Turkey Day may be clogging your arteries but don't let it put a stop to your fitness routine! On for this week a Thanksgiving’s night ride with Spinback, a manly-man bike tour with Culture Shock, three new to new-ish gyms offering free stuff, updates on FitCoins and Orange Theory and some locker room talk. Also stuff to mark in your calendar like the next Sweaty Brunch, Brawl on The Bund, and The Shanghai Tower Climb.

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Upcoming Events

Spinback Fitness Indoor Cycling is holding an event on Thanksgiving to make you feel better about stuffing your face afterwards. Turkey = Protein! At both studios, starts at 6pm so you won’t be too late for that dinner. Costs 150rmb. Here’s a city tour on a vintage bike from Culture Shock, followed by a whiskey tasting, cigar tasting, and a talk on suits by ROJO. You know, manly stuff. Runs from 4-7pm and kicks off at the freshly opened Gan Bar, costs 450rmb. Brawl on the Bund is back and partnering with the W Shanghai. It's a boxing fight night with a ‘dress in white’ theme for charity! Tickets on sale at SmartTicket, part of the event's proceeds go to More Than Aware. The next Sweaty Brunch is set for Hungry Lung's Kitchen in Crystal Galleria. A free one hour boxing class on the patio starting at 10.30am (can fit about 30-40 people). No brunch discounts will follow for this one, but some coffee, juice, and tea will be provided. Follow the event link to sign up--usually fills up quickly cause it's free and all.

New Gyms and What They’re Offering...

Mthd Fitness

Mthd Fitness will officially open the first week of December, still in soft open they’re offering free sessions till the end of November. Just add the on of the gym's head coaches Juddy on Wechat to get started: JuddyFerguson. Haven't checked this one out yet, but hey, it's free must be good right? Starting December, one trial class will be 36rmb, one drop in 150rmb, then packages from 6 sessions to 36 range from 840rmb to 3,636rmb.

TriFit

Photo provided by TriFit

TriFit is that gym that takes FitCoins as currency, mentioned in the last column, but here are a few updates. When you download the TriFit App, you get 5 FitCoins which you can use to buy classes which cost 1 coin each (originally 2-3 coins a class). So that’s 5 free studio classes, just select "5 FitCoins" under the class schedule section on the app (search: trifit in app store, or add wechat: trifit01 for more help). This week I went to check out their ‘Tri Ground Force’ class, a game-based, play oriented approach to getting your sweat on...basically you try to mirror the instructor's movements as she flows around a mat at the center of the gym, this is followed by a series of body-movement games where you partner with people in the class. Quite strange, but fun, and my abs are sore two days later. The studio’s nice, but alone on the 6th floor of a mall. If you go check it out you might think you’re in the wrong place, but you’re not. Or at least probably not. TriFit's also got a slew of HIIT classes and gossip from the locker room is they have a challenging barre class, though as of now those are just scheduled for Friday nights.

Also...

JeyDancePilates is a free-floating studio opened 8 months ago by Géraldine “Jey” Chemla former ballerina and certified pilates instructor. Classes alternative between 9 Clouds Studio and Wheat (Fumin Lu) and are mostly pilates with some yoga, barre, and dance sprinkled in between. For first timers, it's 350rmb for two classes, but this comes with one free class (so like 117rmb per small studio class). Check check check check it out.

News From the Ground

Orange Theory Fitness has got their official-official-official grand opening party set for December 15, after that all the peasants will be welcome; before that from December 3 on just VIP founder members are invited. My thighs are burning in anticipation... That Shanghai Tower Climb thing is on for this Sunday, November 26. Too late to register but you can go spectate, will go all day starting at 9am. Fatburger will be on the scene serving up (good lord!) 'baby fat meals' and chicken sandwiches for 39rmb. And that seems like the perfect way to end this week's edition of Active Shanghai.