What kind of person goes to the sleazy, seedy Atlantic City for a weekend fitness festival? Men?s Health?associate editor Clint Carter ventured to Sweat AC at Caesar?s Palace on the boardwalk to find out.
Jillian Michaels has some filthy mouth.
You know what she just said? She said, ?Don?t finish like a pussy.? She yelled it right into the wraparound face-microphone she?s using to address this full ballroom of devoted followers. Ordinarily I don?t mind such vulgarity, but right now, I am in fact being a big pussy.
Ah yes, where all good fitness starts.
I?m wheezing and shaking as my one-arm plank threatens to pop up into teepee. The guy in front of me is sweating so much that when I drop down to a superman?the one where you stretch facedown on the mat and lift your arms and legs into the air?my nose is just inches from his puddle. So when Jillian calls me a pussy, it stings.
This is Atlantic City?s first-ever Sweat AC, a fitness festival hosted by Caesar?s Palace. The event is part of an effort to rebrand the city as more than a two-bit gambling town and cash in on the boom of travel tourism. Americans have shown their willingness to crisscross the country for marathons and triathlons, and races like The Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, and Men?s Health?s own Urbanathlon have become annual traditions.
But true fitness festivals like Sweat AC haven?t seen large-scale success. They occur infrequently and are generally put on by local communities. Who wants to travel for a weekend of Zumba, yoga, and P90X? You can?t actually get fit in one weekend, after all. You can bust your ass and hurt like hell, but you can?t expect your abs to suddenly pop out. That takes time. But despite my reservations, I accepted the challenge. Maybe it?s the masochist in me, or maybe I was just curious to see what kind of person goes to Atlantic City to get fit. (Break a sweat any time, anywhere with these 3 Killer Cardio Workouts.)
As far as I know, people only go to Atlantic City to feed their vices. They go for excessive drinking, dancing, gambling, and fist-pumping. They go for the hangovers and the lack of supervision. Atlantic City is a slice of Las Vegas stitched onto the Jersey Shore, and now it wants to throw a fitness party? Sounds good to me. But don?t expect me to behave myself.
I?ll be blunt. My mission as Sweat AC was to take in as much fitness as I could without forgoing any of the debauchery Atlantic City threw my way. Throughout the weekend I asked myself: What would The Situation do? And that?s what I did. Here?s what I learned about the marriage between fitness and bad ideas.
Lesson #1: You can always work your way through a hangover.
Frankie Edgar, former UFC lightweight champion, was one of the experts at the festival. To prepare for his workout, I paid a visit to the nightclub at Caesar?s. It?s the kind of place with enough strobe lights to make you forget how potent the cocktails are. I danced with a bachelorette party, swam naked in the ocean, and woke the next day to find a Miller High Life bottle cap stuffed in the toe of my shoe. It was that kind of night. I needed some help. I asked Edgar how to manage a workout with a hangover.
As it turns out, Edgar doesn?t drink. In his younger days, sure, but not anymore. Some help he was. So I decided to pry Tony Horton, founder of P90X, for his tips on hangover workouts. But before I could, he revealed that he doesn?t drink either. Another whiff. These guys were no use.
So I forged on blindly, armed with nothing but my resolve. Both mornings I had 10 a.m. workouts, and both nights I stayed out until I was good and sure my hangover would be severe. With no help from the pros, I powered through hour-long metabolic circuits with the kind of head pains that make you worry your brain is shrinking and creating a cranial vacuum that will suck your skull inward. It was unpleasant, but I?ll tell you this: I felt better when the workout was over.
I was still hungover, but my head-throbbing had subsided just enough that I could walk through the hotel lobby without wearing sunglasses. I?d call that a success. I think Frankie and Tony would agree. (While the perfect hangover cure may not exist, we know this: Never try these 3 Common Hangover Mistakes.)
Lesson #2: You can also drink your way through a hangover.
I might have discovered the world?s best drink: The post-workout beer that?s also a hair-of-the-dog beer. Suddenly I?m back in the saddle.
Lesson #3: Your trainers are sages. Trust them.
I?m really getting into this post-workout, hair-of-the-dog beer when I remembered something Jillian Michaels said at her workout. She said, ?How will you ever get better if you?re not prepared to be shitty at something?? It was an excellent point, and I suddenly realized that I had avoided poker tables my whole life because I was afraid of losing money. Right then I decided to skip the day?s fitness seminars to play blackjack instead.
I sat down at a table and the dealer sent me two aces right off the top of the deck. I split the hand and she dealt me a queen and 10. That?s two blackjacks. I?d just won $30. Before long, I?d doubled my money. Thanks, Jillian. (Want more sneaky gambling tips? Try?The (Legal) Poker Trick to Win $$$.)
Lesson #4: You can?t overvalue the impact of a strategic nap.
I?m not much of a morning person after I?ve been drinking Red Bull and vodka until four or five in the morning, so those 10 a.m. workouts weren?t easy for me. To ease the burden, I set up a spa treatment. Ordinarily I wouldn?t ask for a facial, but the facial at the Caesar?s spa relied on ?state of the art snake venom technology.? Huh. Snake venom technology. That sounded promising.
Tony Horton leads a hungover crowd at Sweat AC.
Was it any good? I couldn?t tell you. I slept through the whole damn thing, and I?m pretty sure it gave me the energy boost I needed to locate the next club. Other great places to catch up on sleep: on the beach, by the pool, or in a dark booth in the back of an all-you-can-eat buffet.Lesson #5: You really don?t need a fitness festival to learn about fitness.
If there?s a true lesson to be learned here, it?s this: Working out with a hangover feels miserable, but it does help ease the pain. It?s better than aspirin, anyway. Do you need to attend a fitness festival to learn this? Absolutely not. If you?re the type who likes to stay out late drinking (for shame!) then you should also be the type who can work it out in the gym the next day. Let?s be honest?a fitness festival isn?t about getting fit, it?s about celebrating fitness. ?It?s the same reason people go to motorcycle shows or car conventions,? Horton says. ?People come here because they?re fans. They?re fans of me or Jillian or someone else, and they come see us perform live.?
That makes sense. I went to three workouts, and after every one, the participants stormed the stage to take pictures with the instructor. That doesn?t happen at my local gym.
So if you?re mulling over whether or not to hit up a fitness festival?or waiting to buy tickets for next year?s Sweat AC?consider the lineup. If Tony Horton is your Jerry Garcia of metabolic training, or if Jillian Michaels is your Cher of Spiderman pushups, then the festival makes sense. If not, save your carousing cash for carousing and double down on your efforts to work out out every day?festival or not. (Squeeze in an amazing total-body workout every day with Speed Shred, the new follow-along DVD series from Men?s Health!)
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Source: http://news.menshealth.com/atlantic-city-fitness/2012/09/30/
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