The former First Lady has received much curiosity from mid-life women about how she achieved her killer biceps. Photo / Getty Images
The former First Lady has received much curiosity from mid-life women about how she achieved her killer biceps. Photo / Getty Images
Michelle Obama's bare arms may have prompted tutting from protocol watchers when she was First Lady, but all that midlife women around the world cared about was how she got those killer biceps.
The 55-year-old former First Lady provided a clue on the London leg of her book tour recently, when she checked into Orangetheory Fitness according to the Daily Mail.
It's a high-intensity, science-backed, training class, where you navigate quick changes between running machines, rowers and floor exercises such as squats and weights, while a heart monitor tracks your progress.
Everything is vitamin C orange, from the Berocca-coloured walls emblazoned with motivational slogans, to the glowy, amber lighting. Zest for life is its middle name.
As I discovered when I hauled my own 51-year-old biceps to that same gym a few days after Michelle, it's one of the hardest, but most upbeat and addictive gym classes I've ever tried.
Twenty minutes into the one-hour session, even my eyeballs are sweating as I switch from a treadmill sprint to speed rowing with a dozen jump squats in between. I can't see how red in the face I am, as we're all the same shade of Trump under the flame-coloured studio lights.
But no time to worry about that, because today's class involves teams of three. Everyone is super-friendly. They have socials and WhatsApp groups, and the vibe is very much come as you are rather than "look at me".
Orangetheory Fitness, it seems, is the ultimate can-do exercise concept. A recent import from the U.S., it already has one million devotees in 23 countries with six studios in the UK (from Manchester to Bromley), attracting all ages.
The 55-year-old former First Lady checked into Orangetheory Fitness in London. Photo / Getty Images
You'll find octogenarians going all out alongside twentysomething fitness pros, and even people who've had injuries. Orangetheory Fitness prides itself on being the workout that anyone can feel successful at.
The oldest regular at the London studio is 84, coach Andy Carr tells me. It's particularly popular with time-pressed 40-plus women, he says, as it combines weight-bearing exercises, vital for maintaining bone density, with powerful fat-burning, which becomes ever harder as we age.
Its founder, Ellen Latham, calls it the "multivitamin of exercising". A 62-year-old trainer with the body of a teenager, Ellen founded Orange-theory Fitness (or OTF) in Florida after she was fired from her job. She set about creating the ultimate in fat-burning workouts and in 2009, OTF was born.
Why orange? "All colours represent different energies and orange is about effervescent dynamic energy," she explains.
The "theory" refers to the science of Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), which underpins the workout.
It's also known as "afterburn", because if you do the workout right, you carry on torching calories for 24 hours afterwards. "We put your body into an oxygen debt by getting your heart beating over 85 per cent of maximum," says Ellen.
The idea is to be in that zone — the "orange zone" — for at least 12 minutes during a one-hour class, hence the heart-rate monitor.
Replacing that oxygen debt over the next 24 hours burns even more calories, so the effects keep working long after you've left the gym. "It's one of the best ways to stimulate one's metabolism," she says.
So how will I know if I'm in that magic orange zone? Andy has advised me to arrive 30 minutes before class so he can key my age and weight into the system. This is used to calibrate my maximum heart rate. I'll be able to see my metrics (calorie burn and heart rate) alongside everyone on the studio screens. This sounds pretty daunting.
How will I measure up against the pros? But that's where it gets clever. "The maximum heart rate measurements we work with will balance out any differences bet-ween people," says Andy.
"If you have two people the same age, one of whom has never exercised, the other has, the novice won't need to push themselves in the same way, because their heart rate will naturally come up quicker, whereas the experienced exerciser will have to take their speeds a lot higher to get into that orange zone," he adds.
Participants of the class aren't told what they will be doing until they arrive, to avoid only picking favourite sessions. Photo / Getty Images
He asks me what my current fitness levels are — I do yoga and cycle — to determine which of the three pace options I should pick for the treadmill. I can powerwalk my way through the whole thing, or I can be keen and run. I settle on "jogging" as it's my first time.
If I can go at jogging pace and only have to spend 12 minutes out of 60 at 85 per cent of my maximum heart rate, how hard can it be?
Our trainer high-fives us all into the room and tells us today's class is ESP, a combination of endurance, strength and power.
You're never told which class you're doing until you're there, which stops you picking your favourites and avoids plateauing.
I start with floor-work exercises, which come up on a screen — arm extensions with a 5kg dumbbell over my head, some planks with arm extensions and squat jumps.
When I'm done, I tag my teammate on the treadmill, who moves to the rower, and our third member takes over on the floor.
My running pace is nice and leisurely — I don't want to overdo it as there's still 50 minutes to go.
However, then I look up at the screen and I'm the only one in the grey zone. I check my heart monitor is working. Yup. No excuse there.
I'll clearly have to pull my finger out. On the next circuit, I up the incline and speed on my treadmill, use my leg power more to max out my rowing.
I can see immediately how lifting a 5kg dumbbell behind my head with a bit more intent, spikes my heart rate. Suddenly I'm beyond orange and in the red zone at 92 per cent. Each minute I spend in the orange and red zones earns me a "splat point", a paintball-style blob — apparently it's a fat cell exploding! — which is tallied on my screen.
I soon start to rack them up, but it's hard work. I need 12 to ensure "afterburn". After an hour, I've managed 22, some people have 35, others five. If you don't rack up the points, it's because you haven't tried hard enough.
At the end, my legs are burning and my arms have a noticeable tremble. I've burned 475 calories, which is more than I've ever done in a class. Most of my classmates have burned 500-plus, some 800.
Despite my thighs aching for three days, I want to go back and beat my score. And it's good to know that, wherever Michelle Obama is, she'll be doing the exact same Orangetheory class as me.
