Fitter, Faster, Stronger

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With swimsuit season creeping up on us, we present our guide to San Diego’s hottest fitness trends and trainers. From a yoga mat to a kickboxing ring to an endless wave, the workout venues are as varied as they are challenging. We felt the burn . . .

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN.

THE “IT” WORKOUT

Glamour declared The Bar Method workout “the Hollywood exercise trend of the moment,” listing Drew Barrymore and the Olsen twins among its celebrity devotees. Judging from the popularity of Allison McCurdy’s The Bar Method studio in Point Loma, this fitness trend is here to stay. The hour-long workout incorporates a ballet bar in a swift-paced series of isometric and strengthening exercises that reshape muscles and incinerate body fat.

Before she opened the San Diego outpost of the national franchise, Allison would drive up to Los Angeles just to take a class. “My husband thought I was crazy,” she says. Her body was transformed—from bulky to lean and long—just six months after she began doing The Bar Method workout, she says.

Allison plays an eclectic soundtrack—from Andrea Bocelli to Britney Spears—to set the tone and pace of the class. After a brief warmup, we work the upper body with hand weights, and stretch using the ballet bar lining the sunny, upscale studio. Easy enough. Then we target the lower body with a series of squats and leg lifts while holding on to the bar. The movements are subtle and targeted—small pulses—and by the final reps, my leg muscles shake from exhaustion. Looking around the mirrored room, I’m relieved to see I’m not the only one fighting though the tremors. We then move on to seated ab work, using the bar and an exercise ball. After each muscle group is exhausted, we do some gentle stretching, which Allison says helps the muscles rebuild longer and leaner.

But you needn’t look to the Olsen twins for proof—super-fit Allison is the best advertising for this fitness craze. 619-226-2301; barmethod.com/sandiego —JULIA B. POLLORENO

BACK TO BASICS

When’s the last time your personal trainer asked you to pee into a cup? It’s all in a day’s work for Craig Morgan, co-owner of Tru Health & Wellness in Sorrento Valley. His unique approach to client health and fitness starts at the cellular level and honors each individual’s body chemistry. When signing up a new client, trainer Craig (or co-owner/trainer David Zappasodi) performs a metabolic nutrition test—a series of assessments that reveal the client’s “metabolic individuality,” which is used to determine a nutrition program that enables clients to achieve their ultimate goal, be it weight loss, sports performance, lowered cholesterol levels or revitalized overall energy.

“One’s man food can be another man’s poison,” says Craig, as he hands me cups to collect urine and saliva. Everyone processes nutrition differently, he says, and a determination of my “metabolic dominance” will tell me how to fuel my body so it can perform efficiently at optimal health. After Craig takes some base measurements and vital signs, I guzzle a glucose/potassium drink. Over the course of two hours, he analyzes my blood sugar curve (via multiple finger pricks), along with changes in my urine and saliva pH, vital signs and more-subjective measures (perceived energy, hunger and mood). I fill out a dietary record, logging information about my eating habits and patterns, and tell him about my fitness goals.

The following day, I return to review my results. Craig produces a binder with my comprehensive metabolic nutrition profile, which reveals my metabolic type as “sympathetic dominant” and lists recommended foods, organized by proteins (light meats are best), carbohydrates (easy on the artichokes) and fat (munch seeds and nuts sparingly). The guide also provides sample menus customized for my specific metabolic type.

With a totally personalized nutrition road map, I feel ready to dive into the recommended fitness regimen. As long as it doesn’t require any more little plastic cups. 858-642-7522; truhealthandwellness.com —J.B.P.

DOING THE WAVE

On the Mission Beach boardwalk, on any given day, crowds of people stand around and gaze at what appears to be an endless, man-made wave. Riders show off their skills as they surf the Wave House Athletic Club’s FlowRider, sometimes joining the likes of world-champ surfer Kelly Slater and other pros. Feeling saucy one Saturday morning, I decide to be bold and step up to the wave. But while many of the riders I had seen on the FlowRider in the past made it look easy, I learn—the hard way—that it’s not. The life guard tries his best to help: “Get low, lean back, use your hands to balance.” And indeed he did help as, by the end of my hour-long session, I was riding back and forth, to the amusement of onlookers.

Thinking I had just participated in one of Mission Beach’s finest amusement rides, I was surprised to learn I had taken part in the Wave House’s Flow Riding class, one of the newer and more innovative fitness classes at the beachside athletic club. Feeling a familiar burn in my calves, thighs and abs the next morning left no doubt I’d had a workout. I had indeed exercised for an hour and didn’t even know it. Only in San Diego can an “endless wave” be one of the best workouts in town. 858-228-9300; wavehouseathleticclub.com —RYAN PLOURDE

CROSS-PURPOSES

Does the idea of approaching your workout in a radically different way each day sound tempting? Founded when Santa Cruz instructor Greg Glass man started posting daily routines online, CrossFit—with its egalitarian, open-source appeal—has skyrocketed in popularity. Participants have even been known to form kindred bonds outside the gym. But rather than promising me a six-pack by summertime, instructor Rory McKernan and US Cross Fit aim for total-body conditioning—speed, stamina, strength, balance, flexibility, agility and coordination.

Rory puts me through a dizzying array of workouts. Gym toys I hadn’t seen in years—rowing machines, gymnastics rings, climbing ropes, plyometrics boxes, kettlebells, barbells, pull-up bars and medicine balls—all feature prominently. I perform a veritable greatest-hits-of-the-gym in lifting, running, climbing, calisthenics, squatting, throwing and rowing hard and fast, often with almost no rest.

However, CrossFit’s beauty lies in the fact that whether you’re working alongside an ex-Navy SEAL or a grandma, you’re competing neither against them nor some arbitrary number. You’re only trying to beat your own previous best. For example: With 10 minutes to perform 15 box jumps, 10 kettlebell swings and five medicine-ball squat tosses, Rory challenges me to complete as many circuits as I can. Resting anytime is an option, although rebuffing his genuine, enthusiastic attempts to get me moving again isn’t easy. Covered in sweat and feeling the burn of more squats than I’ve attempted in years, the thrill of pushing myself just a bit further than I thought possible brings a tired smile to my face. 760-634-3825; uscrossfit.com —ADAM ELDER

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