoga, strength and cardio in functional movement classes led by a "coach." The bread-and-butter classes are known as A10 and A20, the numbers indicating how many minutes of the class you work as hard as you can on your own.
Who created it: Founders Mike and Andrea Jones started out creating crossfit gyms before developing the Alchemy concept.
What's it like: When you enter the workout room, you notice the padded floor and lots of equipment — weights called "torpedoes," medicine balls, stretchy bands, rings, steps — along the walls. A chalkboard up front lists equipment needed as well as a list of exercises.
The day I attended an A10 class, coach Nhu Richards had us huddle up as she demonstrated the moves we'd be doing (including a squat, a balancing hinge and a jump with a medicine ball toss that looked really fun). She patiently slowed the demo for those of us who were first-timers.
We warmed up with a yoga flow, and then Richards led the class in unison through the series. The exercises, she explained, incorporate basic movements like dead lifts, pushes and pulls. Every movement can be modified for every fitness level.
What makes Alchemy unique is that every class combines the moves in different ways, using different equipment. This means workouts change daily. "We repeat a class maybe once or twice a year," Richards said.
The changing combinations mean your muscles never lapse into an exercise rut. It's group fitness, but "you're only competing against yourself," Richards said.
After finishing the "movement practice and preparation" time all together, class members exchanged high-fives, but we weren't done yet. Richards started a timer, signaling the switch to individual effort — 10 minutes on the clock to pump out the sets of exercises we'd been doing, now working as hard as we could on our own.
