Last week, I went to an event at Official Ritual, a sound bath studio tucked into an old blacksmith shop (what looks like a teeny single family home) between towering brick buildings in Chelsea. Maybe instead of spending all your money on cold plunges, you can try this to “reset your nervous system” instead.

During the sound bath, I entered a trance-like sleep state (it was 8:30 AM… not exactly my prime). We were wearing Blinkjoy eye masks, and I took home the hydrating eye mask—which is technically designed for people with dry eye which I don’t have—but when I tell you the first night I wore it, I woke up with my eyes (and the surrounding skin) feeling properly moist (sorry to the word haters.) A very unique experience that I now strangely want to repeat every night. Keep in mind the little eye cups sort of suction to your eyes, so it feels quite different from a silky soft sleep mask, but I dig it.

This week: A new contrast therapy studio in Williamsburg (go figure), laughter meditation, a yoga studio opening event, and a little recap of a NYC fitness festival.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday September 29: Outsiders The Move: Sensual Fluidity Dance Class (Flatiron), 745PM, $20

I love the concept behind Outsider’s The Move Series, which addresses the fact that NYC has too many damn run clubs and people should probably be moving in other ways, too. Well, this week is a sensual fluidity dance class hosted by Stephanie Peña, which seems like a great way to lean into intuitive movement and get out of your own head.

Wednesday September 30: Gravel Club Run with Salomon (UWS), 630PM, free

There are few opportunities to run anything but pavement around NYC, but Salomon’s run crew is going to be running a 4-mile gravel loop up in Central Park on Wednesday evening. You can test out the Aero Blaze 4 GRVL, which is like a sister shoe to a pair that I’ve tried (the Glide). Pretty good option if you’re traveling somewhere with trails but also plan to run on roads.

Wednesday September 30: Fast and Forte II with On (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

I’m calling it now: Everyone is getting just a wee bit sick of the marathon and short distances (sprints, 400m, etc) are going to be getting a lot more attention from the general public in the coming months/year. Case in point: Fast and Forte race, in partnership with Forte and NYC Sprint Collective. The longest distance of this street race is a mile but you could also sign up for the 400M or 100M, and there are cash prizes.

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Thursday October 1: Welda Club x One Hotel Run and Yoga (Dumbo), 7AM, free

Too early in the morning (7AM) and too fast for me (8:30min/mile pace at least), but otherwise I’d definitely be interested in this event from Welda Club. The reason its so speedy is because you’ll be testing out Adidas’ new shoe—the Adizero Adios Pro 5, a carbon-plated race day shoe. These shoes don’t do much if you run slower paces, but really help when you’re cruising. After the run, there’s a yoga class at ONEHOUSEYOGA.

Friday October 2: Brooklyn Running Co Spice and Strides (Prospect Park), 630PM, free

Not that you need a reason to celebrate the dropping temps and arrival of fall, but here is one: A 4-mile run (or 1.5-mile) that ends with APPLE CIDER DONUTS. You’re welcome.

Saturday October 3: Yoga Joint at Domino Park (Williamsburg), 10AM, free

Yoga Joint, a yoga franchise that started in Florida, is launching in New York soon and kicking things off in Brooklyn with a fun community event at Domino Park. It’ll be a free 45-minute workout—the brands signature full-body strength class that blends high-energy training with low-impact movement (we haven’t tested it yet)—all set to the beat of a live DJ, which is something we’ve seen increasingly common at fitness events. Cool!

Saturday October 3: New Mom Run Club (SoHo), 930AM, free

Hosted by every other week, this run/walk club is tailored to new moms—but really any moms are welcome. The run is two miles at a conversational pace, and welcomes runners at a 12-min-mile pace, which is pretty great for run clubs in the city. Bring your little one in a stroller!

happenings around town

• I just learned about the concept of “laughter meditation” in these upcoming workshops with ambient music artist Laraaji at 113 Spring. Dare I say this is something we all need? Consider me intrigued.

• It seems like we’re reporting on this weekly, but Williamsburg is getting yet another contrast therapy studio opening in October-ish: Outershed. They’ll have private suites instead of large communal spaces, and we’re interested to see what they’ll do with the large outdoor patio but kinda bummed to see the first event is just a basic, pricey pilates class. Because a majority of these spaces feel pretty corporate in their operations, we respect that the founder leaned into her origin story in her IG Reels.

• I was on a call with some of the people behind ATEAM for an article in the works, and one of the company partners put me on to the opening of Neko, a Scandanavian preventative health/ full-body scan company that just opened its doors in SoHo. He said you get your bloodwork results right on the spot. Over 25,000 New Yorkers are on the waitlist. Before you decide if you need one, just know what you’re potentially getting yourself into (especially those like me with health anxiety.)

• I really hate the new term “wellness darty” , which apparently describes the increasingly popular college trend of swapping day drinking for parties that revolve around group runs, pilates classes, and other wellness activations. I’m all for finding ways to socialize that don’t revolve around alcohol, but I never want to hear the word “darty” again.

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See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

I live in Bed-Stuy, where the access to good gyms is few and far between, and my home gym (and where I spend at least four days a week) is the very cheap Puregym. This past week, it was closed as they remodel to add an athletic training area for sled pushes, wall balls, and all the Hyrox-style movements. The hybrid fitness boom has officially trickled down to budget gyms: You no longer have to pay an arm and a leg to train for one.

In the meantime, I’ve been checking out Life Time (mostly the Dumbo location) and been blown away by how much space there is. I’ve never needed to wait for a squat rack or machine. (Granted I’ve been going around 3PM.) People mind their own business and no men approached me to suggest a completely different exercise variation than the one I’m doing.

Is that worth the over $300 monthly price difference? I can’t decide! Maybe yes for the showers and co-working space.

This week: Yoga on an aircraft carrier, birding before breakfast, a one-mile race through Bushwick, and the continued overcomplication of the sauna.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday September 21: Breath and Flow Ritual (Williamsburg), 630PM, free - $25

One more free ticket is available to this restorative movement/breathwork session from Ice Cold Club. After that, tickets are available for purchase. The outdoor area at the Dime is a lovely spot to spend a Monday evening around sunset.

Monday September 21: Read & Release (Bed-Stuy), 630PM, $25

I love the idea of this combined reading party/mat pilates class hosted by Octave Wellness at Apartment Ra’el in Bed-Stuy. You can expect 30 minutes of quiet reading (they recommend their Book of the Month but you can bring whatever you want), followed by a 40-minute pilates class. Sounds like a great idea for the semi-introverts who love to read but want to get out of the house.

Thursday September 24: Prospect Park Fall Migration Walks (Prospect Park), 730AM, free

If you’re not yet in your birding era, now’s as good a time to start as ever. (I promise you don’t have to wait til you turn 40.) Birds are flying south in search of warmer temps, and you can join the Brooklyn Bird Club to learn about the species and how to spot them. BYOB(inoculars.) If you can’t join this day, it happens Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in Sept and Oct.

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Friday September 25: Vinhausa (West Side Highway), 615PM, $44

I’m pretty sure Maddie is the target audience for this yoga/house music combo event. For the first time, Vinhausa comes to NYC and you can flow to live house music and then dance to a DJ set on the flight deck of the Intrepid Museum (aka on a giant ship) with about 800 other people. Bring your own mat!

Saturday September 26: Strong New York Fitness and Wellness Festival (Hell’s Kitchen), $165
We wrote about this one last week, but a reminder that arguably the biggest fitness and wellness festival in New York is happening this Saturday. Yes, $165 is a lot of money, but there’s also a lot happening: workouts and competitions you can join, panels with some genuinely interesting people in fitness, recovery experiences, and more brands than you could possibly need to know exist. It’s also a fun place to nerd out with a few thousand other people who care a little too much about working out. Maddie will be there, so go find her and say hi.

Saturday September 26: TMPL After Dark Strong NY Afterparty (Midtown), 8PM, $100

Sometimes its fun to see intense fitness people let loose a little bit. After spending all day talking about HRV, workout splits, how much creatine to take, and whatever else people who willingly go to a fitness festival talk about, Strong NY is hosting an official afterparty at TMPL Bathhouse (which, judging from its social presence, is definitely aiming to be the hot girl party sauna.) Cocktails courtesy of Celsius? I can’t say I hate it. The party is included with a Platinum Strong NY ticket, or you can buy a ticket separately if you want to skip the day portion.

Sunday September 27: MMMILE 26 Race (Bushwick), 8AM, $21

You don’t have to be a seriously competitive runner to join in on this fun one-mile race down Knickerbocker Ave. Hosted by MMM ATLETICO run club, it’s sure to be a vibe. Plus the price is right and you’ll get a bandana and tote bag with registration.

things we like lately:

• I’m obsessed with this North Face tote bag, which I took as my personal item on a trip to Costa Rica last week and have been carrying it everywhere around the city, too.

• New Balance’s SuperComp Elite 6 are some of the most approachable carbon-plated race day running shoes, and even my slow ass can wear them without my legs yelling at me after my 2.5-hour half marathon. Debating wearing them for the marathon in November.

• This guided Tonglen meditation by Tara Brach. Years ago this Buddhist practice had been a non-negotiable for me (Maddie) when I was going through something hard. I recently rediscovered it and have been thinking about it often ever since.

• I was curious yet almost dissuaded by Snif’s new scent—Lychee Lacquer—when the brand described it as smelling like a nail salon? But it’s delightfully fruity, a lil rosey, but still sharp and fresh. At first whiff, I didn’t love it, but I promise it smells nothing like nail polish on my clothing.

• Tucked into the industrial east side of Greenpoint, Newtown Creek Nature Walk is a sweet little green space along a previously toxic waterway. I ran over the bridges and along native-plated lined paths on my run and passed people skipping rocks (seemingly on a date), having picnics, and reading books.

happenings around town

• covered the emerging “sport” of aufguss (sauna performances with lights, music, twirling towels, choreography, and aromatherapy) for Vanity Fair. Worth a read.

• Why is Othership hosting comedy nights? Does anyone really want to listen to a standup set while marinating in their own sweat? The description of this event is performative wellness at its finest: “This isn’t your average comedy show—it’s a ritual of collective joy. A night where towel-waving, aromatherapy, and shifting temperatures create an atmosphere where walls drop, laughter flows, and connection runs deep.” Gag.

• Clothing brand Beyond Yoga has a store pop-up in Flatiron through January, and they’ll also host workout classes in the space. (Disappointed to see they’re priced at $50/class). There will also be a community run/walk ending with a live concert by Natasha Bedingfield (wow a classic), and tickets go live today (Monday) at 12PM.

• The last 10-ish days of September are upon us, which means it’s your last chance to catch Brooklyn Bridge Park’s free Waterfront Workout series this year. This week alone, there's Zumba, sunset yoga, bootcamp, Movement in the Park, morning yoga, Pilates and a stroller run/walk.

• Happy Climate Week (we need it more than ever right now with our current administration). Dear Crisis, a NYC community org, is hosted a full week of ticketed events, games, storytelling, panels and workshops in the East Village. Or just drop by anytime for coffee, food/drink, live music, and conversation.

• Hybrid races are booming, including the recent Urban Iron which had more than 200 competitors run 8-ish miles around the city and perform circuits at three different gyms. Rachel Sacks wrote up what the day was like for New York Post, in case you’re interested in signing up for the next event.

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See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Alice is a “self-proclaimed aunty of eight girls, ex elite gymnast, recovering party rat millennial, ultra running relay fan, proud divorcee and passionate advocate of the ‘low mileage, high pilates, joyful training methodology for distance runners because we all need to CALM DOWN.”

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Tell us about your personal approach to taking care of your body.

This has taken years to refine (and I honestly don’t always have it mastered.) I say yes too much, I will nearly always choose a night out over extra sleep and I don’t have a strict diet, sleep schedule or workout routine. But, I after years of fucking around & finding out (on both a clinical and social scale) I am a firm believer that if I am enjoying what movement I am doing, I don’t look at health scores/data metrics & tap into learned patterns/primitive instincts by listening to my body and what she needs, I think I’ve vaguely cracked the longevity aspect of ‘care for my body’ holistically?

I think there’s a sweet spot in the venn diagram of wellness/performance/joy and I think of the like delicate web of sorts. This also means some weeks I’m more measured with downtime, sleep, food, intentional movement but also there’s moments of anarchy and chaos which keeps me balanced, and I think adds range to the endless strive of optimisation of self care.

As a former elite gymnast turned distance runner I have lived a (former) life always pushing the boundaries of trying to find the limit, the edge, the top of the ‘performance mountain’ which looks vastly different in these two very juxtaposed sports. It’s safe to say I flew too close to the sun many times and have now dedicated a life of work to finding the limit in the other direction: “How can we achieve good results with the least amount of damage or long-term impact to the body?” My major ethos to put it quite simply is never sacrificing any moment of life opportunity or joy to achieve a sporting goal. This means training and conditioning every element of your workouts to fit into your lifestyle and enjoyment preferences and not the other way around.

I’m a strong believer that balance is a very underrated performance enhancer and sync many in the run community could do with a little more.

Ok, I know you have strong opinions about NYC running culture. Talk to me about it. And what you’re doing with forRunners to bring some much needed balance.

Firstly I have so much gratitude for the people that run in New York City are the entire reason I moved my ass from the peaceful beaches of beautiful Byron to the wild West of Columbus Avenue and I am forever in deep thanks to them opening their arms to me, my very bogan aussie accent and then tolerating me enforcing my Pilates and Physio rehab into their studio apartments.

One major thing that I have been alarmed by since settling into the culture deeper is how much bigger everything is here. And by that I don’t just mean the size of the wine pours and serves the fries because I’m completely on board with that but it’s also the attitude towards high mileage weeks, double threshold days, multiple marathons per year etc etc and aside from doing some occasional lifting there is not a lot of preventative care or reactive care or generalised medical facilitation directed specifically to runners.

I’ve had multiple friends with major stress fractures due to over training, I’ve witnessed the overt glorification of 100 mile weeks, ultra running is posed as prestigious and fun and overall, the “more = better” ethos here is alive and quite unwell IMO. It’s been incredibly difficult and confusing to see one of the most fierce and progressive cities in the world charging towards running capitalism without any crash mats nearby.

The love and joy of running here is insatiable but the carnage is off chops. I truly love being able to try and help though because is a love for the sport like nothing I have seen, we just need more guard rails? Although pilates isn’t saving lives, I think it’s improving the quality of life for every runner and that I’ve worked with and I truly believe that.

Where do you actually workout, recover, and relax in NYC right now?

I’ll be deadly honest here and say I am still trying to work this out. Having come from a small coastal beach town called Barron Bay (which is incredibly eat pray love in it’s entire environment) finding a place to have a little oasis of peace has been challenging but certainly not impossible, it looks very different to a quick surf or quiet pint at a small country pub.

I mostly run alone in Central Park because I love being in nature. I personally don’t do any structured training, or specific sessions. I truly go by feel and vibes on the day and that’s been incredibly freeing and relaxing for me so I find peace in that. Being able to use running as relaxing sounds a little crazy but I can’t tell you how much an easy run in some trees with a curated Spotify list can calm my Leo fire sign tendencies.

Aside from park jogs, pilates is my major workout preference and specifically the forRunners model I and my colleagues have created over the last six years because it’s great for Type B’s who can whip out a flow with no prior planning on a small patch of grass anytime, anywhere. I’ve spent many months trying different workouts and class styles here in New York City which are great but I will always come back to the app because it speaks to my personal lifestyle (chaotic) and also my physical needs for running.

Also, nothing relaxes me more than a solo wine date just watching the city do her thing. I do that at least once a week and it’s also a cool way to chat to people or just let the city wash over you like the surf in Byron.

What’s in your metaphoric gym bag?

Look, I’m a woman with baggage. Literal and metaphysical. I have just emptied my ‘day bag workhorse’ onto my mat in my apartment to see what we’re working with and to say I’m prepared for all situations is an understatement. To name the important key players:

1) I always travel with my Physio kit. I have tape, dry needles, voltaren cream and deep heat, kinesio tape, therabands and hand sanny.

2) there are always rogue snacks of nuts, bars, a spare spoon (teaspoon bc big spoons make me feel stressed), mushroom chocolate which is half melted and other trace pieces of candy.

3) I won’t go anywhere without my headphones, two pairs of sunglasses because one is for indoors and one is for outdoors—I can’t explain it.

4) I always have a pair of bathers and goggles in my bag in case a body of water presents itself that I can enter without getting any sort of long-term sepsis - harder than you think in New York City but you can be an sure I’ll be ready when it does.

5) always a few sachets of instant coffee in case I need a ‘dry shot’ to chase with water (I work really odd hours in many different time zones so sometimes I just have to be able to get jacked at short notice).

6) Chewing gum (tropical flavour)

7) always two tampons

8) a phone charger and

9) Last but not least, a toothbrush in case of a spontaneous sleep over because I’m not wise but just more street smart than i used to be.

What do you do to take time for yourself when life gets overwhelming in the city?

I am a little freayk because I am one of those people that does their best work and thrives in chaos. I am yet to feel completely overwhelmed by this city (but I’m sure I will choke on these words in due time.) Rolling out my mat for 30 minutes in the park is my version of church so I think I’m lucky enough to do that most days because it’s part of my work which may mean I have hacked the emotional regulation system of the city in an accidental way. There’s also the obvious two glasses of natural wine or one singular dry martini which I think is when I am at my best self.

What’s the most overrated thing in wellness right now?

Equipment. Stuff. Things. Gadgets. The consumerism of the industry has taken the soul out of wellness in my opinion. The data tracking and voracious appetite for buying the latest gizmo kills me. I personally want extremely sound research based evidence before I will touch anything that is an ‘external prop’ to what I’m doing in terms of “wellness.” I wouldn’t say I am a good advocate of the wellness space, I’d like to think I sit more in the performance space of sport. There is a cross over but I try not to dabble too close to the well-sun.

I truly reject how the wellness space can prey on the aesthetic of what it means to be “fit” and, as much as we want to hack the system, I believe the science of being sound of health is so much more nuanced than what we are shown through media. I think doing less and having less is ‘more well’ in many ways. I think it is the opposite of ‘maxxing’. I think minn-ing needs to trend? Can we make this happen please?

What song have you had on repeat lately?

Lola. It’s so relatable to a so life in NYC (obtusely). I’ve actually been listening to the cover of the original by the Raincoats which is really beautiful and kind of gritty.

What have you found lately—books, newsletters, podcasts, accounts—that have stuck with you and why?

This is my fave question because niche forms of entertainment recommendations are my true love language. I come from a family of 3 sisters and 8 nieces and we have entire group chats dedicated to making sure none of us have to listen to the quiet of our own thoughts if we don’t want to or want to be culturally stimulated without necessarily directly engaging? ANYWAY, I digress….

Books recently - Beartown by Frederick Backman (think scandinavian crime drama but add a deep level of fierce and multigenerational sisterhood undertones. You’ll rage, cry, but find hope. All sports humans that like a dark thriller must read this. Lena Denhum’s Famsick was brilliant (audio version because her voice brings the creative genius of Girls to the present and I think we all need that.)

Podcasts - My Therapist Ghosted Me by Joanne McNally and Vogue Williams is like a defib to my soul. It’s dark, funny, dry, smart and you cannot listen without being obsessed with them and feel more positive about the rest of your day. Also for the Runners, Run with It Podcast is run by Elise Beacom, an Aussie Journalist who speaks about 19 languages and worked for the UN for years, is 2:48 marathoner, is a journo and podcasting legend and is like a balm to the health bro podcast epidemic.

TV Series - Furious. It’s about a female serial killer and makes you genuinely furious (in a validating & wonderful way.) It’s 99% on rotten tomato right now and that is justified.

I love the Roe for ‘cultural anarchist pieces’ and rogue hot takes and the only newsletter i read is The Rundown. MORE PLEASE. Fill my damn inbox.

What’s a gym, spot, or trainer in the city that's underrated and deserves more love?

Hand to my heart, I have tried all classes, gyms you could think if when moving here. I WAS ON A RAMPAGE. Alas, I am a lone wolf weirdo who genuinely will always come back to forRunners App on a patch of grass in the chaos of Central Park. The style and lack of admin required really has my soul in a chokehold. I cannot be released.

That being said, my favourite yoga class is run by the magnificent Eliana Mandelblum who teaches my favourite vinyasa flow in the city at Sky Ting. She has her own freelance work as well and has a beautiful class style and really balanced outlook on wellness as a whole. I highly recommend her flows and energy dealing.

New York is notoriously expensive for pretty much everything, but especially fitness and wellness. What would you do to take care of yourself in a day if you only had $40 to spend.

ABSOLUTELY AGREE.

1) wake up, cut a walk or jog lap of the bridle path inside central park. It’s soft underfoot, off road and feels really regulating for your nervous system. It reminds me of an Enid Blyton novel from the mid 90’s.

2) Straight to Trader Joes to collect some cold brew, choc coated peanut butter cups to sustain the subway straight to the free McCarren Park Pool in BK *and also grab, swiss cheese, hummus and olives at TJ’s (this is an important step for later.)

3) Cut some laps/float/frolick/splash/ whatever you want (my Aussie spirit is battling not having a close beach so this free body of clean water fills me with joy.)

4) I’d grab a Citibike to Radio Bakery, grab a crusty role and meet your mates in Prospect Park on a picnic rug. Take them through a mobility flow (this is my niche love language) and eat bread cheese and bits you squirreled away earlier.

This is very summer coded but a day of outdoor movement, park hopping, water immersion, mates, cheese and stretches on grass could heal most IMO. If theres a glass of orange going around while you stretch on the with change from the $40 I’d say that’s truly nirvana to me.

It’s been an interesting week and the fitness world, and all I’ve seen people talking about lately is the Hyrox Beijing shitstorm. Puma athlete and current women’s record holder Joanna Wietrzyk had a mid-race disaster that caused a biocontamination hazard for other participants. People have shit themselves during marathons and trail races hundreds of times, but doing it on an indoor course where everyone uses the same floor and equipment (she sat on the rower!) is another level.

HYROX has since said Wietrzyk is being harassed and threatened, which is obviously unacceptable. But I’m curious whether they’ll address the calls to DQ her time, considering the rules are strict enough to penalize athletes for spitting or blowing their nose on the course.

This week: The last gasp of summer fitness series, the merging of pilates and “strength” studios, run through the Vessel, and a free meditation session at Awake NY.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday September 14: We Move NYC Pilates Class (Seaport), 6PM, free

Joe Holder’s free summer series workouts won’t be going on for much longer, so get in while you can. This one is a recovery-focused pilates class led by Monice Small, founder of Goodform Studios and Nike trainer. Or, go to the Saturday strength and conditioning class if you want something a bit more challenging.

Tuesday September 15: Beecee Skincare Launch Day + Coffee (Flatiron), 12PM, free

A new clean beauty brand called beecee with very mysterious branding is launching this week, and they’re hosting a mid-day coffee get-together for people to get a first look at their product line. If you’re one of the first 100 people to show up, coffee is on the brand, so probably get there early.

Wednesday September 16: Bryant Park Yoga by Halara (Bryant Park), 6PM, free

This is the last week of the Bryant Park Yoga series hosted by affordable athleisure brand Halara (their flare leggings have actually been my go-to and lasted me a few years now). We can’t speak to if the yoga instructor is any good, but go get that free yoga class in while the summer series are still running and your only option is an expensive studio.

Thursday September 17: Vessel Run with Equinox (Hudson Yards), 7AM $50

One of the more interesting ways to get your intervals in: A high-intensity interval run class using the stairs in the gorgeous Vessel building. The running is paired with light resistance training using bands. But it comes with a pretty steep price tag.

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Friday September 18: The Outsiders Sunset Meet Up (Meatpacking), 6PM, free

We’ve posted a ton of The Outsiders cool outdoor excursions, but if you’re intimidated to jump into a long outing with a group you’ve never met, they’re hosting a sunset meetup where you can meet new friends and hang out on a rooftop. Seems like a great place to meet a crew of people who will hike or get outdoors with you, if you’re having trouble finding that in the city.

Saturday September 19: Vital Run Club Field Day (Williamsburg), 11AM, $5

Field days are everywhere for the end of summer, including one hosted by Vital Run Club, a pretty popular social group based out of the climbing gym in Greenpoint. Expect egg races, leap frog, and dizzy bat, among other races. The reasonable ticket price includes drinks like sparkling yerba mate and pizza.

Saturday September 19: Free Peace Awake NY Meditation Club (LES), 9AM, free

Every month, Kenji Summers guides people through meditation set to the music of a different New York artist at the Awake NY store on Orchard Street. The listening aspect can be a way for meditation to feel much more approachable.

Saturday September 19: Doodles By Meg x Womens Sports Rally Craft Class (Williamsburg), 2PM, $25

Ok, I’m not big on the whimsy trend, but I could get into it by bedazzling a baseball bat keychain with illustrator Meghan Wallace at Blazer’s Sports Bar (go women’s sports!) It’s hosted in part by Warm Up Szn, an event org for queer artists/allies. Ticket price includes all materials, but drinks aren’t included.

happenings around town

• Daybreaker, the company behind the sober morning dance parties, is hosting an all-day free festival on September 26th with breathwork sessions, a sauna/cold plunge village, DJ sets, run clubs. Regular general admission is sold out, but early bird tickets are available, and all ya gotta do is show up before 11 AM and then you can dance for as long as your legs will allow.

• Literally everyone has a run club, including the hosts of Morning Brew, one of the biggest newsletters in the U.S. They’re back this September, running on Wednesday mornings at 6:30 AM from Hudson River Park. The series is in partnership with NOBULL, who makes pretty crap running shoes but if you end up demoing them, tell me if I’m wrong.

• Arketa, the software platform that powers a huge chunk of boutique fitness, just launched it’s own IRL strength and sculpt studio—Powered—in Lower Manhattan. The picture on the website for their strength class specifies “heavier weights” yet pictures someone holding 5-pound dumbbells. IMO, the market for this type of studio is way oversaturated and we don’t need anymore in NYC. The brick-walled, sunlit studio does look beautiful though.

• You know pilates has peaked when solidcore announces a progressive overload-based strength class. For the first time in nearly 13 years, the brand is launching a new workout called Ascend, a heated, floor-based class that swaps the solidcore machine for heavier weights and strength training. It’ll debut this winter at a new Manhattan West studio before rolling out elsewhere. But if progressive overload is the goal, I’d probably just go lift weights at a nice cheap box gym rather than try to squeeze it into a fast-paced heated class.

• Sauna/cold plunge recovery chain Sweathouz is officially coming to the city, with a Tribeca location set to open in October and at least 12 locations in the works. It’s part of a rise we’ve seen of private contrast therapy rooms (for the introverts), like the ones and SAINT and Remedy Place—completely different than the group gathering nature of the likes of Bathhouse, The Altar and Othership.

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See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

This week: Workout events that include rooftop pool access, many running shoe demos, and a massive fitness festival comes to NYC.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday September 8: New York Disc Golf Glow Round (Central Park), 7:15PM, free

Last time there was a disc golf pop-up in NYC, I went with a couple of friends and it was a blast, even though I am terrible at it. Right now, there’s only one permanent disc golf course in the city (in Highland Park) so this nighttime glow-in-the-dark game is very cool.

Wednesday September 9: Ice Cold Club Breath and Flow Ritual (Williamsburg), 6:30PM, free to $30

Ice Cold Club always reserves a few free spots for its wellness events, and somehow all three are still available as I write this. This one is breathwork and restorative movement. The rooftop setting at the Dime is a gorgeous spot to spend the evening.

Wednesday September 9: Line Dancing at Roberta’s (Williamsburg), 6PM, donation-based

Line dancing is somewhat of a trend recently, and you can get in on the action at this queer-friendly, pay what you can event. Beginner hour is the first half, then intermediate/advanced is from 730 onward. And yes, casual night-out dancing is wellness.

Thursday September 10: King Size Fit Collective 5K Dash and Splash (Williamsburg), 5:30PM, free

5K to brewery? Overdone. 5k to pool party? Absolutely yes. Enjoy the last days of summer with a run with King Size Fit Collective followed by pool time at Coda Beach Club. Free pool access in NYC is hard to come by, so this sounds like a good time.

Thursday September 10: Connect and Climb (Gowanus), 6PM, $20

Thinking about getting into climbing? Here’s a beginner-friendly meetup hosted by We Explore Earth that’s cheaper than a day pass to the gym. Plus it includes rental gear.

Friday September 11: After Hours Girls Try Hyrox (Jersey City), 7:30PM, $45

Hyrox-specific gyms like F45 and Solace can be pretty intimidating and intense for beginners, but for the gals looking to dip their toes in, this 45-minute intro class should be much more approachable. The price isn’t cheap, but you’ll get a little goodie bag with attendance.

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Saturday September 12: NARC Get Sprayed Track Workout (Williamsburg), 10AM, free

Running shoe brand On is really getting the word out about their Lightspray tech (a 3D-printed shoe upper) this week, as we’ve seen them team up with multiple run clubs to offer demos. Our run club of choice would be NARC (Not a Run Club), so stop by the sprint session to check out the shoes for yourself.

Saturday September 12: Believe in the Run Tour and 5K (Hell’s Kitchen), 8:30AM, free

The folks at Believe in the Run, a running media company, do great work (I trust their shoe reviews above pretty much everyone else's), and they’re on tour hosting group runs in different cities. This one is in partnership with NYRR and New Balance, so you can demo some of the brand’s race day shoes and stay for the snacks/drinks post-run.

Saturday September 12: Gorp Girls Curious by Nature Outdoor Day (Upstate), 9AM, $20 if you provide your own transportation

This event is so wholesome! If you can make your way upstate yourself, there are still tickets available for this full-day of outdoor experiences with Gorp Girls. Choose with programming you participate in, whether its fly-fishing lessons, a naturalist walk, painting in nature, hiking, paddling, and outdoor skills demonstrations (like camping, backpacking, safety, and more.)

Saturday September 12: Coffee and Chill End of Summer Party (LIC), 11AM, $37

Coffee and Chill is a series of sober morning parties that include a ton of wellness activations, like cold plunges, a workout, protein shakes, foot/gait analyses. We’ve been to one of them this past winter, and the vibe was a bit too biohacking finance bro-y for us, BUT this one grants you pool access to Summer Club for the day.

Sunday September 13: U - GO Session 002 Athletic Strength and Conditioning Class (Williamsburg), 12PM, $35

With all the talk of unfair trainer pay from big studios like Barry’s, we love to see trainers go independent and carve their own path in the fitness world. Recently, Ugo Peter-Obiagwu did just that and his first class at the Dime was totally packed. He’s a talented trainer who brings high energy, great music, and creative, legitimately challenging movements.

we think you should know

A couple months ago my friend Brian, an NYC yoga teacher I’ve known since 2011 when I took my 200hr training, invited me to co-teach a retreat in Guatemala. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, imagine this: you go somewhere stunning with a cool group of people brought together by the teachers, do yoga once or twice a day in a shala overlooking the water, eat delicious healthy food, forget all about your phone, reconnect to nature, and remember the simple joy of being alive. So it was an easy yes. Even though I’ll be teaching I’m also craving the reset it will give me.

So here are the details: We’ll be at Villa Sumaya on Lake Atitlan from December 27, 2026 to January 3, 2027. In addition to our daily yoga practices, there will be four ceremonies including a traditional sweat lodge (sauna lovers, have you tried this? I have on several occasions and they were quite memorable)

I’m excited to start the year this way and to be co-teaching with Brian and Paulo, both of whom are incredible teachers with styles that complement my own. The rest of the information is here, feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions.

-Maddie

happenings around town

• On September 26, Strong NY, one of the biggest fitness/wellness festivals, comes back to New York for a very full day of workouts, competitions, and an after party. If you've ever wanted to sample a bunch of NYC's fitness scene without buying 10 different classes, this is basically the speed-dating version of popular gyms like The Pack, The Yard, Gotham Gym, etc. It’s a good opportunity to test all the buzzy trends in wellness (IV therapy, InBody scans, acupunture) and see if you like them yourself. A few of the speakers also caught our eye, like Phil Daru, an athletic trainer I’ve followed on IG for years who works with martial artists. Tickets start at $89 which grants access to the “Vendor Village” but not the workouts/main stage, so we recommend the $165 tier which will get you access to everything.

• Sometimes events fill up too fast for us to include them in this newsletter, and that’s the case with Hike Clerb. This women’s hiking club regularly hosts events like bird watching, hikes, and even a summer camp, but September is already full. Maybe worth following them yourself so you don’t miss out next time the RSVPs go live.

• The Altar, a sauna/cold plunge facility in Flatiron, is now open for morning sessions.

• It’s the last week of the US Open, and you can find parties across the city so you can watch without the influencer drama. One option is Fan Fest, which is ticketed but will have musical guests/celeb appearances and afterparties, but you could also just pop down to Berry Park for a honey deuce. It's women-owned, so that’s where I’d choose to watch the women’s final.

• Athletec News published a piece this week about how, according to data pulled from Sweatpals, dance workouts/workshops are most popular in New York, compared to lifting in LA. Not what I would have expected.

• Enso Pilates in Boerum Hill has $10 community classes sporadically scheduled throughout the week. It seems as if they’re teachers in training. I found this Reddit thread with other discounted classes, including apparent $12 classes at Yoga Agora in Astoria and Spirit Labs in Midtown.

• In late September, 24 The Planet—a 24-mile global walking challenge to support regreening the Earth—comes to New York. It’s not too late to join and start fundraising.

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See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Prior to starting CUL DE SAC, Gabe spent 12 years as a product lead at Google and Stripe building early-stage consumer products. You can read more about his experience building CUL DE SAC and other notes on health, wellness, and culture in More Atoms Less Bits (I’ve read it, and that’s why I desperately wanted him for this series.)

Tell us about your personal approach to taking care of your body?

One of the richest lessons I’ve learned is that my physical health doesn’t live in a silo. Tending to it means tending to my mental, emotional, spiritual and social health as well.

On that note, my approach has evolved over the years from one that largely consists of sporadic bouts of extreme physical endeavors (e.g. running the NYC marathon on 2 weeks of training) to one that prioritizes consistency, diversity of movement, and living in rhythm with the sun.

With zero exception, my morning starts with sunlight. I picked up this habit after a particularly bad bout of insomnia a few years ago. After trying almost every sleep hack/supplement in the feed, I read The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda and was forever changed. The basic premise is that almost every cell in your body runs on a 24-hour clock, and that clock takes its cues from light. Aligning your day to it is one of the most powerful ways to improve your health and vitality.

After my morning walk, the rest of my day is largely governed by this principle. I’ll eat something easy to digest – usually a bowl of oats, maybe some eggs –, and then a pretty varied training week. Two heavy lifts (Monday and Thursday), two cardio days (Tuesday and Friday), one yoga day (Wednesday), and a wild card on Saturday – maybe a long bike ride, maybe a swim, ideally something in the great outdoors. I always have at least one rest day, which I typically spend near a sauna.

I also put a lot of focus on recovery. There’s a common misconception that recovery = doing nothing. Rest is certainly part of it. But recovery is really about doing what’s necessary to help your body heal. Keeping your blood moving, easing sore muscles, doing some breathwork, things like that. Recovery looks different for everyone.

We’re long overdue for a correction on the obsessive focus on metrics and optimization. I get it… I went through a biohacking and Whoop journaling phase. Frankly, when I had the most gadgets, I was the least regulated. These days, recovery for me looks like easy runs, sauna, time in nature, and deep, uninterrupted sleep.

Where do you actually workout, recover, and relax in NYC right now?

In the elements, whenever possible.

Movement: Cardio outside unless dangerous. I try to get at least one of my weekly heavy lifts or yoga sessions in a park. Sure, Equinox is nice, but doing some outdoor calisthenics at the adult fitness center in Tompkins Square Park is free and way better people watching (I’m long overdue for a session s/o ). On weekends, you’ll occasionally find me at Nowadays or LSD on Huron Street. In general, I think the world would be a healthier place if more people looked at deep listening and raving with your friends into the wee hours as wellness.

Recovery: Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront on a recovery run, in a sauna (ideally one that’s wood-fired and outdoors :P), on a cushion at Three Jewels, or on a hike with friends and family (typically Rockefeller State Park where I grew up).

Relax: writing, reading, dozing in and out of consciousness somewhere in a mountain range far far away from New York City. I’m an avid snowboarder and grew up riding in Vermont, so being in the mountains has always been my happy place. I try to escape for a reset at least 2x/year.

You started CUL DE SAC—a pop-up sauna that was most recently in a community garden in the East Village. What was the idea behind it? What do you think it’s adding to (or challenging about) NYC’s existing wellness scene?

CUL DE SAC started as an experiment.

I spent some time in the Nordics last summer and was struck by how sauna and bathing culture are woven into the public infrastructure there. In cities like Copenhagen, Oslo, and Helsinki, saunas are low cost or free utilities – communal gathering hubs built into the city in the way a basketball court or bodega is in New York.

The other thing that struck me is that no one there calls it “wellness.” These are thousand-year-old social and cultural traditions. It’s what people have been using to take care of themselves and others long before a $10T industry existed.

I came back to New York not only craving that, but also questioning what “wellness” even means here. So often it gets peddled at us in the form of $60 cold plunges, a $100 supplement stack, a $300 studio membership. I like to call this big-W wellness: the industry’s manufactured idea of what we need to be well. Sure, some of those things make us feel good, but so does dancing at a rave with your friends, getting lost at a museum for an afternoon, or camping upstate with no service.

CUL DE SAC is a marriage of those threads. It’s our attempt at creating the city’s first outdoor community sauna with a cultural footprint. A place that’s affordable, accessible, and open-ended about what it means to live well. A place where everyone undresses and becomes just a New Yorker sitting next to another New Yorker. For the past 9 months, we’ve been running pop ups transforming the city’s parks and plazas into open-air bathhouses as a way to prove the concept, grow our community, and talk to people about what they actually want from a space like this.

There is a dizzying number of bathhouse and contrast therapy spaces in New York. But heat, cold, water, sound, and movement have always existed – and always will – without any industry. We’re challenging the idea that a place like this is a luxury good, that it has to be indoors, or that it should exist within the silo of what’s commercially considered “wellness.”

What’s in your (metaphoric) gym bag? (ie. the products, gear, etc you use all the time)

I’ve drastically reduced my footprint over the past few years, mostly because I loathe the idea of needing to buy something in order to feel well. I spent way too much time in my twenties building a rigid protocol of supplements, products, gear, wellness hacks, and other esoteric routines to achieve *peak* human performance, whatever that is. These days, the bag is small…

• A good pair of running shoes – Hoka Cliftons (I’m in a very cushy era of my life)

• Light, breathable training gear (I run hot) – a bunch of old Satisfy pieces

• A good mineral-based SPF – Freaks of Nature

• Natural, plastic-free sauna shorts – I basically live in Norse Sauna’s Bambu shorts

• Electrolytes – Trace ZeroLyte (great flavors and not too salty) or LMNT when I’m at CUL DE SAC

• An old pair of wired headphones

What do you do to take time for yourself when life gets overwhelming in the city?

I’m a bit of a broken record at this point, but nature is very grounding for me. If it’s winter time, I’ll try to escape for a weekend in the mountains with my splitboard. If it’s warmer months, I’ll throw something ambient and experimental on the headphones and get on my bike for a long ride to Coney Island. Generally speaking, I’ve found that moving my body and being in nature trends toward panacea territory.

What's the most overrated thing in wellness right now?

Supplements in general are way overhyped. IANAD, and of course there are sound reasons to supplement with different vitamins, minerals, tinctures etc. depending on personal circumstances. But the industry has gone way out of pocket shilling unregulated sugar pills and convincing people they need a fancy “stack” to feel good. Reddit (and increasingly Substack :/) is a minefield for this.

Maybe 8 months ago I stopped taking most of my daily supplements - multivitamin, B-complex, vitamin D+K2, CoQ10, vitamin C, Lactoferrin - and, after a week or two of my body recalibrating, I felt the same. If not better. Now I spend less money and have a way chiller morning without a fistful of rando pills to start my day.

My 2c: ignore the supplement-du-jour and put that energy into natural interventions – sunlight, nutrition, sleep, movement, stress management. Optimization culture is consumerism masquerading as self-improvement.

What song have you had on repeat lately?

I’ve been on more of a Soundcloud kick lately, focusing on deeper, more intentional listening vs. the usual Spotify shuffle. I find the transitions between songs in longer sets to be magical moments where you can not only appreciate the DJ’s technical skills but also discover entirely novel sound experiences through the mashup of different tracks.

Current set on repeat: Eli Escobar’s Romance Mixtape. NY 4EVER <3

Honorable mention: Carpet (F.L.H.P) at CUL DE SAC

What have you found lately—books, newsletters, podcasts, accounts—that have stuck with you and why?

Books: Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson (free link). Pretty foundational and shaped how I think about physical health within the broader context of well-being.

Podcasts: Dharmapunx NYC

Substack: , Sasha Chapin

I spent a few years going really deep with meditation, partly facilitated by a yoga + meditation studio called Three Jewels in the East Village. Someone asked me the other day about my relationship to meditation and my answer was… “estranged.” I want to get better at meditating regularly – I could write endlessly about why – and the algorithms know that. Every now and then I’ll find myself on Substack/Twitter in the depths of esoteric discussion on consciousness and smile at the nuggets of wisdom that somehow find their way to me.

What’s a gym, spot, or trainer in the city that's underrated and deserves more love?

It shocks me that this could be in the realm of gatekeeping but…

The Y. Best value for a gym in the city. Cardio, weight room, swimming pool, and a sauna for $70/month. And there’s one in almost every neighborhood.

New York is notoriously expensive for pretty much everything, but especially fitness and wellness. What would you do to take care of yourself in a day if you only had $40 to spend.

Start the day with a long run in Prospect Park or along the WSH. Around mid-day, a donation-based yoga class at a community garden (Chelsey at Elizabeth Street Gardens or Renata at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden are both wonderful) or some calisthenics at Columbus Park in Chinatown. Late afternoon, a wood-fired sauna + cold plunge session at CUL DE SAC to wind it down. And honorable mention to what Joe Holder has been doing at Seaport – weekly guided outdoor workouts, all waterfront, all FREE.99.

Health and wellness /= spending money. Despite what the algorithm tells you, you do not need to join a fancy membership club or get NAD+ injections to live well.

And at the end of the day, you’ll still have some left over to pay cover at Nowadays.

<3

Also of note this past week, we launched the first of a new Q&A series about the wellness routines of New Yorkers you should know. If you checked it out, we’d love to hear what you liked or any feedback for future editions.

This week: US Open events, a new endeavor from Life Time, and a recap of what we saw from the trail scene at UTMB.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday September 1: Antevasin Move x Good 5K and Conversation (Dumbo), 6PM, donation-based

Antevasin is cool: In a sea of people using “community” as a buzzword, their Move x Good initiative exists to actually inspire conversations about what building community actually means. Tuesday, join for a 5K, followed by conversation with founder/nike coach Maga Villarreal, runner/marketing expert Olga De Andres, and psychotherapist/podcaster Pamela Garcia. Events are donation based, with this one supporting Venezuela and Colombia’s recent earthquake recovery.

Tuesday September 1: Adidas x Jennie Launch Party (LES), 7PM, free

Adidas is hosting a launch party of its new collection with kpop phenom, Jennie, this week at Extra Butter, a sneaker shop in LES. RSVP doesn’t guarantee entry, FYI, but you’ll stay up to date on the info you need to know for your best chance of getting in.

Wednesday September 2: Grind House x Kove Studio Cycle and Recovery Night (Williamsburg), 630PM, $20

We love seeing partnerships between gyms + recovery spaces because that means better deals for you than spending $40 on a single class. Instead, take a 45-minute cycling class at Grind House and follow it up with sauna/cold plunging/compression therapy at Kove for half the price.

Thursday September 3: 2026 OSR Proto Series: OSR1 1-Mile Unsanctioned Race (Midtown) 1AM, $60 race registration

Most of OSR’s unsanctioned race series involve the chaos of navigating an unmarked route through the city to hit certain checkpoints. This one is more straightforward: Run one mile through Midtown as fast as you can. At 1AM. Everyone is running the same route, and most runners will probably be pretty damn speedy. If you want to get involved in the unsanctioned race community, you can also sign up to volunteer.

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Thursday September 3: Ice Cold Club Just Chill With Us (Gowanus), 630PM, $30

Last week we talked about how Ice Cold Club regularly gives away a few spots in their cold plunging series for free to the first few sign ups on Forte. This event has one free spot left at the time of publishing this newsletter. Otherwise it’s ticketed, but worth it for the welcoming crew and rooftop sunset vibes.

Friday September 4: Rooftop Yoga at the Brooklyn Grange (Brooklyn Navy Yard), 830AM, $10+

Good news: The rooftop yoga classes hosted Brooklyn Grange, an urban farm in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, don’t sell out nearly as quickly. Bad news: They’re no longer free. You can book the name-your-price class at a minimum of $10 and spend a Friday morning surrounded by greenery with city skyline views.

Saturday September 5: Goldfinger Track Club Long Run (Brooklyn), 7AM, free

Need some extra motivation to get your long run in this week? (I know I sure do.) Join this all paces long run with GFTC that hits multiple bridges so you can get your hill training in if you’re running New York this fall.

A lil Chamonix recap:

NYC’s fitness scene doesn’t exist in a bubble. That much was clear when I touched down in Chamonix for UTMB this past week. Beyond the mountain backdrop and the ten thousand times I heard “that is not possible” in a French accent, the brands and people who attended the race looked very much like a demographic you could catch walking around Williamsburg on any given day.

For one week, this tiny mountain town (population: 8700, race day pop: 100k) becomes the center of the trail running universe: I watched the crowd go wild under the iconic arch when Ben Dhiman broke the course record for the 107-mile route by over an hour, and when Lauren Gregory pulled ahead in the last mile to win the 37-mile OCC route with Naomi Lang tailing her by only three seconds.

But brands also descend of the town to get in on the action. There were shakeout runs, parties, limited-edition merch, product launches and more “activations” than I could count.

I saw runners decked out in Nike ACG camo fits, Hoka Tecton x 4s with airbrushed flames on the toebox, and oversized, graphic cotton Satisfy tees reading Off-Road Supply. I don’t necessarily think that means those things are trending so much as it shows which brands were most successful at getting their stuff onto people.

I was a trail runner long before I lived in New York, so it’s a little strange to watch the hype-y collision of running and fashion make its way onto the trails. But at the same time, a lot of the running and sportswear trends that we see in the city start in trail culture and trickle down. Pit Viper brought back Y2K wraparound, bug-eyed shades years before people started snatching up vintage Oakleys on DePop, and Salomon’s rugged trail running sneaker inspired an entire aesthetic of streetwear that continues today.

At this point, it’s hard to tell which way the influence is actually flowing now (or if we’re all just in one big Instagram feedback loop.) I just hope the trail love gives city runners permission to stop hating on running vests now.

happenings around town

• If you want to continue the summer of sport and watch the US Open on a big screen, head on down to Hudson Yards where there’s a weeklong public fan zone. They will have evening DJ sets and the iconic (ie. notorious) Honey Deuce cocktail available for $22.

• Life Time is launching a new invite-only social club, Life Time Social (waitlist open for members on the app.) It’s another example of the increasingly blurry line between working out and going out: Lifestyle brands are moving into wellness, while fitness brands are trying to own more of your social life.

• SharkNinja and Who What Wear are hosting a pop-up—The Serve—to capitalize on the US Open energy. It’s open Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 6PM, with hairstyle stations, a skincare lounge, and a slushi bar.

• Former Solidcore coach and The Class instructor James Crawford Barnett is opening his own reformer pilates studio, TerraCut Studio, in the East Village. Preview classes start on September 8th.

• You can still sign up for unsanctioned hybrid fitness competition, Urban Iron, on September 13th. Hit three gyms (in the right order), perform a short circuit at each, and accumulate about 8 miles of running in between them. Like all good NYC fitness events, there’s a recovery party at the finish line.

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meanwhile…

I wish I never had to write the word activation again.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Meet Kennyth “Ken” Montes de Oca: the founder of Ken Pilates, a boutique spring-resistance Pilates brand which began in a second bedroom during the pandemic. In the often overly-homogenous NYC fitness—and especially pilates—scene (sorry but you know it’s true), Ken Pilates is a BIPOC and queer-owned studio with a devoted, diverse community.

The business has grown: Ken has two locations in Hoboken, plus he’s opening a Manhattan flagship in Chelsea in September. He is the creator of the SpringSculpt™ method, which teaches contemporary, three-dimensional movement on the Pilates Tower/Springboard. (We need to try this!) And he has strong thoughts about the reformer, which has dominated the pilates scene in the last few years.

A movement professional, dancer, and artist, Ken has been teaching group fitness since 2017. He has performed with Ballet Hispánico’s BHdos and OCA Dance, with credits including the Joyce Theater. Ken also co-produces Hoboken Dance Fest and serves on Hoboken’s arts advisory committee and business alliance.

1. Tell us about your personal approach to taking care of your body?

I like water. This might sound obvious, but we need water. What I like about water, in theory, is how clear it is. It helps me clear my mind. It helps me clear my body. So I like to hydrate a lot. I like to go to the beach, take a shower, do a cold plunge. Water is healing, and sometimes just being near a body of water, I can feel my body resetting in real time. It connects to where I’m from. I’m from the Dominican Republic. The beach wasn’t that far away from me growing up.

In Pilates, we talk a lot about alignment of the body, and sometimes that can be anxiety-inducing… to feel like everything has to be in the right place at all times in order to feel great. But at the end of the day, if you find alignment, you will find flow. I think that life is all about flowing, and if there’s something that gives us the biggest lesson on what flowing is, it’s water.

That even goes to how I sequence for clients. It’s about how it flows. Like in yoga, getting lost in a vinyasa flow can be meditative and physically empowering. Being able to flow, like water, is how I approach taking my body every day.

2. Where do you actually workout, recover, and relax in NYC right now?

I’m loving the bathhouse culture booming in the city! I love Bathhouse for a long day; I switch between working on my computer at the in-house cafe and hopping into a sauna.

Othership is fantastic for a quick sauna and cold plunge session in between meetings.

I love Restore because it’s a one-stop shop place for recovery. I love compression boots, and I’m quick for an IV. (Actually, an IV sounds great right now…) I love places that have it all.

I’m really looking forward to Furoya opening on 13th and 6th, right next to Ken Pilates NYC.

And, all that said, I’m still a Hoboken girlie, and many of my workouts are in the Mile Square. I love Real Hot Yoga, Project Sculpt, and my own instructors at Ken Pilates Hoboken.

3. What’s in your (metaphoric) gym bag?

A workout journal; a Burga Canary Yellow Water Bottle; LMNT electrolyte packets; a crystal (the specific type depends on my mood); Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 and Dior Homme Cologne; a pair of grip socks; and ATOBARRIER365 Hydrating Milky Cream Mist (it’s life changing - I carry it everywhere).

4. You opened your studio, Ken Pilates in Hoboken and you’re soon expanding into Chelsea. What is the importance of BIPOC, queer-owned businesses in NYC’s current fitness and wellness scene?

When I opened my first studio in Hoboken, it was out of survival. During the pandemic, I lost my fitness job and my dancing job. I moved to Hoboken to reduce costs, and I taught Pilates on Instagram Live, on Zoom, and on a Reformer in my second bedroom. It was never my goal to grow this big. But it really showed that creating empowering spaces for people was in demand.

I have loved seeing the Ken Pilates studio become what it is. The growth has felt so organic and true to who we are. Some of my favorite memories at Ken Pilates don’t even involve fitness: we’ve hosted queer comedy night, book club, bachata night, outdoor socials in our studio garden. Over the years, I’ve found that our studio is most successful when we produce events based on community. Whereas I feel like in NYC, a lot of fitness programming can feel capitalistic and artificial, leaving clients to search for that sense of community somewhere else. I want my space to be that somewhere else.

The importance of me building this business my way is because there’s somebody out there that looks like me, that feels like me, that wants to feel empowered and have access to community. Wellness is a billion-dollar industry. But Google it for five minutes and it’s pretty clear who that industry is being built for. Just how I love to give access to their body, I also love to give people access to dream and feel a sense of life. Even Joseph Pilates acknowledged that this practice is a “return to life.”

Building it my way also meant not building it on a Reformer. In Hoboken we have two spaces: a private studio where we do one-on-one training, and our group studio on Washington Street (one room, 15 people, all on the Pilates Springboard). The Springboard gives you the springs and the mat at the same time, so we can move three-dimensionally and teach a contemporary style instead of only classical. Fewer spring changes, more flow, a much bigger repertoire. That’s SpringSculpt, and it exists because I was a dancer long before I was an instructor.

Chelsea is that same idea with room to breathe. Three rooms at 541 Sixth Avenue: a private studio, a hot room for heated classes (sculpt, Pilates, strength, dance), and a Tower Room where we’re taking SpringSculpt to the next level. Everybody gets real space, their own station of props and weights, and a class that moves the way we actually move.

I’ll be honest, though: it has taken us almost two years to get here. Two years of the DOB, architects, contractors, mega landlords, brand designers. We are still legally a small business trying to do big things, and the red tape teaches you discipline whether you asked for the lesson or not. Which… fine. I do teach alignment for a living.

I see this expansion as an opportunity to shake up the industry. I want to show all the work we’ve put in to create an empowering space for Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ people. My goal for the company is for other people to find success from within.

5. What do you do to take time for yourself when life gets overwhelming in the city?

Honestly, watching live theater and concert dance. I recently saw Philadanco at The Joyce. They brought so much joy to the stage, and you can feel the energy of the City of Philadelphia and its vibrancy. I felt like I vacationed just by going to a show. When life is overwhelming, I like to feel like a tourist.

But really, whatever the art form is, I search for active acts of presence. In this day and age of AI and technology, it’s healing to see people be real and genuine, and doing what they love with passion and authenticity.

I’m also involved in Soulskin Dance Company, and this is another way I can shut off my brain and turn off my phone. My castmates in that company are all teachers of somatic practices. I like that we all get to share that with each other. What I like about it the most is that every performer in there is there for the same reason. It’s our time to make art. We can put all this information we know about our bodies into something real and can make people feel something.

6. What’s the most overrated thing in wellness right now?

I hope I don’t regret saying this… Reformer Pilates. I love it… but it’s overrated.

And this is coming from someone who has been teaching on that apparatus since 2017. It’s how I learned. It’s literally what was in my second bedroom.

I only say this because the Pilates industry is growing rapidly right now, and this one apparatus has a chokehold on it. And it’s changing how the industry works. It’s no secret that some studios will hire an instructor after one weekend of training. Clients feel it, and studios feel it, too.

To be fair, there are a lot of people who are creative on the Reformer, and kudos to those instructors. I love people who challenge the limits of the apparatus by being intuitive and incorporating different somatic practices in one class. Those are the classes I love to take. People who aren’t afraid to move in different planes of motion, incorporating the principles of Joseph but trying new ways to use the equipment.

It’s also exactly why we built our group studio on the Pilates Springboard instead (springs and mat at once, three-dimensional movement, fewer spring changes, more flow). And why Chelsea is getting a whole Tower Room.

So from the client side: don’t be scared of the rest of the equipment. If you really want your ass kicked, try the Pilates Chair. Or test your alignment by booking a private on the Pilates Cadillac. Treat yourself to a class on the Pilates Tower, or take a chance on the Pilates Springboard.

Like… girl! There is a whole system of apparatus out here and the industry is behaving like there’s one. I’m not trying to run a basic b*tch studio.

7. What song have you had on repeat lately?

4 Minutes by Madonna.

It’s literally a manifestation song. “If you want it / You already got it / If you thought it / It better be what you want.”

Confessions II has been on in the studio all summer and it sent me straight back into her catalog. She’s done the work. She still does the work.

Madonna pushes the industry by being bold, and that boldness has meant something real for the LGBTQ community. She disrupts, and then everybody else catches up. That’s the career I want.

8. What have you found lately—books, newsletters, podcasts, accounts—that have stuck with you and why?

These aren’t really fitness related (lol), but they’ve stuck with me:

Ryan Walker. He creates high-quality travel review videos. I’m so busy, I feel like I’m traveling with him.

The Art of the Brand. As I’ve been growing my own brand, I’m obsessed with hearing different perspectives on how people build theirs.

Lushious Massacr. She makes me laugh whenever I need it most!

9. What’s a gym, spot, or trainer in the city that’s underrated and deserves more love?

The adult dance classes at Gibney, Ailey, and Ballet Hispánico, just to name a few. Dance is fitness. Dance is joy. I’m a professional dancer, and dance is what lets me move my body in different ways, which is what fitness is all about. If you are a non-dancer, I recommend it!

Many of these spaces are non-profits, too, so it’s a great way to support the arts.

10. New York is notoriously expensive for pretty much everything, but especially fitness and wellness. What would you do to take care of yourself in a day if you only had $40 to spend.

$40 = 3 dirty martinis and a walk on the High Line

…Okay, the honest version: a drop-in adult dance class and the biggest bottle of water I can find. Movement and water. It’s always movement and water.

Thanks for reading, we hope you found some little nuggets to bring into your own life. Have someone you think would be a great fit for this series? Send us an email!

<3

This week: A new app that tracks which blocks you’ve walked, a free run club led by Dan Churchill, and a new workout series from a former AARMY coach.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday August 24: Ice Cold Club Breathe and Flow Ritual (Williamsburg), 630PM, $30

Yesterday, I stopped by the gorgeous rooftop garden of The Dime where Lauren Schramm holds her Ice Cold Club. This event is a guided session of breathwork and then plunging led by Jen Frodsham, and what’s even cooler is that for all of their events, they have three to five free slots before they start ticketing, so if you pay enough attention to Forte, you may eventually snag one of these spots.

Wednesday August 26: Crew Love with World’s Fair Run Crew, Mile Style, and Hoka (Midtown), 7PM, free

Two cool run clubs—Queens-based WRFC and Bronx-based Mile Style—are joining forces to host a run club out of the Hoka Flagship store in Midtown this Wednesday. You can demo some Hoka shoes and stick around for light bites.

Friday August 28: The Morning Disconnect (NoMad), 730AM, $25

This price is sort of a steal for an outdoor boxing workout from Stable House plus recovery at the intimate, “speakeasy-style” Finnish sauna and ice bath Elahni. Sounds like a good way to spend a Friday morning before work.

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Saturday August 29: Nike Who Runs NYC? Street Race (LES), 12PM, free

All week I’ve seen the news about Nike hosting a street race, and the winner gets a month of rent paid for. Unfortunately, the race is already full (so unless you’re already registered you can’t race for a chance at the prize), but you can head down to Orchard Street to spectate. If I was in town, I’d definitely go cheer and dance to the DJ sets.

Saturday August 29: The Yard Williamsburg Community Session (Williamsburg), 850AM or 10AM, free

The Yard, an Australian-based group strength and conditioning gym with a location in Williamsburg, is a great place to learn compound barbell lifts alongside hybrid style movements, like wall balls and ski erg. Their Saturday “Pay Day” sessions are free and open to the public so you can check out what their community is like without paying a drop in fee.

Saturday August 29: Love All Street Open Tennis Event (Elmhurst), 2PM, free

Get into the U.S. Open vibe with tennis clinics and competitions at this block party event through All Love Racquet Club, in partnership with Jordan for the brand’s new tennis collection. There’s both kids and adults programming (the latter starts around 4:30PM). Tennis is for everyone!

Sunday August 30: Force of Nature Athletic Club (Flatiron), 730AM, free

Head to the On flagship store for a fun morning with Force of Nature Meats including a 5k or 10k run led by hybrid athlete/chef Dan Churchill, coffee and breakfast tacos, and a panel about fueling for performance/recovery. RSVP in advance!

happenings around town

• On Sunday, Ugo Peter-Obiagwu, a former AARMY coach who stepped away from the gym this summer to do his own thing, hosted his first workout session of his new I Go U Go series. I attended, and man, the class kicked my ass. (I’m bad at anything involving muscular endurance—high reps, low weight is my personal hell.) He programmed mostly fast-paced strength and conditioning using just a few resistance bands (I was surprised at how hard he could make it just using bands) with a little boxing sprinkled in, all to the rhythm of Afrobeats. It’s definitely geared toward a more advanced exerciser: There aren’t a ton of form cues and it moves quickly. It’s similar to AARMY’s bootcamp classes but with a much more welcoming and fun atmosphere. Excited to see what’s next for Session 002 in a couple of weeks.

• There’s a fascinating debate going on about whether or not a little plaza outside of Guastavino’s, a private event space on E 59th St and 1st Ave, is actually public property. Apparently, its lease with the city says it is public space, but the business has been kicking out people who hang out there. Guastavino’s also appears to have deactivated its social media, presumably after getting flooded with negative comments. Time for a picnic?

• I’m the type of person who wants my Strava heat map to be outlined with orange across every block in NYC (peep my progress below), so I’m delighted to see this new Walk NYC app that automatically tracks each block you walk without you having to start an activity. It functions like the pedometer on your phone. My completely unnecessary quest to walk/run every street in New York just got easier.

  

• Moss, a members-only club that opened in Midtown this past December, has an “aquatics and athletics” club downstairs called Bedrock, complete with a bathhouse, vintage-inspired gym, pickleball courts, and spa treatments. I visited this past week and it was one of the most peaceful places I’ve been in NYC—only saw a handful of other folks in my 6+ hours there.

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meanwhile…

For the past few months, there’s been a growing conversation about whether the boutique fitness model actually works for the coaches. The topic has picked up steam after news circulated about Barry’s non-compete policy for some instructors: If trainers only work pay-per-class and don’t have full time/benefits options through a single studio, but are also limited in where else they can teach, it becomes pretty difficult (ok, actually wildly difficult) to make fitness a sustainable career.

This post offers an interesting perspective on that, and gets at another idea I think about a lot: Stringing together a bunch of random classes at a bunch of different gyms (which the current model encourages) might be fun, but it isn’t necessarily training. If your goal is to actually get stronger, faster, or better at something, progression and consistency matter. And for that, it helps to have one good coach who you love.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Some fun news this week:

We’re giving one subscriber a pair of the new Saucony Paramount Max.

I’ve been living in this new pillowy, max cushion running shoe for nearly all my runs, so we were stoked when Saucony asked us if we wanted to partner to give away a pair to one person in our Rundown NYC family. We think you’ll love them: They have a fun 2000s sneaker look that we haven’t seen in a performance shoe before, and they’re also very soft yet decently speedy. Great for easy runs.

You’ll have to fill out the Google form to enter. Want an extra entry? Send it to a friend. If they subscribe + enter, have them put your name in the referral field.

ENTER HERE!*

^{*Must be subscribed to win. Love you. We’ll email the winner on Thursday AM!}

This week: Organized trail runs, a free boxing class, and a firsthand account of a failed activation from a new fitness dating app.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday August 18: Usal NYC Run Crew Trail Run (Prospect Park), 7PM, free

The third Tuesday of every month (aka this Tuesday), cool kid group Usal hosts a 4.5-mile trail run winding through Prospect Park’s forests and along the lake. I’ve somehow never figured out how to string together that many miles of actual trail in Prospect Park, so even if I can’t make it, I’ll be stealing their Strava route.

Tuesday August 18: Soft Bar x Crunch Chisel + Happy Hour (Chelsea), 6PM, free

Soft Bar has been showing up in so many fitness collabs lately, and next up is Crunch. I just visited the Chelsea location this week for a leg day and to check out their recovery room, and it’s a very nice gym with high ceilings for the neighborhood! After a special 40-minute workout, there will be an NA happy hour from the team at Soft Bar.

Thursday August 20: Mind Reset Yoga Class (Williamsburg), 6PM, free

A beginner-friendly yoga class set to a bossa nova soundtrack, with Caipirinhas post-sweat? Ok cool! It’ll be at Mother HQ in Brooklyn, and based on their retrofuturistic IG aesthetic, I’m itching to see what the space looks like.

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Saturday August 22: Hike Clerb Staten Island Kayaking with Merrell (Staten Island), 10AM, free

Usually we don’t include sold out events, but it may be worth joining the waitlist for this free kayaking excursion from Hike Clerb and shoe brand Merrell (who is actually walking the walk in terms of outdoor inclusivity more than any other brand, IMO).

Saturday August 22: Walk The Length of Manhattan (Manhattan), 10AM, free

The other day a girl asked me who on earth would spend their time browsing Partiful. (She didn’t know I write this newsletter.) But gotta say, there are some weird and wonderful events on there, like this invite to walk the length of Manhattan, which has over 1300 RSVPs. It’s hosted by Comet Sports Club, the team that hosted the childhood nightmare-inducing pacer test in Central Park a few weekends ago.

Saturday August 22: Dirt City Brooklyn Connector (Brooklyn), 730AM, $20

Prospect Park gets all the attention, but Brooklyn has way more trail than people realize. Miler Running’s Dirt City series is hosting long runs (three different length options), and the longest takes you from Fort Greene, down to Prospect Park, over to Highland Park, through the trails at Forest Park, and ends at a brewery in Ridgewood. There will be aid stations, and the registration fee is donated to Natural Areas Conservancy, a local environmental nonprofit that champions urban natural areas in New York City.

Sunday August 23: Sunday Social Bike Ride (Queens), 9AM, free

Le Tour de Queens is hosting a 19-mile social bike ride that takes you across three boroughs with a chill crew. It’s open to all bikes and all experience levels, so it’s a great opportunity for people who want to get more confident with city cycling.

Sunday August 23: Ice Cold Club Yoga to Plunge (Williamsburg), 10AM, $30

A rooftop vinyasa flow followed by a guided cold plunge sounds like a good way to spend a Sunday morning. Cold plunge guide Lauren Schramm has such great energy that she could possibly get me to take a dunk, even though its my worst nightmare.

Sunday August 23: Sunday Boxing Club (Hudson River Park), 10AM, free

Boxing was my first true fitness love (I did it for 6 years but just can’t seem to find a gym close enough to me that I like here….open to suggestions), and I always recommend it for anyone who wants to get some cardio while learning a valuable skill. It’s fun and totally engrossing! But boxing gyms can also be intimidating (if not off-putting) energy, so this park class with Sunday Boxing Club/Candace Alai seems like a great intro.

happenings around town

• Summer Streets comes to Brooklyn and the Bronx this Saturday. Eastern Parkway will be closed to cars for 2.5 miles from Grand Army Plaza to Buffalo Ave in Crown Heights. In the Bronx, you can run/walk/bike Grand Concourse between East Tremont Avenue and Mosholu Parkway.

• had a great write-up this past week about the car crash that destroyed Noir Yoga’s soon-to-be-open new studio space. The team had just finished renovations the week of the crash, and will now have to rebuild once approved by the Department of Buildings. Stoked to hear it will have a garden area for outdoor classes.

• Don’t be surprised if you continue to see the ancient practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) show up everywhere. Last year, ear seeding had a moment (including at Remedy Place), and now wellness center 113 Spring has energy mapping sessions at their Qi Bar, and Service95 just published a piece about Shanghai’s “punk wellness” TCM scene. As The Cut covered back in February, all this newfound cool-factor comes with a predictable downside: people with little connection to—or understanding of—the tradition are bound to start repackaging it for the wellness crowd.

• The Center for Archaic Networks is starting a series of week-long, tech-free residencies (yes, that means no WiFi, no phone, no computer) upstate this winter. Prices are pretty affordable right now ($400/week), and residents can choose how they want to spend their time, whether that be on the typewriter, learning an instrument, joining a work session, or in conversation with one of the three others staying at the same time.

• Urban Iron—the hybrid, unsanctioned race where you run 8 miles, stopping at three gyms to workout along the way—just announced they’re expanding to LA after success in NYC, Chicago, and Austin. The NYC race will be September 13th, and you can still sign-up.

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See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

This week, I rearranged my room and I will say it was one of my favorite activities for my mental wellness in the last month. That, and a library card.

Wellness for me lately also looked like skipping my long run, resting my body, and lounging at the pool/learning Mahjong for the launch of Premier Protein’s new sparkling sodas. (Grapefruit is actually good and not chalky, I wouldn’t lead you astray.)

This week: A new fitness dating app concept event, a ladies’ run/cold plunge, and an interactive art/sports installation at Rockaway Beach.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday August 11: Soft Bar x Emergen-C The Drink of Summer (Williamsburg), 5PM, free

Ok, I really hate that they used AI to make this poster (Emergen-C is a giant brand! Pay someone!) but this is a cute idea and an excuse to go drink some mocktails in a beautiful NA bar in Williamsburg. We love to see more brand events like this open to the public rather than just media/influencers.

Tuesday August 11: Young Savage Fitness Queer Workout Class (LES), 7PM, $25

Standard gyms aren’t always welcoming/inclusive spaces, but this one hour all-levels strength and conditioning class is. Hosted by nonbinary trainer Liana G, this class will teach you the basics of resistance training, or if you’re already experienced, give you a fun, supportive environment to practice.

Wednesday August 12: Reckless Run Crew x Ice Cold Club Run to Plunge Ladies Night (Williamsburg), 630PM, free

For the girls: A run club and recovery night just for you in this partnership between Reckless Run Crew and Ice Cold Club. It’s supposed to be nearly 85 degrees on Wednesday, so a post 5k ice bath doesn’t sound half bad.

Wednesday August 12: Leg Day’s West Side Highway Run-In (West Side Highway), 6PM, free

We reported on Leg Day—a new fitness-based dating app that so far is only available for Equinox users at select gyms—a few weeks ago, and now they’re hosting an “open event” where you download the app, walk/run on the West Side Highway during certain hours, and have the opportunity to connect with other people in the area on the app. If you match, you’ll be invited to a post-run event. Just keep in mind with over 2500 RSVPs, this is NOT an organized run.

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Friday August 14: Crust by Carson x Motto Run Club (Chelsea) 8AM, free

When I was writing a piece for GQ about why I’m going to eat more carbs this year, my editor put me on to baking and running influencer Crust by Carson. He’s hosting a run club in partnership with Motto (a hotel in Chelsea), where they’ll end the run with breakfast and coffee.

Saturday August 15: Free Peace Awake NY Meditation Club (LES), 9AM, free

What better way to start your Saturday morning than with a meditation/breathwork session led by Kenji Summers set to music from a New York artist.

Saturday August 15: Outsiders Caribbean Bike Ride (Manhattan), 12PM, $25

Starting at Columbus Circle, this 22-mile route into Brooklyn stops at Caribbean-owned small food businesses along the route to give you a taste of the best oxtail, jerk chicken, and patties in the city. Ticket doesn’t include food costs, and if you don’t have a bike, rentals are available at the starting location.

Saturday August 15: Street Lights NYC Adult Recess (Murray Hill), 4PM, free

We absolutely love the idea of this event: “Play til the street lights come on.” They’ll be playing childhood favs like freeze tag, double dutch, and dodgeball, and stress that it’s not about networking or fitness, it’s about play as a fundamental human experience.

Sunday August 16: Skyline Sculpt with Claudette (SoHo), 745AM, $35

We’re not usually a huge fan of sculpt workouts (because they’re often marketed as strength training when they’re not), but set in a gorgeous location (ModernHaus rooftop) and led by an instructor we trust, Claudette Sariya, this seems like a great way to start your Sunday morning.

happenings around town

• Narc NYC (Not a Run Club), ATEAM, and Snow Peak are teaming up to host the NARC Nature Camp on September 18 through 20th. The weekend will be at a dreamy farm in the Catskills for three nights and two days (transportation and tents provided) where you’ll have the opportunity to learn how to camp, hike, trail run, swim. It’s sold out with a waitlist, but ATEAM is having a giveaway for tickets so maybe its worth signing up now.

• Kula Yoga Project in Williamsburg is now on ClassPass. I have mixed feelings about this after having seen Classpass’s long term negative impact on studios. But in a market as saturated as New York is, it’s hard to stay visible without being on their platform. And despite being one of the oldest and most established studios in New York, Kula somehow feels like a secret that you’re only in on if you’ve been practicing for a long time or were lucky enough to hear about it through a friend. It’s where you go if you want to learn yoga well rather than just dabble. Even as a teacher, every time I take class there I learn something new or feel a detail I’ve never felt. I’d love for newer yogis to experience us and I’m optimistic that the move to Classpass can facilitate that.

• The US Open Tennis Championships are coming to NY, and it’s fan week August 23 through 29th. Even if you don’t have tickets to the tournament, you can watch players practice and catch qualifying matches for free before the main events.

• If you find yourself in the Rockaways at some point, head to Beach 67 and check out this art installation of playable, sculptural art ping pong tables from six different artists. You can borrow paddles/balls for free on the weekends, but weekdays you’ll have to bring your own.

• Last week, reported that Brooklyn is getting yet another wellness club, teased via a cryptic, artsy website and job listings promising “a new kind of third space.” (Never heard that one before.) Add that to the equally mysterious Marshlands slated to open a “sanctuary” in DUMBO in 2027. How many saunas, cold plunges, and vaguely defined opportunities for connection can one borough sustain?

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meanwhile,

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

This week: Run clubs with shoe demos, free Central Park family camping, and a field day in the park.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday August 4: Vivobarefoot x Othership Runner’s Night (Williamsburg), 8PM, $35

Sauna/cold plunge space Othership usually costs over $60 for a single session, but this monthly collaboration with barefoot shoe brand Vivobarefoot gets you in for nearly half the price. Join the free 5K beforehand if you just want the run, or stick around afterward for sauna, cold plunge, and a social hour.

Tuesday August 4: The Crate Run Club Track Tuesdays with Adidas (Jamaica), 7PM, free

Track workouts are more fun with a crew, and while Williamsburg is packed with run clubs, there aren’t too many options in other neighborhoods, especially Jamaica, Queens. This week, The Crate Run Club is teaming up with adidas so runners can demo the brand’s most popular supershoe, the Adios Pro 4.

Wednesday August 5: Pétanque at Washington Square Park (Greenwich Village), 12PM - 3PM, free

If you’re the type of person that likes to collect new experiences, well here’s your chance to try a new activity: Pétanque, a French lawn bowling game that dates back to the early 20th century. Every Wednesday in August, you can learn from experts at Washington Square Park.

Wednesday August 5: Reckless Run Crew x Urban Iron at Ray’s (Williamsburg), 645PM, free

Reckless Run Crew has one of the coolest aesthetics in the oversaturated market, and they host a monthly run from Ray’s in Williamsburg. There’s free food (nachos!) and drink specials. But this month they’re also teaming up with Urban Iron, a hybrid race where athletes run between some of NYC’s iconic gyms and complete a workout at each. Show up and run for the chance to win two tickets for the September race.

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Thursday August 6: Outdoor F45 Pop-Up (Dumbo), 7PM, free

Thinking about signing up for Hyrox? This is a free way to try one of Hyrox's official training partners—F45—before committing to a membership. Head down to the turf on Pier 2 for a fun outdoor “bootcamp” (as much as we hate that word) style workout with F45 Dumbo. Don’t expect sled pushes or ski ergs at this class, but it’s a good way to suss out the instructor and vibe of the gym.

Saturday August 8: Summer Streets Manhattan (Manhattan), 7AM - 3PM, free

If you sadly missed last Saturday’s summer streets (like me), don’t sleep on it this week. From 7AM to 3PM, you can run, bike, dance, walk your way from Inwood to Brooklyn Bridge on car-free streets. This year I’m planning to run less so I can actually stop and enjoy more of the activities along the route.

Sunday August 9: Peak and Pace Field Day (Prospect Park), 3PM, $10

Tap into childhood with a fun field day hosted by run club community Peak and Pace. You can expect all the classics like tug-of-war, sack racing, capture the flag, kickball.

happenings around town

• CityPickle is opening a new space with 11 courts and food trucks in Anchorage Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge, which led me into a research rabbit hole. Pickleball courts are going for $90/hour+ rentals in NYC? This is absurd. You can get around this pricing by joining in on their $5 community play hours, of which there are many at Wollman Rink this week because of a partnership with Blackstone.

• Summer of sports isn’t over!! Here’s a niche one: The 2026 Ocean Race Atlantic, a transatlantic high-speed sailing race, On September 1, six mixed-gender teams will launch from the East River and race high-speed carbon fiber sailboats all the way to Lorient, France. You’ll be able to watch them sail beneath the Brooklyn Bridge as one of offshore racing’s biggest events kicks off.

• Every year, NYC Parks opens up free camping for families in urban parks like Central Park and Blue Heron Nature Center in Staten Island, and although they’re wildly popular, it’s worth throwing your name in, because the lottery registration opens for some dates today (and each subsequent Monday.)

• Planet Fitness offers a High School Summer Pass program, where teens aged 14 - 19 can work out for free until August 31st. Personally, a deterrent to join this gym, but great news for parents. Some locations even offer free personal training.

• I never thought I’d say it, but golf keeps creeping further into cool-kid culture. The latest example is Hypebeast’s Hypegolf NYC Clubhouse in SoHo running through August 19th. They say it is “designed as a place to practice, explore new equipment, discover emerging brands and connect with the golf community.” The Wall Street Journal recently reported on golf’s growth for younger generations.

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meanwhile, online:

The creator of Hot Girl Walk is in the middle of a trademark battle over the phrase, sending cease-and-desists to small run clubs and independent meetups. I gasped when I heard her claim that before COVID, "walking only existed as the post-dinner thing your mom made you do."

That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

Know someone who'd love this newsletter? Forward it their way.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Before heading out of town, I stopped by Saucony’s pop-up at Soft Bar, a non-alcoholic bar, for a run led by fellow journo and trainer to test out the new Paramount Max shoes, a delightfully marshmallowy shoe with a wide base for a super stable feel. I’ve been wearing them for every run this week. The partnership goes through Wednesday, so check out Saucony’s Forte page for specifics.

This week: Lots of beginner-friendly run clubs, the BKLYN Mile race, and a summer pick-up kickball game.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday July 27: Seaport Fit x Joe Holder We Move NYC Series (Seaport), 6PM, free

Runners often love to skip strength training or any type of work that helps with injury prevention, so we love the idea behind this free “Run Strong” workout class from Joe Holder. Expect cross training, prehab, strength movements to prepare you to ramp up the mileage.

Wednesday July 29: Mornings in Motion x On Group Run (Williamsburg), 615PM, free

Women’s-only movement collective Mornings in Motion is teaming up with running shoe brand On for a 4-mile run or 1.5-mile walk. You’ll have the chance to demo shoes, too, if you want. As with most run clubs these days, there will be complimentary bevs from Hint water.

Wednesday July 29: WTHN UES: A Night of Mind, Body, and Community (UES), 630PM, $5 - 15

WTHN, a wellness boutique rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, recently opened a new studio on the Upper East Side, and this event is a great introduction to their offerings: acupuncture, ear seeding, coaching prompts. Suggested ticket price is $15, but minimum is $5.

Wednesday July 29: Here & Now: A Phone-Free Experience (Williamsburg), 630PM, $25

Kanso is back with another phone-free experience (because some of us need to be forced to stop scrolling), this time with a jazz band backdrop on the gorgeous patio at FourFixSix cocktail bar. You’ll check your phone at the door and rotate through conversations, for which they’ll provide prompts. We love their premise that in the world of AI, “human connection is the new luxury.”

Wednesday July 29: Cannavita Yoga Night (Astoria), 730PM, free

1, Ya’ll love a free yoga class (we check the most clicked links for each newsletter to better align with what you guys are digging) and 2, dispensaries have been getting in on the wellness action lately, which is a fun evolution. We can’t personally vouch for the quality of the teacher, but Cannavita has done a solid job partnering with other local Astoria wellness businesses + practitioners.

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Saturday August 1: F45 x WEL Burn and Brunch (Dumbo), 1130AM, $20

Bless whoever decided this workout didn't need to start at 7. (Not an early AM workout girl over here….) Circuit training gym F45 is hosting a 60-minute, full-body strength and cardio workout, with light bites like oatmeal bites and a peach matcha refresher after. Not quite brunch in the classic term, but we still think the price is fair.

Saturday August 1: Gorp Girls Hike Club with Ursa Major (Van Cortland Park), 1030AM, $15

Cutie girl group Gorp Girls—who also has branches in Tokyo and LA—is hosting an urban hike up in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. Go touch grass on a four-mile easy hike with other people who love nature!

Saturday August 1: BKLYN Mile Shakeout Run by Hoka (Williamsburg), 10AM, free

Race weekend is upon us, and even if you’re not participating in the iconic BKLYN Mile race, you can join in the energy for a casual shakeout run from Brooklyn Running Co. If you’re planning to race next year, it could be an opportunity to scout out the course.

Sunday August 2: Slow Girl Run Club x Hungry Llama x WEL (Meatpacking), 9AM, free

If you’ve been thinking about joining a run club but want something a bit more beginner-friendly, this one’s perfect. It’s a two mile route and all paces are welcome. Stay for mocktails, coffee, hang outs.

Sunday August 2: Brooklyn Summer Kickball (Williamsburg), 1245PM, free

Summer isn't complete without at least one kickball game. The league is usually sold out, but they're opening this pickup game to anyone. Seems like a fun group, as they go drink frozen margs after the game.

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happenings around town

• This past Wednesday at The Edge, adidas hosted one of the wildest product launch performances we’ve seen for the new Originals Sport collection, a women’s training/lifestyle line. A group of aerialists dangled on ropes on the side of the mirrored building and seemed to defy gravity as they ran horizontal and tossed each other in the air. As a former climber who’s spent a decent bit of time rappelling, the level of control and grace was gorgeous to watch.

• Summer Streets, where the city closes major streets so they’re pedestrian-only, is one of the best parts about summer. And one of our favorite routes returns this Saturday: From 7AM to 3PM, you can frolic from the Brooklyn Bridge, down Park Ave, all the way up Broadway to Dyckman Street in Inwood without worrying about cars. Last year, I stopped for free donuts at the Great Lawn rest stop by Grand Central and watched a mariachi band on a side street. Maybe a good chance to check out the Met Cloisters while you’re up there.

• The BKLYN MILE—a one mile race along Kent Ave in Williamsburg—is this Sunday. Even if you’re not registered, it should be a good time to spectate.

• Luxury gyms aren’t the only ones adding recovery facilities. Crunch, known for their group fitness, recently introduced a new Relax & Recover space to their Chelsea location, included with the standard membership, which will run you about $120 a month. You won’t get the same aesthetic as a pricey wellness space, but there are pod-style red light saunas, massage beds, and a dry cold plunge?? We're honestly not sure what a dry cold plunge is either, so we'll report back.

• Ton Pilates, an infrared reformer Pilates studio in Astoria, opened in early July. The studio heats the room with infrared panels, making the workout noticeably warmer than a traditional reformer class. They have a three class intro deal for $75, which includes the infrared option.

• The free Athlates core mat pilates classes from Monad Pilates sell out fast, and the next one with available tickets is on August 30th.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

Know someone who'd love this newsletter? Forward it their way.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

NYC Marathon is officially 16 weeks away, so I've finally started training for real. I also promptly missed my long run this weekend thanks to the combination of smoky skies, a friend visiting town, and the World Cup final and wanting to socialize. If anyone has words of wisdom for staying consistent—or not beating yourself up over a missed long run—please send wise words my way.

Also: we're kicking off a new gym and studio review series. We'll be trying some of the city's buzziest (and underrated) workouts, then telling you what they're actually like before you spend $40 on a class. Would you rather these live as occasional features in this newsletter, or become their own standalone series where we can go much deeper? Vote below.

This week: a new running store opening party, free outdoor workouts, a dog jog, a Saucony pop-up, and one of NYC's newest preventive health clinics.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday July 20: Vital Run Club 2 Year Anniversary (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Vital Run Club somehow manages to have something interesting happening almost every week, and this week is a 5K around Williamsburg followed by a two year anniversary party with raffles, music, and freebies.

Monday July 20: Seaport Fit x Joe Holder Yoga Sculpt Class (Seaport), 7PM, free

The Seaport Fit x Joe Holder fitness series started earlier this summer, and this Monday evening yoga class seems like a great excuse to get outside and flow. The class is presented with Sky Ting Yoga and taught by Destiny Romelia (not Joe Holder), who'll lead a high-energy mix of yoga, cardio, and strength set to music. RSVP beforehand if you can.

Tuesday July 21: Currently Running NYC Opening Party (LES), 7PM, free

You may have heard of Currently when Satisfy Running’s Brice Partouche threw a fit on the internet about the brand “ripping off” Satisfy’s aesthetics. Internet drama aside, Currently’s minimalist, earthy-hued running gear does look great—and also does seem to take some major inspiration from Satisfy, at a much cheaper price point. This week they're opening a new Lower East Side space showcasing their apparel and partnered eyewear collection.

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Thursday July 23: Outdoor F45 Training Pop Up (Dumbo), 7PM, free

Head over to Pier 2 in Dumbo for a free bootcamp style workout with F45 Dumbo, a partner gym of Hyrox. Weather looks lovely after a forecasted few days of rain, so we’re guessing this area will be pretty lively this evening.

Friday July 24: Brooklyn Bathhouse at Night (PLG), 7PM, $45+

First distinction: Brooklyn Bathhouse is not the same as Bathhouse the larger corporation (This local one didn’t make headlines for mold concerns.) Same concept, though: saunas, steam room, pools, cold plunges. And they host wellness nights with DJ sets, mocktails, and soaking. We love to see it for the people who want to go out on a Friday but don’t want to bar hop.

Saturday July 25: Fabletics Dog Jog (Flatiron), 830AM, free

Fitness coach Claudette Sariya, who we met at our newsletter launch event, is hosting a social DOG RUN (yes bring your pup!!) from Fabletics Flatiron Store to the Chelsea Waterside Dog Park. There will be mid-run playtime, of course. Claudette is such a warm, welcoming person and even if you’re normally nervous to show up to events alone, we know you’ll be in good hands for this one. RSVP beforehand.

Saturday July 25: MotivNY x R.A.D Summer Long Run Series (Across Brooklyn), 8AM, free

We mentioned it last week, but here’s your reminder that physical therapy/coaching practice MotivNY’s summer long run series is kicking off this weekend. You can choose between three different starting locations based on the distance you’re looking for (9, 16, or 19 miles). You can also test drive the R.A.D. UFO supertrainers (If you do, report back—I still haven't tried them.)

Sunday July 26: Lululemon Summer Series Yoga with Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts (Seaport), 9AM, free

As of Monday morning, there are still a few spots left for this Lululemon yoga class at the goooorgeous Rooftop at Pier 17. It’s led by Peloton instructor Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts.

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happenings around town

• Shoe brand Saucony is hosting a week-long residency at Soft Bar, a non-alc bar in Greenpoint by Bravo’s Carl Radke, from July 23 through 29. Expect group runs, fun cocktails, giveaways, and other programming throughout the week. On Thursday evening, Carl’s leading an easy run followed by bevs back at the space.

• I was walking on Orchard Street last night and passed a new location of Akari, a membership-based Japanese sauna that has spaces in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. This one will be right next to Awake NY, and apparently it’s opening soon. Worth keeping an eye on if you're into contrast therapy and/or bathhouses.

  

• SONATA, a new preventive health clinic opened in NYC last week. Preventive medicine has exploded over the last few years, including everything from extensive bloodwork and genome sequencing to advanced imaging and longevity-focused health plans. Memberships often cost $10,000 a year or more, making SONATA's $2,500 founding membership relatively affordable by comparison. That said, it's worth keeping expectations in check. I've interviewed several agingexperts about these clinics over the years, and the consensus is pretty consistent: Catching diseases early and understanding genetic risks is crucial, but for most healthy people, the evidence doesn't support constant testing or aggressive health monitoring. These clinics make the most sense for people with elevated risk factors, family history of diseases/cancers, or very specific health goals.

• CONTŌR, a New York aesthetics studio focusing on a natural-looking approach to injectables, medical skin treatments, and personalized skin health, opened its second New York location in Union Square this past Friday. You'll be paying luxury prices, so if all you want is a few units of Botox, there are plenty of great (and cheaper) injectors around the city. The draw is if you want to branch out into other treatments (like facial balancing, lip injections, or microneedling), with a personalized experience and provider that won’t pressure you to overdo it.

• Another free summer fitness series that should be on your radar: IronStrength. Some of the classes take place on the flight deck of the Intrepid, which is a pretty epic spot. They usually fill before we even get a chance to include them here, so it's worth bookmarking their schedule if you’re interested.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

Know someone who'd love this newsletter? Forward it their way.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Also unrelated to anything fitness/wellness but nostalgia flooded over me when I was browsing events this week and saw that one of my fav childhood video games—Backyard Baseball—is back, and hosting an immersive pop-up this weekend at Shopify. Wow, I haven’t thought about this game since the early 2000s, but Kenny Kawaguchi and Kiesha Phillips were elite.

This week: Free rock climbing, a vintage athleticwear reseller/run club collab (the most Brooklyn words we’ve ever typed), and six hikes you can reach by train.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday July 13: Vital Run Club x Rocki Equipment Club Vintage Run (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Vital Run Club just keeps hitting it out of the park with their partnerships, and we’re stoked to see this one with vintage sportswear resellers, Rocki Equipment Club. Following the 5K run, you can browse and buy their curated selection. Ignore the date on the flyer: We included this last week, but it appears to have gotten pushed back because of rain.

Wednesday July 15: adidas Trackyard Legends Series (Randall’s Island), 6PM, free

It’s no secret that NYC run clubs are full of beautiful people. It’s also no secret that fitness events like Hyrox have turned into full-on spectator sports just to watch super fit people sweating. If that’s your vibe, why not grab a spectator pass to adidas’ track meet, which brings together run clubs for a series of relay races. Unlike Hyrox, at least you know all the athletes are based close by.

Friday July 17: Self Defense Sesh at Superfly Dispensary (UWS), 9AM, free

Superfly Dispensary is hosting a three-day free fitness series this week, and this self-defense class hosted by coaches from Gotham Gym (a West Village boxing gym) is one of them. We’re firm believers that every woman (and prob men too) should take a self-defense class, but if that’s not your vibe, there’s also a Wednesday morning yoga class and Thursday morning pilates.

The programming is presented in partnership with High Ambitions, a New York-grown cannabis brand that speaks to people who use cannabis not to escape, but to support a structured, ambitious, high-functioning lifestyle.

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Friday July 17: Rivian Performance House Training the Performance Mindset with Rich Roll & Manoj Dias (Meatpacking) 5PM, free

Out of all the wellness bros, endurance athlete (and vocal vegan) Rich Roll is one I can get behind. I used to love listening to his weekly episodes with journalist Adam Skolnick. On Friday at Rivian’s Performance House (more on that in happenings), he joins meditation teacher Manoj Dias for a conversation about training mindset. I'd be at this in a heartbeat if my calendar weren't already full. RSVPs required!

Saturday July 18: Sweetfeet 3 Year Anniversary Futbol Popup (LES), 2PM, free

Sock brand Sweetfeet is celebrating three years by tapping into World Cup energy with a Futbol pop-up. There’s not much information yet about what the actual event will entail, but brand parties usually come with free drinks and snacks… (I’ll go if I can convince them to give me one of their sold out camo hats.)

Saturday July 18: Movement Climbing Gyms x The North Face Global Climbing Day (LIC, Gowanus, Harlem), all day, free

If you’ve ever wanted to try climbing but can’t convince yourself to shell out the $30+ for a day pass, you’re in luck. For Global Climbing Day, you can visit any of the Movement Climbing Gym locations for free climbing and gear rentals. We expect the gyms to be paaaacked, but that just means more people at the bouldering wall to help you figure out your beta (the sequence of moves to complete the route.)

Sunday July 19: Daybreaker Let’s Be Friends Morning Rave (Midtown), 6AM - 9AM, $64

Back with news of yet another morning rave because: Dancing is wellness. Sober partying is wellness. (Hell, regular partying is wellness.) Maybe one day we’ll be convinced to wake up this early on a Sunday. Iconic views of Manhattan at sunrise is pretty great incentive.

we think you should know…

Now that we’re all getting heat acclimated, it’s glorious hiking or trail running weather (especially if you go early and go somewhere with water so you can swim after.) Around NYC, you’ll find plenty of trails that you can access via public transit. As a former backpacking guide, I have pretty high standards for trails, so here are a few recommendations:

• Take the Metro North Hudson Line to Cold Spring, a quaint town with places to eat, drink, and shop. From there, walk or Uber about a mile to Hudson Highlands State Park. I recently hiked Bull Hill (one of the closest trailhead to town) with outdoor brand Helly Hansen, which is a steady but manageable climb with views of the teeny city skyline in the distance. Breakneck Ridge—one of the most popular hikes in the area—and the nearby station is closed until mid-2027. The town itself gets crowded but once you get back into the hills, there are plenty of trails for people to spread out.

  

• The Croton-Harmon stop off Metro North Hudson Line is slightly closer than Cold Spring, and drops you right across the street from Croton Point Park. This is the least “real trail” on this list—there’s only about 3+ miles of easy paths—but we’re including it because it’s a great beginner spot that also has the easiest hike/swim access, with a big beach open on weekends and holidays.

• Hop on the LIRR and take it to Cold Spring Harbor, where you can take a 4-minute Uber or sketchy walk to the Nassau-Suffolk Greenbelt Trail. The entire trail runs almost 20 miles from the North Shore to the South Shore, and I’ve run the section along Harbor Road, which was surprisingly hilly and challenging. If you really wanted an adventure, you could hike or run all the way down to Massapequa and take the train home from there.

• A bit longer getaway: Take the Metro North Harlem Line to Poughkeepsie and then walk north and take the Walkway Over The Hudson—the world’s longest pedestrian bridge—to Franny Reese State Park, which has a few short, easy-to-follow trails through the woods and to ruins of an old mansion.

• Harriman State Park is my go-to when I need to test outdoor gear because it is one of the most extensive trail systems nearby and you can design a loop for any experience level. The problem is you’ll have to take NJ Transit (but it’s only a little over an hour from downtown). Get to Jersey then grab the Main Line from Secaucus Junction to Tuxedo, which puts you directly across the street from the park.

• For quick access to a relatively easy trail, take the Metro North Hudson Line to Garrison, where you’ll find the trailhead for Arden Point and Glenclyffe Loop. If you want a longer option or more elevation gain, you could hike/run Sugarloaf Hill Trail in the southern section of Hudson Highlands State Park.

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happenings around town

• Rivian (the electric car company) is transforming their Meatpacking store into “Performance House”—a week-long experiential hub co-crafted with Mikaela Shiffrin, badass/the most decorated alpine ski racer in history. We included one of the events above, but that’s just scratching the surface. They’re hosting morning fitness classes, live podcast recordings, run clubs. Every event is free, but RSVP is required.

• Anyone wandering around SoHo today should pop by Elizabeth Street, between Prince & Spring. Grooming product brand Athena Club (we love their razors) is giving away ice cream inspired by their new scents—Banana Sunmilk and Pink Marshmallow.

• Marathon training gets monotonous, and it’s easy to bail on your long runs if you’re doing it solo. Luckily, every summer, MotivNY hosts a weekly summer long run series and it kicks off on July 25. Choose between a 9-, 16, or 19-mile route and be sure to register in advance.

• Last week, earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela. Laura ter Meer Guardia, founder of women-owned weights brand Lifting the Mood (and our launch event partner) is from the country, so the tragedy hits close to home for her. We love that LTM is donating 10% of product sales to Healing Venezuela, a nonprofit providing emergency medical aid and humanitarian support across the country.

• Community sauna pop-up, Cul de Sac, is back in the East Village through the 26th. Tickets are $25 for weeknight sweat sessions, and they often pair it with a short run or sound experience. People linger in the garden, listening to music, reading books, or chatting with friends.

• Meditation app Headspace is hosting a pop-up based around the fact that summer moves really damn fast and we probably all need to take a moment to slow down. On Sunday, they’re taking over the Sunday Club newsstand on the corner of 14th St and 3rd ave (across from Joe’s Pizza & Trader Joe’s) for a moment of play and presence. Swing by if you’re in the area to see what they’re up to.

• There are still some tickets left for Lululemon’s next summer series event: A morning yoga class on July 26.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

PR and brands, our inboxes are always open for news and events we need to know. New studios: We’d love to come join a class and write about it.

Know someone who'd be into this? Forward it to them.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

This week: The $160k Ammortal recovery chamber comes to Manhattan, free public workouts, and our take on some of the biggest World Cup watch zones.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday July 6: Vital Run Club x Rocki Equipment Club Vintage Run (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Vital Run Club just keeps hitting it out of the park with their partnerships, and we’re stoked to see this one with vintage sportswear resellers, Rocki Equipment Club. Following the 5K run, you can browse and buy their curated selection.

Tuesday July 7: Vivobarefoot x Othership Runner’s Night (Williamsburg), 8PM, $35

Barefoot shoe brand Vivobarefoot and Othership are teaming up to host a monthly runner’s night series, and this is the first. It’ll include a 5K run, post-run movement assessments, 3D foot scanning, and then a night of recovery in the sauna/cold plunges. Considering Othership is usually around $64 for a drop in, this is a pretty good deal. But if you just want to go run, that part is free.

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Wednesday July 8: Salomon Store Grand Opening and Morning Miles (Flatiron), all day, free

We attended Salomon’s soft opening this past week, but they’re going big this Wednesday for a grand opening. The day starts with morning miles—a 4.5-mile route around Flatiron district—or you can just stop by after 10AM for the smoothie bowls, coffee, electrolyte bar, NYC charm kits, and a DJ (of course).

Wednesday July 8: Touching Grass Yoga Tour (Downtown Brooklyn), 6PM, free

New York Yoga Club specifies that they’re a club, not a class, but they still lead free and affordable yoga around the city. Their Touching Grass series exists to get you off your phone and get moving, and its free with an RSVP.

Thursday July 9: Salomon x Rebecca Kennedy Workout (Flatiron), 7AM, free for S/PLUS members

Salomon is hosting a handful of events this week, and this one seems worthwhile (though you have to join a lottery and be selected, plus sign up as a free s/plus member on Salomon’s website.) Join Peloton instructor & Salomon partner Rebecca Kennedy for a shoe guide and strength session. Rebecca will guide the group through mobility, standing core, and a short city walk, followed by a light brunch and coffee bar hosted by L’Appartement 4F.

Friday July 10: Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Yoga (Brooklyn Navy Yard), 9AM, free

You guys have been gobbling up this free rooftop yoga series whenever we include it, and this one on hasn’t reached capacity yet. As a reminder: An urban farm hosting casual rooftop yoga sessions. Surrounded by greenery, beautiful views, whats not to love.

Saturday July 11: Usal x Geller Public Sounds (Astoria) 4PM, free

Outdoors club Usal is partnering with Geller, a synth artist who hosts free shows in public parks. This is the first time the Public Sounds series is coming to New York, so grab a free ticket, bring a blanket over to the Socrates Sculpture Park on the waterfront in Astoria, and vibe with some friends.

Saturday July 11: Seaport Fit x Joe Holder Strength and Conditioning Class (Seaport), 930AM, free

There are a lot of free workout classes across public spaces in NYC all summer long, but we don’t cover all of them because they’re questionable in terms of quality. However, here’s a good one: We mentioned Seaport Fit’s free summer workout series with Nike trainer Joe Holder, and we love that this one is a sport-inspired strength and conditioning class. You don’t even need to bring a mat—just show up with workout shoes and water.

Saturday July 11: esférico x Créate x Joga Diodo (Williamsburg), 12PM, free

Got the footy bug? Join local movement collective esferico for a day of collective play. They’re co-hosting with Create (a creatine brand), which will be giving away goodies. Even if you’re hesitant to play, you can hang on the sidelines.

we think you should know…

This week, we went to scout out a couple of the big World Cup watch zones that aren’t just bars.

Perhaps the biggest is adidas’ Home of Soccer at Brooklyn Bridge Park. We visited on a Monday afternoon for the Germany vs Paraguay game, and the space was lightly filled (with mostly Germany fans, which checks out because… adidas.) The main watch area with a giant screen may be the most lively, but we spent most time in the beer garden with picnic tables and smaller TVs, where we met people from Ecuador, Argentina, Bermuda, Brazil, and other countries. People were very social and had friendly rivalries going with strangers. There’s also shopping area with so many jerseys, and a 3v3 soccer pitch where you can sign up via a QR code to play. (You don’t need to be good, and there was only a short line after the game had ended around sunset.)

We snagged free tickets online the day before, when they went live. They usually fill up before the day of, and I expect them to get even harder to snag as games get more high stakes. Overall, great vibes, big screens, extremely well produced, and a fun place to watch with people visiting from around the world.

We also checked out House of Goal, a pop-up soccer festival in Industry City put on by Footballco and Modelo—among other partners. Although this past Friday was their opening day with watch parties for the Argentina vs Cabo Verde and Ghana vs Colombia games, they had yet to open the full festival space, and everyone congregated in a large industrial room with a makeshift bar, very little branding, and big screens. Views were good no matter where you sat/stood. We stayed after the game and walked over to the pitch area, where a massive stage was set up for a Reggaeton Rave. They had big DJs from Puerto Rico and the DR mixing reggaeton and electronic music, so it was super high energy and packed.

The PR rep told me that they had over 12,000 RSVPs for the first weekend alone (get your free ticket on the website), and she walked me around to show the other activations (which are now open), like digital gaming and a marketplace. There’s also a 5v5 soccer pitch and plenty of food vendors outside between two tall buildings.

Overall, it seemed more thrown together than the tight production of the adidas grounds, but it does potentially offer more engaging events, like a ticketed live podcast convo between Trevor Noah and Ochocinco, and a film festival.

Other places we’ve been eyeing:

• Hudson Yards has free watch parties on the Public Square and Gardens and a friend said it was “chaotic and full, but fun.”

• The Time Out Market in Dumbo has transformed into a Portugal House fan zone, which could be a fun spot to watch today’s 3PM game.

• Socceria, a new futbol cantina in Greenpoint by the team behind Taqueria Ramierez, looks very lively, but you should probably snag a Resy if you want to catch a game there.

• Football Cafe in Bushwick had people pouring into the streets for last week’s Mexico game—and they’re proudly unaffiliated with FIFA and free of influencers.

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happenings around town

• This week I went to the opening of the new programming for 113 Spring, an experiential wellness space in SoHo, that offers something different than the (quite honestly) overdone contrast therapy experience. Through January, guests can drop by to check out the space or book sessions from the The Energy Exchange program, which has Traditional Chinese Medicine offerings like a 1:1 Energy Mapping session or Yang Sheung tea ritual designed by practitioner Zoey Xinyi Gong.

• 113 Spring is the only place in the city right now that you can experience the Ammortal Chamber, a $160K multimodality recovery pod used at athlete training centers. Sessions are expensive—$95 for 25 minutes—but I tried the “energizing” session last Monday and it was transportive, with red light therapy, gentle vibrations and a molecular hydrogen inhalation, which is emerging as an anti-inflammatory therapy. The short session left me feeling like I had taken a low dose of psychedelics.

• NYCRuns, which hosts the high energy Brooklyn Experience Half in April, just dropped a new series of three 10K runs on Governor’s Island. They all follow the same course around the perimeter of the island (so you’ll get excellent views of the city), but we’re most drawn to the Ice Cream Social run in early August. If you register for all three, you’ll only pay fees for two of them.

• Nike just dropped the registration for its 2026 Project Moonshot, a 16-week training program designed around the NYC marathon but open to anyone training to hit a big goal. For the first time, the online aspect (which includes a training program, nutrition/recovery guidance via a weekly newsletter) will be open to everyone, but in-person events will require registration and have a capped capacity.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

PR and brands, our inboxes are always open for news and events we need to know. New studios: We’d love to come join a class and write about it.

Know someone who'd be into this? Forward it to them.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

Because half of New York disappears for Fourth of July weekend, this week’s calendar is lighter than usual — but we packed the happenings section with plenty to keep you busy.

This week: World Cup pop-ups, free summer series workouts and sports coaching, and a new initiative to resort NYC running tracks.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday June 29: The Wimbledon Court in Central Park (Central Park), 730AM - 5PM, free

This tennis pop-up has been going on all weekend, but there’s one more day to get in on the free live screening of day one of The Championships and a community masterclass on the grass court. It’s truly a sports summer!

Monday June 29: Vital Run Club x Balmoral 5k Run (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Vital Run Club is teaming up with Montreal-based apparel brand Balmoral for a 5k starting at Party Rock before sunset. The brand has a vintage sports aesthetic (ringer tees, vertical stripes) that makes it feel like the public school version of Tracksmith. There will be raffle giveaways, but you must be RSVPd on Forte to partake.

Tuesday June 30: Paragon Sports Pride Run (Flatiron), 630PM, $18

Celebrate Pride with a fun run with Paragon Sports, Brooks Running, and As Is Bar. It’s not just a run club—that’s why it costs money—there will be a finish line, complete with beer for every participant. Proceeds also go to The Center, an LGBTQ+ community center in Manhattan.

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Wednesday July 1: Salomon Store Soft Opening Pop-Up Run (Flatiron) 730AM, free

Salomon’s new Flatiron store officially opens next week, but they’re having a soft opening on Wednesday morning. The first part of the event is a mysterious and “disruptive” (as per the press release) running pop-up, where runners race from the Flatiron store to the UWS store and back as fast as possible. We won’t personally be there for that part because we aren’t early birds, but we will be there that morning for the soft opening (open to the public at 10AM).

Wednesday July 1: Asics Summer Trial Run Series: Novablast 6 (Meatpacking), 6PM, free

Shoe brand Asics is hosting a summer running series where attendees get to try different shoe models, and the Novablast is one of my absolute favs: It’s squishy, soft, and well cushioned for a VERY comfy easy/long run.

Friday July 3: Brooklyn Grange’s Rooftop Yoga (Brooklyn Navy Yard), 9AM, free

Brooklyn Grange’s free rooftop yoga series has been consistently filling up, but as of publishing, there are a few spots left for their Friday morning class. While we can’t speak to the quality of the instructors, the setting (a rooftop urban farm surrounded by greenery) looks pretty dreamy. Bring your own mat!

Saturday July 4: Contra x Fluent Mag Coffee and Chill (Montauk),9AM - 12PM, $75

We know this isn’t technically in NYC, but since so many people get out of town on Fourth of July weekend anyway, we figured we’d put you onto something happening in Montauk. You can expect an ATEAM workout, cold plunges from Coffee and Chill, brand activations, food and drinks. Tickets also include access to the Montauk Project’s Day Party Afters, too.

we think you should know…

One thing I (Maddie) often lament about the wellness world is how at some point it was hijacked by tech and has taken on the culture of optimization, efficiency, and productivity. When I first started teaching yoga, I went down an overly disciplined, strict path of wellness, often obsessive about the quality of products I used and food I ate. The last several years, I’ve reclaimed my version of wellness, which is about listening to my body and filling my life with things that bring me joy and pleasure. The discipline is still so built into my life: I am active almost every day for work, so what is actually most balanced for me is to relax and let go of strict routines.

Now as summer hits New York in full force and the Knicks win brought refreshed energy to the city that a lot of people haven’t seen since before the pandemic, I find myself leaning into the spontaneity that the longer days bring. (As I write this, I’m sitting on my friend’s couch eating chocolate chip cookies and ice cream while my plans were to stay home.) Earlier my friend, Jenn, and I happened upon Toñita Fest, an iconic Puerto Rican block party in Williamsburg, and it reminded me how crucial community and connection is to wellbeing. It’s easy to think of health as a series of individual habits (workouts, meals, sleep routines, fitness trackers), but the relationships and experiences we build into our lives matter more than we acknowledge for healthy aging.

Often to connect deeper with others, we need the absence of rush—which can be hard to find in a city that demands punctuality, planning, RSVPs, and reservations. I feel optimistic seeing this counterculture of block parties, pop-ups, impromptu watch parties on projectors in the streets, and spontaneous DJ sets like the mobile rave Moving Company (which has a WhatsApp group that shows you their live location). It brings people together and makes New York feel alive.

In today’s social media-influenced world, people have a strict definition of wellness, and the scene often involves making social sacrifices for our health and longevity. But maybe the healthiest thing we can do sometimes is to relinquish a little control and lean into a life of spontaneity and joy, even if that means missing a workout or eating an “unhealthy” meal.

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happenings around town

• Track workouts have gotten wildly popular with the running boom, and McCarren Park is one of the most accessible spots but is overcrowded with run clubbers. New York Road Runners + New Balance started a project to rebuild NYC tracks, and first up is Star Spangled Playground in west Bed-Stuy to be completed in late summer/early fall. Maybe the run clubs will finally spread out?

• From June 26 to July 19, the Hypebeast Cup will be in SoHo, bringing screenings, exclusive drops, brand showcases, and jersey customization workshops to the public to serve as a cultural hub for football (futbol). Seems to be open until 7PM all days except Sunday (when it closes at 6PM), but we can’t find a schedule so may be best to check their IG.

• More on the World Cup front: Iconic Bushwick party spot House of Yes is hosting a soccer pop-up—House of Goal—in Industry City from this Friday until July 19th. There are interesting ticketed events, but also free GA passes for watch parties.

• A new free Lululemon Summer Series workout just dropped—this one with Kelly Cole, an instructor who combines pilates, cardio, and strength (although we’re skeptical of how much strength training can actually fit in that mix.) But the bigger reason to go: The Rooftop at Pier 17 venue is insane and would be a gorgeous spot to spend a morning sweating. Hannah visited last week (pic below) for their launch party with a performance from Kaskade, and we gotta say he looks real good for 55.

• HQ Tennis Academy is hosting a free Open Court Summer Series in partnership with Lululemon. Every Friday from 5 to 7PM you can show up to the Linden Park Tennis Courts in East New York, and they’ll provide the racquets, balls, and instruction.

• The Rockefeller Center FIFA World Cup fan village opens next week. It doesn’t look like there’s as much going on as there was at the Queens Fan Zone that just closed, which had performances from Busta Rhymes, Ella Mai, and more.

  

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

PR and brands, our inboxes are always open for news and events we need to know. New studios: We’d love to come join a class and write about it.

Know someone who'd be into this? Forward it to them.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

The poster advertised GLP-1s alongside non-FDA-approved peptides like retatrutide (the new weight-loss drug gym bros are obsessed with) and injectable NAD+. Maddie popped into the shop yesterday and the worker said they were indeed selling them. Guess you can casually grab a vial on the corner of Bedford and 5th? But I’d be weary with a sign that explicitly says “not for human consumption.”

This week: Pride workouts, a running rave, plenty of cold plunging, a floating sound bath, and new spa opening.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday June 23: Gay Bar Fun Run (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

This Pride party starts with a 3 or 5 mile run (your choice) before ending at the Exley in Williamsburg for a fundraising evening of raffles and drinks benefiting the Ali Forney Center, which provides shelter and services for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness.

Tuesday June 23: Soundbody x Unveiled NY Workout (Williamsburg), 630PM, $42

This 50-minute strength and cardio workout moves to the beat of a live DJ at Unveiled NY nightclub in Williamsburg. Based on the playlist on Soundbody’s website, expect mostly house music.

Wednesday June 24: QTPOC On The Rocks Meetup (Gowanus), 7PM, $15

If you’ve ever wanted to get into climbing (or you already have and are looking for a group to do it with), there’s an LGBTQ POC meet up at the Bouldering Project in Brooklyn. BP always has fun routes even for beginners (some gyms really don’t), and $15 is a serious discount for a day pass.

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Wednesday June 24: Gigis Pilates x Strength (Midtown), 730PM, $15

Gigi’s NYC hosts pop-up wellness events, and we love that this 45-minute pilates class is only $15, when most will run you much more than that. Her events seem to attract a cute group of gals and seem more focused on bringing people together than just filling a class.

Wednesday June 24: Adidas x Garmin Summer Sunset Run (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Brooklyn Running Co is partnering with Adidas and Garmin to get some gear demos going for runners. Head out for some sunset miles and test the Adidas Evo SL (yes they’re one of the most hyped shoe but sooo good) and a Garmin watch to track your workout—they’ll only have 25 of these so show up early and bring your ID if this is a priority to you.

Thursday June 25: Rerouted x Salomon Speed Friending Run (Williamsburg), 630PM, free

Ok this speed “friending” run from Rerouted Running actually sounds so fun. Each mile you’re paired with one other runner and given conversation prompts—a nice little icebreaker and push to talk to new people, whereas some run clubs can be a bit cliquey. It starts at the Salomon store in Williamsburg and ends at Radegast, where drinks are on the house (er, brand).

Thursday June 25: Prox Pulse Run / Rave (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Prox, a new caffeinated sparkling protein drink brand (lol wut), is hosting a two-mile easy run that follows DJ Swaggy P as he spins decks on a mobile DJ truck. We’re not sold on the drink concept (I’ve hated every sparkling protein drink I’ve tried) but this event sounds like fun! RSVP required on Forte.

Friday June 26: Level Up FC Soccer Day (Randall’s Island), 1PM, free

Lean into the World Cup energy by learning how to play soccer at this community day on the fields on Randall’s Island. There will be coaching from pros, as well workshops for people interested in growing their career in sports. Free food and drinks too, and open to all regardless of what industry you’re in.

Friday June 26: After Hours Club x Ice Cold Club Flow & Sound (Williamsburg), 530PM, $35

End your work week with a nice reset to launch you into the weekend. After Hours Club is hosting rooftop yoga, followed by a cold water immersion/sound experience with Nike trainer, ice bath coach, and genuine joy of a human Lauren Schramm.

Saturday June 27: Runna First to Fast Track Session (Randall’s Island), 9AM, free

You can still snag a ticket to one of the track sessions that Runna is hosting with athlete Kayla Jeter on Saturday morning. (Hannah will be there!) The workout is interval-based, but don’t let that scare you: the hardest efforts are only 90 seconds at a time, so it should feel pretty approachable even if you’re not a track person. It should be a whole vibe with DJ sets, post-workout food, and bevs. See you there?

Saturday June 27: Sound Off Floating Sound Bath (Williamsburg), 8AM, $70

Hop on a floatie (or sprawl out in a cabana) and don some noise-cancelling headphones: Molly Rabuffo is leading a sound bath at the Arlo Williamsburg’s rooftop pool on Saturday morning. A regular sound bath is already transformative, but while enjoying it while floating sounds extra delightful.

Saturday June 27: AthletEX Game Day (Long Island City), 1130AM, $69

Former college or pro athletes, this one’s for you. AthletEX is hosting a full day of movement and recovery at The Summer Club, a very Bravo-coded lawn and pool situation in LIC. Expect a HIIT workout, cold plunges, protein shakes, and Normatec boots. And if you want to keep the day going, stick around after Game Day wraps for the DJ pool party that follows.

Saturday June 27: mobius Pride and Pilates (Williamsburg) 12PM, free

It seems like Pride month started yesterday but it’s almost coming to an end. Celebrate with a free pilates class from mobius, a social fitness app where you can share your workouts without focusing on metrics, and the Movement Loft, a physical therapy space. We don’t know anyone using the app yet, but the brand seems committed to community by hosting a ton of free workouts and events, which we love to see.

Sunday June 28: Outsiders Bike to the Mets Game (Central Park), 10AM - 6PM, $70 (including discounted Mets ticket)

Do sports before you watch sports! Outsiders, an outdoor-based social club, is hosting a bike ride to Citi Field for the Mets game. It’s about 18 miles and they plan to take around 2 - 2.5 hours with food stops, which is a very leisurely pace.

Sunday June 28: Peak and Pace Hike and Swim (Croton Point Park), 9AM - 130PM, $30

Peak and Pace knows how to throw a party, and this time they’re taking it to the Hudson Valley for a lil hike and swim action. There aren’t exact route details for the hike, but apparently it will be a chill 3.5 miles, ending at the beach at Croton Point Park. Transportation isn’t included in the price, but some of the group will be meeting at the train station to ride together.

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we think you should know…

This week everyone’s been talking about how SoulCycle CEO Evelyn Webster stepped down and the brand announced the closure of 8 locations, including the Bryant Park studio in NYC. I (Maddie) love SoulCycle and believe they set the stage for the boutique fitness world as we know it, but it’s been a sinking ship for years and I’m not optimistic that things will turn around.

Fitness trends are always evolving, but the SoulCycle leadership failed to adapt to the changing landscape. A big part of what made the studio so wildly successful was the larger-than-life instructors, so when the brand stopped investing in talent and paying their instructors as well, it was only time before it fell apart. If newer instructors aren’t given the training, resources, and pay to develop themselves, the quality of classes suffer.

Customers are also pivoting away from spending $42 on a single class when bigger luxury gyms (ie. Lifetime, Equinox) offer unlimited memberships with high-quality classes and facilities. So when a studio is half-full, the whole atmosphere also doesn’t hit the same. Less people come, then less people want to come.

Still, there are still many instructors with cult followings across the city, but that trend may be on its way out. Now, gym-goers are seeking more personalized instruction and connection from coaches instead of worshipping aspirational figures who have little time or interest in engaging with their students. (It goes a long way when an instructor knows your name.) Is the era of star instructors on a podium coming to an end?

happenings around town

• Outdoor clothing brand Fjallraven launched its 2026 Trails Challenge to help people spend more time outside this summer. Stop by either the Meatpacking or SOHO store to get signed up, and you’ll get a list of 10 trails chosen by the staff. (I’m more drawn to the Meatpacking staff’s choices, which include a trail in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx and a waterfall trail outside of Newark). Check off five hikes and you’ll get a patch and store discount.

• Lululemon’s free summer workout series is kicking off this week, and the tickets launch 14 days before each workout and go pretty quickly, so we won’t be able to include them in the weekly roundups. The next one is on June 28.

• It’s pool season so let us put you onto Resort Pass—a platform for buying day passes to spas and hotels around the city. Hannah used it when she was in Joshua Tree for a girl’s trip, but it seems like a great way to pool hop this summer. We’re eyeballing The Beach at Dream Downtown, the cabanas for 4 at the Arlo Williamsburg, and the work-from-pool deal right now at the Hotel Indigo (more chill, less of a scene).

• Usal just announced their next summer camping trip from July 17 - 19, and they’ll be going to a private campground upstate (dreamy). Campers will arrive to a fully set up basecamp with gear from Snow Peak, and most everything is planned and taken care of except for food—plan to cook for yourself during communal cooking hours.

• Social bathhouses have been the moment (and we don’t think they’re going away anytime soon), but more sauna spaces are arising focused on solo rejuvenation. The latest is Japanese spa, Furoya, which will be opening soon by Union Square, and leans into bathing heritage with a hot tub, sauna, cold plunge, and a recovery space—Totonou—where you’re supposed to let the body recalibrate after contrast therapy.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

PR and brands, our inboxes are always open for news and events we need to know. New studios: We’d love to come join a class and write about it.

Know someone who'd be into this? Forward it to them.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

This Saturday before the Knicks game, I coerced a few friends to go play disc golf with me on Governor’s Island for the Populace pop-up course we included in last week’s newsletter. I had never played before, but it was such a fun way to spend the day outside + moving without overdoing it with intense exercise. Need more of that kind of thing this summer.

This week: Juneteenth run clubs, classic park activities, a Hoka shoe demo, and NYC’s rollerblading scene with beginner tips from a real-talented skater.

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Monday June 15: Feels Like Summer: Sombra x Vital x Cold Freak Run (Williamsburg), 7PM, free

Vital Run Club (affiliated with the climbing gym) is creating quite a scene, and regularly amasses over 100 attendees for their group runs. This time they’re teaming up with Sombra for an easy five miler—with post-workout ice cream sandwiches from Cold Freak.

Tuesday June 16: Freaks of Nature x Max Jolliffe Community Run (Williamsburg), 9AM, free

Ultrarunner Max Jolliffe is a Freaks of Nature (sunscreen brand) ambassador, so this Tuesday they’re collectively heading to McCarren Park for a community AM run. Later in the evening, they’re hosting a party from 5 - 8PM, at the Freaks of Nature Pop Up. We’re stopping by. RSVP at the link above.

Tuesday June 16: Slow Girl Run Club x Momentm 2-Mile Run (West Side Highway), 7PM, free

If a speedy run club gives you anxiety, Slow Girl Run Club might be more your pace. They typically run an 11:30 min/mile, and at only a two-mile route, it’s totally do-able even if you’re relatively new to running. Stay for the free drinks, aka a specialty cocktail in collab with their partner, Momentm, a hydration company.

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Friday June 19: Black Miles x Goldfinger Track Club Juneteenth Solidarity Run (Seaport), 11AM, free

Whether you’re running or walking, you can join Coach J from Goldfinger Track Club for their 6th anniversary Juneteenth run and celebration. Over 500 people pulled up to their first one in 2020, so time to bring the energy this year, too.

Friday June 19: Juneteenth Double Dutch Championship (Bed-Stuy), 3PM, free

Got double dutch skills? There's a championship going down through Bed Stuy Double Dutch Club in Herbert Von King Park this Juneteenth (team or solo). Even if you're just spectating, it’s going to be a vibe. Music, food, community programming, freestyle comp.

Friday June 19: Peak and Pace Juneteenth Cookout and World Cup Watch Party (South Slope), 6PM - 9PM, free

Run club Peak and Pace is bringing together a group for Juneteeth, down at Bear Burger’s Backyard in Brooklyn (one of my good friends works here so say hey to Jordan if you go). Cookout seems like a strong word, because I thiiink it’s just the food they have at the bar (or food trucks) but it’ll be a fun place and rowdy crew to watch the Scotland vs. Morocco game with.

Saturday June 20: Hoka Demo Shoe 5K Run (Midtown), 730AM, free

Want to test a pair of Hokas to see how they run? You can demo a pair of the Cielo X1 3.0, Rocket X3, Mach X3, Bondi 9, or Arahi 8 during this morning run out of Hoka’s flagship store in Flatiron. RSVP on Partiful! It’s sure to be a big one. (Maybe just beg them to let you test the Skyward X2 instead because it’s one of my favs from the brand right now.)

Saturday June 20: TeamWRK Juneteenth 5K Race (Brooklyn Bridge Park), 830AM, $64

TeamWRK is throwing what they describe as a “Family Reunion-style” 5K at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Everyone is invited to hang for free, but if you’re racing you’ll need to purchase an entry ticket. There will also be music, food, prizes, raffles, recovery, and a marching band.

Saturday June 20: Willo x mobius Field Day (Williamsburg), 11AM, free

A classic field day with parachute games, twister, and races, but for adults. Hell yeah. Fitness social network mobius and community event series Willo (which started as a concert series) partnered up to bring the energy with a potluck, activities, and chill time, like journaling, in McCarren Park.

Sunday June 21: Summer Solstice Ping Pong Tournament (Prospect Heights), 1PM, $20

Continuing our series of “sports you can be terrible at and still have fun playing”: This beginners ping pong tournament is hosted by a neighborhood hydroponic farm/brewery, Farm.One. They have a beginner and advanced bracket, and your entry fee includes a beer (that you should hold while playing.)

Sunday June 21: Father’s Day at Othership x Culture of Bathe-ing (Williamsburg), 8AM - 11AM, $69 (parent + child)

Othership is opening up its space to kids aged 7 to 17 (alongside a parent) for Father’s Day weekend in partnership with Culture of Bathe-ing, which believes kids belong in bathing culture. They’ll be changing the temps—warmer cold plunge, cooler sauna—to make it a safer (and more fun) experience for the young ones.

we think you should know…

I recently met Ari Bortz, a rollerblader and creator who lives in the UWS, at a friend’s industry dinner, and Ari’s dizzying videos of carving through traffic or careening down the subway steps are mesmerizing and enough to make anyone want to strap on a pair of inline skates. Maybe it’s the frequency illusion but it seems I’ve been hearing about skate-based sports nonstop since: My girl has been roller blading on the Rockaway Boardwalk for as long as I’ve known her, and just this week I talked to a few people who have picked up roller-skating as a hobby. Xanadu, a trippy roller rink with hand-painted floors in Bushwick which just had its second anniversary last week, has become a go-to spot for a casual night out. But Ari says that the streets of New York are one of the most interesting places to skate.

One of Ari’s videos that caught my attention and looks like a total blast was of Wednesday Night Skate: a weekly event that’s been going on since 1996 and draws hundreds of skaters to the streets of Manhattan. It's open to all levels, but he says you should be comfortable hopping curbs, dodging potholes, and controlling your speed in a crowd before you show up.

Wednesday Night Skate is a goal for many, but for beginners, Ari suggests Pier 76 at Hudson River Park, which is a wide open area with smooth pavement. “Skaters have been kind of mad that Hyrox has been happening over the last few weeks because it's been closed, but that's where everyone goes pretty much every nice night,” he says. “It’s a dream.” If you’re looking for a social atmosphere, Friday evenings are the busiest, with around 100+ people hanging out and skating.

happenings around town

• Chelsea Piers Fitness has a free weekly outdoor workout series that is open to members and non-members. The schedule includes yoga in Hudson River Park on Thursdays, and a HIIT-style class called AMP’d weekly at Fort Greene Park (Mondays), Hudson River Park (Tuesdays), and Brooklyn Bridge Park (Wednesdays.)

• After ATEAM’s Date Night workout class at Soulcycle this week, the party went to the street, where they set up a DJ booth and founder pulled up his old Mercedes and popped the trunk to reveal a bucket of champagne on ice. The whole event didn’t feel especially dating-forward, but instead, an environment to meet people who treat fitness/wellness as community, not optimization. (We’re pro some alcohol at wellness events. They’re not mutually exclusive.)

• David’s (the controversial protein bar company) pop-up ice cream shop in the West Village opened last week at 109 Leroy St. A small scoop has 10 grams of protein and runs you $6. We tried the vanilla and I’m ashamed to admit how much I liked it. I don’t think it’s worth $15 a pint (Protein Pints is only $8 and has so many delish flavors to choose from), but by the scoop it’s pretty reasonable and was a nice treat on a hot day. There was also no line when I passed by around 7PM on a steamy Thursday.

• The Class, a somatic workout that Maddie loves, is returning to Montauk for their annual summer residency. It will run from July 15 through August 16, and you can sign up to be in the know when their schedule drops. If you’ve never been to their studio in Tribeca, it’s also worth a visit to if you like a mind-body workout. I haven’t been in a while but its my go-to when I want to release pent-up energy and emotions and be taken on a journey with the music. Highly recommend going to Taryn, the founder, who teaches an intense class, always has interesting moves and music, and just has this hard-to-describe ethereal energy.

• Kove Studio, a sauna and cold plunge spot in Williamsburg, has been plastering stickers with QR codes for a $10 plunge on Citibikes. In general their prices seem more affordable than most, but you book by the protocol you want (like 20 min sauna + 1-5 min cold plunge), not a time slot. Would you scan a QR sticker?

  

• For better or worse (or both), The World Cup has turned NYC into a giant brand activation, and the latest example is Rexona’s “New York Sweat Club,” an invite-only creators pop-up designed to produce content opps through meet and greets and soccer matches on an LED pitch. It’s an interesting contrast to adidas’ massive public-facing Home of Soccer, which is essentially a giant, open-to-the-public fan zone. Rexona, like many brands nowadays, is leaning into exclusivity and access: Invite the '“right” people, give others FOMO, and hope to look buzzy and cool on social. But at what point do people get tired of being marketed a “community” they can’t actually join? Adidas’ open-door approach feels a bit more aligned with the spirit of the moment (sports fandom as a shared experience), while Rexona is betting on exclusivity. Brands hosting influencer/media events isn’t new and has its place, but I haven’t seen a multi-day pop-up with a schedule blasted online, an invitation to apply, and no public access before. Curious to hear any thoughts on this.

• From June 10 to August 2, the Park Ave Armory is home to a new sound exhibition: clinamen. Ceramic bowls float in a series of water-filled basins, and as they collide, produce chiming sounds, like a giant (slightly more chaotic) sound bath. It looks like everyone’s just grabbing a seat for a meditation-style experience.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

PR and brands, our inboxes are always open for news and events we need to know. New studios: We’d love to come join a class and write about it.

Know someone who'd be into this? Forward it to them.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie

I just got back from a day of watching my friends crush their Hyrox doubles in the 85-degree weather, and last night we dropped by a Hyrox x Tech Week afterparty hosted by Fitt Insider, AIIR Agency, and Wellworthy. As a thunderstorm rolled across Manhattan outside the Soho Grand, the founder of a supplement company, who seemed disinterested in discussing supplements at all, told me about how he is a regular at his neighborhood bar in Greenpoint, and a gal from from an event platform dished on how her dating life improved when she moved from NYC to Texas. There was probably some networking happening too, but I was relieved that people were interested in connecting on a human level rather than optimization one. The terrace eventually opened, and the branded ice luge got put to good use.

Between the warm temps, Global Running Day, and Hyrox events, it seems the city’s fitness scene really came alive these past two weeks. So we’ve got a lot to cover.

This week: A sauna rave, calisthenics park workout, and recap of the first rundown nyc event (ahhhh!)

on the radar: this week’s fitness and wellness events

Tuesday June 9: Outsiders Park Workout with Lu from Marcus Garvey Park (Chelsea), 7PM, $10

Call it a recession indicator but calisthenics parks are cool ( did an incredible writeup how these crews are the new run clubs for his sportsverse newsletter), and maybe we’ll write more on this trend in NYC specifically in the near future. I don’t know about you but I would feel quite intimidated to show up to one of these outdoor parks without having some go-to moves, so go learn them from one of the best at the affordable community class.

Tuesday June 9: Pura x Calm Immersive Scent Experience Pop-Up (High Line), 12PM, free

Walk over to the west side for a little mid-day reset. Home fragrance brand Pura and meditation and sleep app Calm partnered to create a three-room experience, each with a unique scent and sound pairing to “help you rest, reset, and refocus.” In classic NYC wellness brand activation style, they brought on a reality TV star appearance (Summer House's Carl Radke) to make people feel like they attract the It crowd.

Friday June 12: Daybreaker NYC Heatwave Sauna Rave (Flatiron), 9PM - 12AM, $84

Daybreaker’s iconic sauna rave is back—to some, dancing and sweating in a sauna sounds magical and to others it sounds like hell. Either way, you can’t deny that they’re bringing some much-needed energy to NYC’s often stiff and stuffy wellness scene. If anyone goes, please send us an email, we’d love to post your take.

Friday June 12: Bklyn Mile Registration Launch Party (Williamsburg), 630PM, free

The BKLYN MILE is an annual road race hosted by Hoka (the perfect opportunity to try to PR your mile), and this year its on August 2nd. Registration opens on friday, so Brooklyn Running Co is throwing a party—or maybe more like a 3-mile community run with refreshments. Seems like a stretch to throw a party for a registration day launch, but we never need an excuse to gather.

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Friday June 12: The Exhale a Somatic Dance Party for Your Nervous System (Williamsburg), 745PM - 930PM, $30

Dancing is one of the most playful, freeing forms of movement, and this somatic dance party hosted at 305 Fitness by Eman Faris with a live DJ set from Manny Mohamed looks like it will be a good time.

Saturday June 13: The Fly Off Course Open (Governors Island), 9AM - 5PM, free

A full day of disc golf over on Governors Island, this open tournament is free to casual players (you can borrow a disc so literally just show up). If you want to play competitively, you’ll have to pay up. But it’s open to beginners and the ferry is only $5 and it runs every 30 minutes.

Saturday June 13: Gorp Girls McCarren Park Picnic (Williamsburg), 12PM, free

Meet some fellow granola baddies on a sweet Saturday in the park. Gorp Girls brought on Parks Project, a certified B Corp brand that creates gear with national park iconography while trying to educate and save our public lands (a lofty and necessary goal during this administration especially.)

Saturday June 13: Latina Baddie Run Club + Cafecito (Long Island City), 9AM, free

Join LA-based the Lila Society for one of the most pace-inclusive runs we’ve seen. The 5k pace is 12 to 14 minute miles, and there’s also a walking pace for a shorter route.

Sunday June 14: Usal Hike to Swim (Catskills), 9AM - 7PM, $15

We’ve talked about Usal before because they’re bringing rad outdoor community + events to NYC, and this week they’re hosting a 3.5-mile hike in the Catskills, followed by a group hang and swim at the dreamy Otter Falls. Leaves at 8:45 AM from McCarren Park and it’ll be a full full day, so bring a packed lunch + plenty of snacks and water.

Sunday June 14: Usal x Cul De Sac Run Sweat Sound (Alphabet City), 10AM - 6PM, $25

Maybe you don’t want to commit to a full day upstate, but you can still move with the Usal crew. They partnered with Cul De Sac, New York’s first outdoor community sauna (in a public garden). The event is just what it sounds like: a short run, sauna sessions, cold plunges, and music. The three miles are led by ultrarunner and life and mindset coach Aingeru Zorita, co-founder of Southbound 400 which we covered a couple of weeks ago. Solid.

we think you should know…

We hosted our first ever event and official Rundown NYC launch party this week—a yoga class taught by Maddie at a gorgeous UES studio, The Pearl, with sunlight pouring through oversized windows and pink velvet couches tucked into cozy side rooms.

Together with women-owned adjustable weights brand Lifting the Mood, we filled up the nearly 40-person room with a really special group of NYC media members, creators, fitness professionals, friends, and Rundown subscribers. For a first event, we genuinely had no idea what to expect.

After class wrapped, people gathered in small circles around the studio, pulled strangers into conversations, compared favorite run clubs and workout classes, and traded IG handles to continue the conversations the next day.

Big thanks to Kelly & Laura from Lifting the Mood, Lauren from The Pearl, and all the brands who sent our attendees home with goodies or provided NA drinks for the event. The support when we're only a month in has been kind of surreal. Keep your eyes out for future events — we promise we'll have a bigger one soon. ♡

happenings around town

• When a giant thunderstorm swept across Manhattan this weekend, Hyrox had to cancel a few evening waves (Pro Doubles Women’s & Men’s). A lot of athletes were understandably pissed—many had flown in for the race. Some are arguing it should move indoors, but the classic convention center format is one of the biggest drawbacks of the race series. TBD on what steps Hyrox will take to reimburse (they say they’ll send athletes emails directly,) but if you were supposed to compete, forward us that email.

• Starting on Sunday is A Week for the World: an annual event where a team of passionate folks run a marathon every day for a week in support of climate justice and community action. You can join them for the full 26.2 or show up for a section, walk, ride, or roll alongside. Run starts at 6AM, keynote speakers start at 11:30.

• If you didn’t catch it above, Cul de Sac is a wellness pop-up in NYC that is bringing sauna culture + sounds to public parks, running multiple events a week. Right now they’re in La Plaza Cultural Community Garden as they search for permanent spot.

• World Cup opening day is this Thursday, and plenty of bars are hosting opening day celebrations/watch parties—including free at the adidas Home of Soccer at Brooklyn Bridge Park, outside of the Intrepid Museum on Pier 86, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and at the fan zone at the Bronx Terminal Market (tickets required for some.)

• The Jacob Riis Bathhouse, the historic Art Deco building right near Rockaway beach which has sat boarded up since 1972, is set to reopen on the 4th of July. It will have some public spaces, but a good portion of it will be with private Rockaway Ocean Club with a restaurant, co-working lounge, and pool. Memberships start at $1,000 annually for Rockaway locals and a hefty chunk more other New Yorkers. They will be hosting a summer lineup of music called Rockaway Sounds, but the schedule hasn’t dropped yet.

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That’s all for this week. If you make it to any of these events, we want to hear about it. Let us know in the comments. And if you come across something worth featuring, send it our way or drop it in the community chat!

PR and brands, our inboxes are always open for news and events we need to know. New studios: We’d love to come join a class and write about it.

Know someone who'd be into this? Forward it to them.

See you next Monday.

— Hannah & Maddie