The newly opened X-Force Philadelphia, a first-of-its-kind facility in Center City, promises to deliver a strength-training workout that is “the hardest 30 minutes of your life.”
Up for a challenge, I decided to test it out for PhillyVoice‘s “We Tried It” series. Spoiler alert: I only made it through 18 minutes.
During a typical session at the gym, you work one-on-one with a trainer for half an hour to power through roughly 12 exercises – doing six to 12 reps for each – on the facility’s pricy equipment from Sweden. The cost for each machine is between $11,000 and $15,000.
The 22 machines each work a different muscle group, but all have a unique tilting weight stack. The purpose is to offer resistance on the lowering phase of the movement. Essentially, it makes your muscles work harder when lowering weights.