Last updated on January 11th, 2024

Last Saturday, ONE Academy opened its doors for a soft launch and first Everest Class. Like many people in the OCR community in the GTA, I was patiently waiting for this day to arrive after Alpha Obstacle Training closed its doors last year.

For weeks, anticipation grew as teaser images of the new facility were shared on social media. People from as far as Ottawa and Montreal commented about how excited they were to come to Toronto for the unofficial opening.

Yeah, you read that right. People drove 4-7 hours to WORK OUT.

Colin and I made the 1-hour drive to Toronto and were blown away by the amount of people spilling out of the training facility. There were over 60 people in attendance!

The training space is completely done (and beautiful, I might add), but the washrooms, changerooms, reception area and other spaces of the facility are not, which is why the grand opening won’t be for a few more weeks. The space is MASSIVE and I cannot wait to see the finished product.

The 10,000 sq. foot space will boast a stretching room, member lounge, child minding, retail and wellness space when it’s all completed.

The gym floor is equipped with every functional athlete’s desire: a turf, a 45′ Platinum Rig, free weights, treadmills that go up to 30% incline, rowers, air bikes, rope climb, sandbags and more!

ONE Academy Everest

The Everest class is a crazy 2+ hour event that begins with Jesse Bruce’s famous inspirational speeches and team huddles and cheers. After a quick warm-up, there is a 45 or so minute high intensity circuit followed by Everest – a 3, 5 or 7 km running option with obstacles/exercises in between running.

The circuit was 0:30 on; 0:10 off (or something along those lines. A few times the little break spurts were a little longer if someone asked a question) superset, repeated twice. Some stations did not have a superset, so you spent the 4 minutes doing the same exercise.

• Wall balls + ab roll out
• Thrusters + chin ups
• Lunges (around perimeter of gym, holding kettlebell in each hand)
• Quick feet on step + sandbag front squat
• Hurdles + ball over shoulder
• Renegade rows + ball overhead reach with squat down and touch ground
• Air bike + glide disc lunges
• Kettlebell sumo squat to upright row + equalizer bar rows
• Rowing machine
• Box jumps + dumbbells hammer curl and press
• TRX row + push-ups

By the time the 45-minute circuit was done, everyone was dripping sweat and many shirts were being tossed aside. Then the fun begins…the “actual” workout.

Enter Everest.

Each person gets to choose if they want to complete 3, 5 or 7 km of distance. If you complete 7km, you have conquered Everest. Then you come back and try to improve your time (or distance) at the next class.

I chose the 3km option because I sprained my foot in tennis a few days prior, and have a race coming up so didn’t want to cause any further damage to my foot. Plus, I knew the 5 or 7 km option would have taken me longer than 1 hour.

So for the 3km, first we ran 1200 m then did bear crawls around the perimeter of the facility, then ran 400 m and did burpee broad jumps around the perimeter, then ran 400 m and did 10 chin-ups, 200 m and 10 dips + 15 box jumps, 200 m and 10 thrusters (45 lbs for women), 200 m and farmer carry around the perimeter with kettlebell in each hand (35 lbs for women), 200 m and 30 burpees, 15 sandbag front squats, 10 wallballs, 10 slam ball slams, 30m sled push (90 lbs for women), rope climb, 200 m row and finally, attempting the ONE Academy branded Platinum Rig.

When finished Everest, you provide Jesse with your time. He keeps a running log book, so that when you come back to the gym and try to conquer Everest again, you can see your improvements.

A year ago (off by one day) was the last time I did the Everest workout at the Alpha Obstacle Training facility. I remember not being able to actually run most of the 3 km, and had to do a lot of walking. I also had to modify many of the workouts.

I’ve come a long way in my Post Concussion Syndrome recovery. I was able to complete Everest in 53:00 and I ran all of the 3km and did not have to modify any of the exercises.

Colin completed the 7km option faster than I completed the 3km. He’s awesome.

We will be going back to ONE Academy on July 29 for Everest and I will be aiming to shave off a few minutes of my 3km time.

Every single person who attended Everest cheered on fellow participants at least once throughout the 2-hour ordeal. High-fives were happening all around at the end of every circuit. Seriously, the atmosphere at ONE Academy is THE BEST.

I went back for the lunchtime Sprint class on Wednesday (although I was late…oops) and I am headed back there again Friday (tomorrow) for the lunchtime Marathon class.

Going forward I won’t be able to attend as frequently, since it is a 2-hour roundtrip for me, but my plan is to get to ONE Academy at least 2-3 times per month. Any Saturday that I am not racing, I will be going to the Everest class to improve my OCR performance.

Now I get to wait for the official opening!