The Toughest Class In Town

For weeks I’ve been hearing buzz about Aero 3, a new class down at the Aerospace fitness studio on West 13th Street. When I arrived recently to try it out, I bumped into my colorist, Marko, on his way from a personal training session to his chair at Sally Hershberger. “Is it your first Aero 3?” he asked. I nodded and he cackled sadistically before telling me my roots were showing and kissing me goodbye. “Good lu-uck!” he hollered as he swept out the door.

I headed into the studio unafraid—my regular training sessions at Complete Body on John Street and my weekly Nalini Method classes on the Upper West Side had me convinced I could withstand an hour of anything.

Turns out I could—but just barely. The warp-speed rotation of jump rope, boxing moves, maneuvers with a body bar and light handweights had everyone in the room moaning for mercy. And I had to stop from time to time to mop up the slippery pool of sweat around my feet. Later, in the locker room, toned veterans of the studio confirmed that Aero 3 is definitely the studio’s its most challenging offering. The class’s instructor, Aerospace co-founder Michael Olajide Jr, told me this was precisely his aim in developing Aero 3. “It burns crazy calories,” says Olajides, a former boxer whose perfectly molded, impossibly lithe, spandex-encased physique at the front of the room (it’s like having Spiderman for an aerobics instructor) is the best motivation for sticking it out.