W Hotels Want Their Guests to Sweat Both Indoors and Outdoors!

From my experience, the hotel chain SPG, more than many others, doesn’t  just talk about promoting health and fitness for its guests – it makes it a top priority. Whether it’s having a “running concierge,” or fabulous fitness centers such as the one’s I saw in Cancun, Mexico, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Lisbon, Portugal to holding morning Yoga Classes on the beach in Fort Lauderdale to Westin’s Gear Lending program – I’ve always been impressed by SPG’s strong initiatives on the health and wellness front.

I was in Italy last week when I received an email, on behalf of W Hotels Worldwide, inviting me to join Sunday Funday Fit in Union Square Park on Sunday, August 27th at 11am – – consisting of an hour-long high intensity workout led by Keoni Hudoba, a Barry’s Bootcamp Master Trainer. I wrote back and said YES, I’d love to attend.

The morning of the class, the weather was perfect in New York City. I arrived early at Union Square and saw this:

The mats were already set up.

There was a stage and a lot of cool cloud shaped mirrors. Talk about an urban gym!

This class was not open to the public, so I checked in and met the PR team as well as the team from the Union Square W, which is located across the street. While waiting for others to show up and set up, I amused myself by taking selfies in the cloud mirrors!

And then the class began. Keoni was a great instructor. He had us doing the whole gamut from warming up, to cardio, and dance routines, to planks and pushups. This was a fabulous 45 minutes high intensity workout. I was too busy trying to keep up to take photos, but the W has promised to provide me with a few. Until that time, imagine an outdoor class with a lot of moving and shaking.

We finished up and were treated to chilled bottles of Smartwater water (a sponsor of the event) and new W yoga mats. What a fun morning – I look forward to working out with SPG again soon!