Shaped By COVID-19: Shred415’s At-Home Workout

Editor’s Note: “Shaped By COVID-19” is a weekly series designed to help you stay active while you’re homebound with workouts from some of Denver’s leading fitness and wellness professionals. Got a fitness tip or favorite studio? Email us at digital@5280.com.

The gym: Shred415, University Hills location
Year founded: 2018
The trainer: Jane Fletcher, owner
Favorite COVID-appropriate rest day activity: The go-hard-or-go-home Fletcher lives near Washington Park, but until recently, she hadn’t simply walked the park much. Now she regularly plugs in a podcast and savors a socially distanced stroll. “It’s been lovely,” she says. “I’m moving my body but in a loving, graceful way. I’m giving myself the grace to just walk.”

As the owner of Shred415’s University Hills location—the country’s first franchise of the dynamic interval training studio founded by two moms in Chicago—Jane Fletcher is used to sore muscles. But in March, it was Fletcher’s fingers that got the workout—from handwriting thank-you notes to all of the members who insisted the gym keep their monthly membership dues during COVID-19. Fletcher, who opened the studio about 18 months ago (three other locations have debuted in Colorado since), had immediately stopped charging all members after shutting down in mid-March, but she was shocked at the number of clients who wanted to keep paying to support the gym. “Every single dollar is going to the instructors,” Fletcher says. “On the business side, we’ll figure it out. Those dollars are meant to support instructors that are giving you their content; the cleaning staff that still comes in once a week; and a manager who does, well, all the things.”

Of course, Fletcher wants to offer members who are continuing to pay a thank-you for their contributions, so while anyone can see the gym’s 20-minute Instagram workouts, monthly members—or those with a class pack—can sign up for the longer 45- and 60-minute livestream classes (also available for a pay-as-you-go fee of $15) and access a library of prerecorded workouts on Facebook. (The live and recorded classes are also available for free to healthcare and frontline workers, and Fletcher is providing access to the recorded classes gratis to those who can’t currently afford them; email the studio for access).

The workouts take a slightly different form these days. Before the novel coronavirus, Shred415 sessions consisted of four 15-minute blocks (hence 415); two of those were on the treadmill and two were floor workouts with weights or body weight. Now, most sessions are all floor routines that can be modified based on what equipment you have (the gym still does offer some treadmill classes for those who have equipment at home). These are high-intensity interval workouts that combine cardio and strength sequences. Mercifully, the moves vary frequently, so you’re never stuck doing any one move, like burpees, for more than a minute or so. “We encourage you to push yourself because we’re going to give you a rest,” Fletcher says. If you’re like one writer who shall not be named and require more than mere self-respect for motivation, consider this: Most of Shred415’s sessions burn between 400 and 600 calories; all the more reason said writer who shall not be named will treat herself to takeout from Hops & Pie tonight.

Workout type: Dynamic interval training
Muscle focus: Legs, core
Duration: 30 minutes

The workout: All you need for this workout, which is equal parts cardio, leg, and ab work, is mat or—better—a patch of grass. (A stopwatch is optional for those who like to know precisely how much misery is left.) Get the most out of the 30 minutes by going hard the whole time. Prone toward masochism? Do it twice.