Hakuna Matata: SELF Magazine Workout in the Park

Two of my friends and I got tickets through Gilt City to go to this Workout in the Park, hosted by SELF Magazine. The event was four hours on a beautiful Saturday in Grant Park in the heart of Chicago. We signed up for all the goodies that came with, but really had little idea what to expect from the event. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised!

We got there around 10:45am to already find a huge line had formed. We waited with hundreds of other people (I think almost, if not all, women) to go in, still not really knowing what was going to happen, but excited to be out on a sunny day, participating in a unique event!

We're ready!

Our view from our line

The entrance

Turns out they only have this Workout in the Park in NYC, San Fran, and Chicago... pretty neat! This is the schedule for the day; there were three stages - the main stage, which had everything from 'sexy stretch' to a West African dance, a CrossFit stage, and a yoga area. All the sessions were 15-25 minutes long, so you could go back and forth between the stages, participating in however many/whatever classes you wished.

This was the schedule of the day

We started by signing up for a CrossFit class at noon, then participated in the sexy stretch... it was so neat to be doing the same movement as a thousand other people! They were funky and funny moves, so we were giggling as we thrusted those hips :) We then went to the CrossFit class, which completely kicked my butt. We did 5 minutes of 'just' 5 squats, 5 pushups, then 5 airjumps... I thought I was going to die. The lead guy was kind enough to let us know that, "Good news! You're halfway done!" ... as I'm dying, thinking we're almost done. Jeesh! I felt that the next day.

Group workout! With SUCH a beautiful backdrop!

We didn't really do his workout, but the trainer from the Biggest Loser, Dolvett Quince was there and led a few workouts. He was riiiiiiipped and gorgeous and quite intense! He also loved Chicago and asked us if it could be his second city :) Any time!

This was our absolute favorite exercise of the day - it was called "Masala Bhangra" and was a mix of dance moves of bhangra and Bollywood dances, Indian style! It was soooo much fun to do and the girl who led it absolutely rocked. She said that she does it for her father, who she sadly lost to cardiac arrest when he was 47 : ( Her dance, though, was high energy and had moves like, 'kick the drum', 'twist the lightbulb', and lots of 'bobbling the head'! It was great.

All of our swag! We made out pretty well!

The rest of our time was spent wandering from booth to booth, checking out what they all had to offer. The event brought the magazine to life, featuring everything from beauty and health to nutrition and fitness. We got screened for skin cancer, completed a quiz where we got a nice bottle of sunscreen, looked at lucy clothing and Reebok shoes, won a Garnier umbrella, and got lots of free samples. My favorites were the Calvin Klein 'euphoria' perfume (it smells incredible!), Laughing Cow cheese (tasty!), and the peanut butter cookie and peppermint stick Luna Bars. The cookie dough one was questionable.

Our gorgeous city

We then sat for awhile in the sunshine, flipping through our complimentary SELF Magazine. It's a nice magazine, featuring lots of good recipes, tips, and fun articles. It was overall a completely successful day and a neat way to participate in a Chicago event. The event was incredibly well organized and managed and I think it was a great way to get people in the community to try new exercises! There were people of all ages and all fitness levels, which worked well, because with so many people, no one was really watching anyone else. The activities were also set up in a way that you could do however little or much as you wanted, and could take breaks as needed. Everyone was in high spirits and enjoyed being there together, which was refreshing. It was an inspiring and lovely day!