Motivation to work out or train for a race can be hard to muster alone. Hence the popularity of fitness challenges, now offered at all kinds of yoga and fitness studios (and workplaces) that claim to deliver that needed extra dose of get up and go.

But does completing one really lead to sustained health and wellness in the long run?

“The fitness/health/diet process is complex and multifaceted,” says Bill Cole, the founder and president of the Mental Game Coaching Association and author of the forthcoming book The Mental Game Guide To Fitness And Weight Control. “If it was simple, anyone could do it, easily, on their own.”

Since a lot of us can’t, fitness companies try to do it for us, in lots of different ways.

The Flybarre Challenge includes 4 classes per weel for 6 weeks. (Photo: Stylecaster.com)

Oliver Ryan, the founder of the online challenge community Social Workout, says that the social aspect of challenges is the key to motivating participants.

“There are huge amounts of evidence that social accountability is enormously motivating,” explains Ryan. “It’s about the public statement of a goal.”

And “goal-setting togetherness” doesn’t just encourage accountability, it also provides support. Team In Training, for instance, built its model of coaching individuals to conquer endurance challenges like triathlons and 100-mile bike rides around this concept—if team members are cheering you on, the challenge just won’t feel as painful.

Zhana Galjasevic, the owner of The Yoga Room, agrees. Galjasevic runs 30-day yoga challenges twice a year, in which, she says, students tend to motivate each other, and a sense of community builds at the studio.

Motivation can also come from regularly taking stock of your progress with someone besides your diary, finds Mahri Relin, one of the instructors who runs six-week Flybarre challenges at Flywheel. Participants are highly motivated by the numbers that measure change in their bodies. “Getting measured every week keeps people accountable to themselves,” says Relin. “They’re disappointing themselves if the numbers aren’t changing.”

But while challenges seem to be successful in motivating individuals to achieve short-term fitness goals, long-term fitness is not a guaranteed result.

How do you sustain the regimen after crossing the challenge finish line? According to Bill Cole, it’s about aligning your personal and social motivations. Accountability starts with you—but a little cheerleading doesn’t hurt. —Lisa Elaine Held

Have you done a fitness or health challenge? How was it? Would you do another one? Tell us in the Comments, below!

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After cultivating a dedicated clientele on the Upper East Side in just over a year, The Refine Method, a killer body-sculpting method, is gearing up to open a much bigger, more amenity-laden location in Union Square this spring.

Refine debuted its souped-up system of pulleys in a tiny one-room studio on 71st Street and First Avenue in September 2010, and it’s been growing out of its space ever since.

Most of its customers hailed from within a 10-block radius. And they fell hard and fast for the cardio-and-resistance-training combo, jamming themselves into a tiny vestibule while waiting for the $32 classes to start, and pressing up against piles of coats stacked on hooks.

There was literally no room to grow. “Finding another location’s been in the works for a while,” admits founder Brynn Jinnett, who finally landed a spot that fit the bill and would cater to downtown women.

The new Refine studio, on 17th and Broadway, is 2,000 square feet, or about four times the size of the uptown original. (It will have a lobby and showers.) Jinnett will use the extra real estate to offer goal-driven packages like Regroup, a body transformation program that pairs classes with measurements, education, and support.

Jinnett hopes the Union Square location will be construction-worker free by mid-March. But, in the meantime, she’s running pre-opening classes with a select group of participants to test the workout on the downtown set.

Getting everything “just so” is important to Jinnett. A gospel preacher of exercise science and functional movement, she’s already updated the pulley-system three times since Refine’s debut on the boutique fitness scene.

“As what we learn about exercise grows, we’re going to continue to improve the equipment and method,” she says.

At this rate, it won’t be long before Refine’s number of locations matches SoulCycle’s.

For more info, visit www.refinemethod.com

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Physique 57 matches expiration dates with length of package—5 classes in 3 months, 10 in 6, and 20 in 12.

Most fitness-class packages come with expiration dates, and losing money from unused classes can be seriously frustrating—especially when you’re fitting yoga, barre, and boot camp classes into any given week.

While the workout trend has been towards hopping between boutique studios, and the benefits of cross training and muscle confusion, studios continue to expect you to swear allegiance to them, and them alone, by setting a stopwatch after they swipe your credit card.

Lynda Lippin, a celebrity Pilates instructor who has worked at many big-name studios, cited cash flow as a main reason for expiration dates. Just like in other industries, lots of businesses (like Groupon) bank on “breakage,” or the money made from unused deals, gift cards, and classes.

But when asked, most studios claimed their motivation was not financial at all. Schulyer Grant, owner of Kula Yoga, said that the studio was trying to avoid an accounting nightmare.

“If there were no expiration date, someone could come to us three years down the line, and we may have changed our computing system (or prices), and they could claim they had a class card,” she said. “These things happen!”

And the majority of studios said this: They do it for you.

“When purchasing a package, you are a making a commitment to yourself. You are paying the studio for a service. Incentive, encouragement and accountability are part of that service,” said Flannery Foster, the owner of GoodYoga in Greenpoint. Studio owners at Bend & Bloom and YogaMaya offered the same reasoning.

Physique 57′s founder and CEO Jennifer Maanavi acknowledged that sticking to regular classes at one place is not just good for you, it helps the studio, too. In other words, if you say you’re a Physique gal, it’s better if you look the part.

“If you’re taking class and want to see results, the expiration dates are what we think will guide you to the best results,” she explained. “We’re backing up the brand promise with the logistics of the packages.”

But should a studio be the keeper of your fitness goals, or should you?

“We’re not here to put a time table on people’s personal resolutions,” says Joey Gonzalez, the owner of Barry’s Bootcamp NYC, one of the only studios in the city without expiration dates.”We’ve focused on building a community that makes people feel welcomed and encouraged.” As a result, says Gonzalez, most clients use up their packages quickly anyway. –Lisa Elaine Held

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Yoga mats are the new handbags for a night out in th city.

Lots of New York women forgo happy hour to fit in an evening yoga or spin class.

But the trainers behind Rogue Female Fitness don’t think you should have to. So they created Raise the Bar, a new fitness class ($35) that combines sweaty workouts with socializing over wine and beer.

The sweat-then-swig concept has taken off so quickly that the company, which launched less than a year ago, is opening a studio in the Flatiron District this spring. Further proof that not all healthy-types are teetotalers.

“It’s not reality to never drink and never go out with your friends, especially in New York,” says Leanne Shear, a personal trainer and one of Rogue’s co-founders, with Helena Wolin and Katie Currie. “We look at it as fitness for the real woman who really enjoys her life on both ends of the spectrum and isn’t willing to sacrifice either fitness or fun.”

Classes like “Workout and Wine” and “Bootcamp and Beer” are the busy, urban woman’s equivalent of an adult softball league. But instead of running the bases then sharing a six pack, the Lululemon-clad classmates do lunges and squats together in Hudson River Park then head to a trendy West Village bar for wine tastings together.

The Rogue founders: Katie Currie, Leanne Shear, and Helena Wolin

Rogue says New York women in their 20s and 30s love it, because it caters to a few big-deal lifestyle pursuits by offering an all-in-one fitness, socializing, and relationship-building experience. “We’re really creating a community and a team mentality,” says co-founder Katie Currie.

That was apparent at a recent boot-camp-style class where afterward attendees sipped Cotes Du Rhone in their running tights, exchanged business cards, and made plans to try other workouts together.

Rogue also offers classes like “Fit & Flow,” a yoga-cardio-strength training mash-up, personal training, and nutrition-fitness programs. And in the new studio, they’ll host 30-minute lunch-hour workouts and social events, like book signings and trunk shows—all for women only.

The Rogue trainers are confident their female-empowered, fun-loving approach to fitness will continue to attract women who live “full lives” and enjoy a post-workout glass of wine instead of a smoothie every so often.  –Lisa Elaine Held

Sign up for Rogue Female Fitness’ mailing list at www.roguefemalefitness.com for updates on upcoming Raise the Bar classes.

Would you skip your post-workout smoothie for a Sauvignon Blanc and socializing? Tell us in the Comments, below!

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(Photo: Flickr/Lululemon)

The week leading up to the New Year is always a time of reflection. You’ve cleared the stressful holiday hurdles and the fun of New Year’s Eve is all that’s left.

It’s also a time of year when every publication churns out their best-of lists so that editors can unplug and take a freaking vacation. And we’re no different.

This week we’ll be highlighting our favorite stories in each category—Good Sweat, Good Looks, Good Escapes, Good Advice, and Good Food.

Plus our picks for the Fridge Look Books that made us smile, laugh, or change our diets—and the most controversial stories we reported this year.

Here are our top five, in no particular order. Let us know if we missed your favorites! Happy Holidays from Well+Good. See you in 2012!

1. Five biggest fitness cults
Certain studios inspire cult-like devotion, and have sparked communities of fitness-obsessed followers. These 5 fascinating workouts are lifestyles unto themselves.

2. The best 60-minute yoga classes in New York City
Isn’t it ironic that in our time-pressed city, 90-minute yoga classes dominate studio schedules? Well+Good’s best places to get your Om on in a hour.

3. Jade vs. Manduka: Yoga mat throw down
Competition is alive on the yoga mat, er, about the mat, where New York City yogis count themselves in camp Jade or Manduka. Which is the best mat in class?

4. New York City’s 10 healthiest celebrities
Forget L.A. Many of the healthiest celebrities are New Yorkers devoted to the city’s yoga studios and juice bars. Well+Good picks the 10 healthiest celebs in town.

5. New York’s fastest growing group of yogis? Kids
With yoga classes all their own at children’s studios, adult studios, and schools, kids and teens are the fastest growing group of yogis in New York City.

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The boxer-ballerina Aerospace duo

There’s a rumor on the street that popular boxing-barre studio, Aerospace, is down for the count. But it’s emphatically open for business.

That is, until it’s not.

In October 2012, boxer-ballerina duo, Michael Olajide, Jr. and Leila Fazel, are shuttering their renowned equipment-free gym.

While fans will miss the cool Meatpacking District space, it’s probably not the last you’ll hear of its founders.

“We’ve had eight spectacular years,” Olajide said by phone earlier this week. With his business partner Fazel, Olajide turned Aerobox into an entire line of Aero-branded classes, like Aerosculpt, Aeroimpact, and Aerobarre.

The studio and its workouts became a go-to spot for lots of New York celebs over the last few years—from Victoria’s Secret models to actors like Hugh Jackman, Eva Mendes, and Liv Tyler.

Which is exactly why they’ve decided to close, says Olajide. While the success has been “amazing,” say Olajide and Fazel, it’s taking up too much of their time.

Their classes are routinely packed because clients come to the studio for one reason: specifically to train with them. So they haven’t groomed a roster of teachers in the Aero method to shoulder some of the burden.

“Teaching classes and sessions, from open to close, doesn’t allow us to really expand,” says Olajide. “We haven’t been able to spread our word and method at the pace we’d like.”

Aerospace: One seriously glam piece of fitness real estate

It’s a risky approach: Give up a New York flagship in order to grow a business? But Olajide and Fazel have a plan—a stronger internet presence, a television presence, licensing workshops, and new product lines—all of which the founders are reluctant to provide concrete details on.

“The Aerospace concept is going to be strong,” says Olajide. “It’ll be even stronger once we can pay more attention to developing it.” And once they’re not paying New York rent, for sure.

In the meantime, he encouraged New Yorkers to come “get a taste” of Aerospace before they go. Sounds like Olajide’s not quite ready to give up the long hours just yet. —Lisa Elaine Held

Any guesses on what Michael and Leila will do next? Tell us in the Comments, below!

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This  January, SurfSet Fitness is debuting its group workout classes at the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers, where New Yorkers will ride the RipSurfer X, a newfangled piece of fitness equipment that resembles a surfboard-shaped Pilates Reformer.

And it’s already riding a wave.

Why? Surfing is having a serious moment. The once novel sport is now a multi-billion dollar industry, and has a growing fan base—not just in Southern California. These days, you’re practically expected to jump on a board the minute you’re off the Hampton Jitney. (Well, when the water’s warm.)

The SurfSet team is counting on this cultural cachet, hoping that the gym version will take off the way spinning did among non-cyclists.

While the machine helps surfers stay in shape in the off-season, the company is primarily pitching it as a fun, total-body workout for those who’ve never been on a board before (or who would like to practice their pop-ups before trying their luck at Far Rockaway).

What’s the workout like?

The workout had us sweating early on, with intense cardio moves that simulate surfing, like pulling the resistance bands in a paddling motion and popping up to ride a wave, combined with planks, lunges, and mountain climbers all on the board. And while you execute each motion, you’re also using core muscles to stabilize the moving board.

New York City fitness types are amped to try SurfSet. The Sports Center at Chelsea Piers has a whopping 30 weekly classes on the schedule. They’re open to non-members at $35 a pop, with members getting 15 percent off (and discounts if you buy 5- or 10-class packs). There’s also an 8-week boot camp for $285.

The RipSurfer X, created by former hockey player-surfer Mike Hartwick, took a year to develop and officially launched this November

Sarah Ponn, SurfSet’s lead fitness instructor, says that 350 non-members have already signed up and that the camp is almost full.

After March 4, the gym’s exclusive hold on the class will expire. Rather than see where the tide takes them, SurfSet is already making plans.

“Our dream is to have boutique SurfSet studios, with surf projections, wave sounds, and possibly sand!” says Ponn. “One in New York City, one on the West Coast, and then we’ll fill in between.”

But workout machines come and go. To keep making waves, SurfSet will need to cultivate the unique culture that brands like Barry’s Bootcamp and SoulCycle have perfected. There’s a great big line separating the dedication spinners feel to raising their Flywheel numbers, say, and that old stationary bike gathering dust in your mom’s basement. To stay competitive, SurfSet needs more than just a kick-ass workout. It needs a scene. —Lisa Elaine Held

Are you going to try SurfSet? Could this be your new fitness love? Tell us in the Comments, below!

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Most yoga teachers are living the dream. For one, they love their jobs. (And enjoy excellent karma.) But are they making a living? In many cases, the answer is no.

We interviewed nearly a dozen mid-career yogis to understand if this demanding profession allows its devoted, do-gooder practitioners to pay the bills.

For salary standards, first we tapped Ava Taylor, the founder of YAMA Talent, the first-ever yoga talent agency. Taylor’s stable of super-established and highly credentialed yogis earn anywhere from $40K to $400K. While the salary range is huge, “most yoga teachers in New York can expect to make $35K or $40K,” Taylor says. “Even if you become a really popular instructor, with 50 people in your class regularly.”

“Teaching yoga is an amazing job,” says a popular instructor at trendy downtown yoga studio (whose name we’ll keep private, along with the rest of our sources). “But it isn’t easy to reach financial solvency. It’s awesome if you have a rich husband or a trust fund—I have neither, but I’ve met many teachers who do.”

Teacher trainings, workshops, and yoga retreats are some of the ways most yoga teachers earn additional income. And for the superstars—of which there are maybe a dozen or so—there are products such as DVDs, endorsement deals, and the like.

“I make just barely enough to live alone in Brooklyn, pay for health insurance, and feed myself,” says a yoga teacher with seven years experience and a notable following. Her situation is common to most we chatted with. “There’s nothing extra to sock away, so I fear having to take days off due to illness,” she says.

Most top yoga teachers in New York City get paid in good karma rather than commensurate wages, we found

While most yoga teachers prioritize their love for the work over financial solvency, at least in the short term, some can’t help but make plans for the future. “I love what I do, but can’t imagine it allowing me to save for retirement or to buy a home or to raise a family,” says the trendy-studio teacher. “I’m in school to enter another line of work in several years.”

Traditional employment terms aren’t common—like salaries. Yoga teachers typically get a flat rate and some get a little commission for every student that shows up. And to work the number of hours needed, most teachers teach at two or more studios.

A full-time yoga teacher at Equinox since 2002 says there are literal benefits from working outside the studio scene. “Having health insurance is a nice perk, considering that yoga studios don’t offer this benefit… and I feel very blessed to be part of the yoga community at the club,” she says.

While in some professions years on the job can mean pay raises for experience, that’s not necessarily the case for yogis. “In our Jivamukti training they always said to have a second job, and they weren’t kidding. I know a lot of yoga teachers who also tend bar,” says a Brooklyn-based yogi with more than a decade of teaching experience.

And most instructors agree that group classes alone don’t cut it. Private yoga classes, which can pay $100-150, help tremendously. “If I didn’t have privates,” says a New York yogi, “I just wouldn’t be able to make ends meet.” —Melisse Gelula and Alexia Brue

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