APEX workouts in Old Town, Alexandria
OneLife has a fitness center in Old Town, Alexandria Virginia, and I've attended for the past three years. My membership lets me visit other OneLife gyms, and I train (with Trainer Eliot Hyche) at the gym in Crystal Park. I participate in classes at the Old Town gym, and for the past three years I've taken the APEX course taught by Jennifer Foster.
The course is intense, flexible, and really, really helpful. I started taking Jen's course because it fit well within my goals: I wanted to improve my balance and resilience, and I wanted to gain upper body strength. This course met each of these objectives.
Over the course of 60 minutes, we dive into five circuits, with four exercises in each circuit. Jen does a great job of keeping the music active, and personally does the work with us, so we know exactly what our workout should look like.
I trained with the Army Airborne at Ft. Benning in 1974 and found Jen's circuits to be way up to par, equivalent to what when on during basic training and jump school.
More importantly, however, is the knowledge Jen brings to the class. Due to degenerative disc disease and an untreated compression fracture of my T4-T5, I steer clear of the impact accompanying burpees and mountain climbers. Jen teaches work-arounds, so that when the rest of the class is jumping and kicking, I can be elevating and rowing.
This training is important to me: I've completed five polar expeditions (three in the Artic Ocean and two in Antartica). Each of these involves boarding Zodiac pontoons, where there will be ten passengers and a crew member operating the outboard engine. If we were to be swamped (which does, in fact happen, and happened three years ago in the Antarctic), each of us would need to have sufficient upper body strength, resilience, and balance, to get ourselves out of the frigid water and back on board. I go to Jen's class because it offers that kind of training.
Great location, great facilities, and an outstanding instructor.
My only comment would be to OneLife's management: recently, the local management allowed the placement of a class that runs from 11 to 11:55, when Jen's class starts at noon, on Tuesdays. Please give some thought to scaling back the Tai Chi class - please end that class by 11:45 a.m., to allow Jen's attendees to warm up without having to deal with the Tai Chi class.
Date of experience: June 18, 2025
