It was the beginning of December in 2020 that I first became aware of Naughty Gym. December 5 if you are interested. I know this because I checked Twitter. That’s the kind of accuracy we strive for here on The Fringe. I was lucky enough to randomly come across a tweet, and then Richard and Lauren of Room 77 infamy had the Naughty Gym coaches on for an interview. The interview starts at 24:50, but I recommend listening to the whole episode. The laughing you do will really give your abs a solid workout.
Hmmm. Their podcast personas are Yes Girl and Trunks. I guess I should just keep using those as their “names” through this.
Anyway, I was curious about Naughty Gym and signed up before listening to the podcast interview. I was willing to jump in without any prior knowledge other than what I could speculate from the website. Turns out I’m good at speculation.
You, dear reader, now have multiple avenues for understanding what you are getting into. No speculation or exploration required.
Apparently in the time since I started writing this and posting it, Average Swingers also did an interview with the coaches, so even more info for you! And there’s a Zoom call on February 6, 2021, that you can get one if you want even more info.
I am in no way sponsored or incentivized by Naughty Gym. Or anyone else. Feel free to contact us if you want to give me money for something.
Here’s the TL;DW2R link to skip to the end.
“Why Should I Listen to You?”
You really shouldn’t. About anything.
“…Really? That’s What You’re Going With?”
Well, OK, if you insist.
I’m 40 years old and about 5’ 10”. I’ve been a gym enthusiast since after college. Back in one of my earlier posts, I gave a rundown on some my physical achievements at the time.
My weight is currently around 205 (I can fluctuate two to three pounds day to day), but I believe I’ve more muscle mass at this weight than I had in 2019. In March of 2020, I completed my certification course to become a personal trainer. By May, I had dieted down to 185. I can’t recall the last time I was below 200 pounds before that; it was probably high school.
Not wanting to get any lighter, I switched to a slow bulk. That went well through summer, but due to work stress in September and October, that climbed a bit higher than I wanted. By the time December came around, I was actively seeking a new training style.
As for recent accomplishments, despite not training for maximum strength since October 2019 (during that last check-in), I recently benched 275 lbs, squatted 345, and deadlift 365 each for four or five reps. Before the air got all cold and wintry and shit, I could bang out a mile in under 8 minutes. One time over summer, my running buddy and I accidentally ran a half marathon (no issues) because we didn’t realize the trail we were on would take us that far. I spent November doing a brutal 10,000 kettlebell swing workout.
And yes, I do 10,000. You just need to watch it for a long time.
So now you have an idea where I’m coming from when I discuss these workouts.
And Thus Did I Discover a New Gym: The Naughty Gym
I gravitate toward maximum strength training because I’m good at it. But I didn’t want to fall back into my normal pattern. I wanted something new and different both as a way of expanding my own knowledge (I’m a certified personal trainer now even if I’ve not switched careers) and to push myself out of my comfort zone
Enter Naught Gym, which was exactly the style I was looking for: High intensity interval training (HIIT)/Crossfit-style Workout of the Day (WOD). I’ve never done Crossfit, though I have friends who have, so I know the terminology. I’ve always liked the idea, but the Crossfit Boxes (gyms) around us are expensive, and I’m not a competitive person by nature. I don’t know that I would fit in with the Crossfit culture. Mostly, I just want to show up, do my workout, and leave without interacting with other people. Other than the occasional cool-guy nod to the regulars and the “you need a spot, bro?”
I’ve been doing these workouts for six weeks now. So far, I’m enjoying it.
The Naughty Gym Workouts
Yes Girl and Trunks post six workouts a week to a private MeWe group, one every week day and one for over the weekend. Every post includes
- A complete write-up of each of the individual parts of the workout.
- A video describing the whole workout narrated by one or both of the coaches. These have additional tips, recommendations, and info, so even if you understand the write-up, watch the video before you go asking questions again, Shane! (Note: They’ve never berated me for asking questions even if the answer was in the video.) And the videos are fun.
- Links to videos that show every move you are doing that day, including the stretches after.
Most workouts have some scoring element: How many reps did you get in the prescribed time? How long did it take you to complete the routine? What weight did you use for the lifts this time? Naughty Gym participants are encouraged to post their score and a summary of their achievements in the comments of the daily post. Some of us even include pictures.
This is also a good spot to curse Yes Girl and Trunks for their sadistic machinations. “How many burpees? WTF? Who hurt you?”
These workouts are broken into different categories/styles.
Foreplay
This is just the warm-up. It usually takes 5-10 minutes, gets the body temperature elevated, the heart pumping, and the limbs nice and prepared for the main event. Don’t skip the foreplay!
Nude/Orgy
The coaches usually provide two slightly different main workouts.
The Nude version is for those Naughty Gym members without access to much equipment. Most of the moves are bodyweight exercises or have extremely minimal equipment needs–a couple pairs of dumbbells and a jump rope will likely be all you need. In fact, actual dumbbells aren’t necessary if you can find or jury rig something heavy. Grandma’s 10 pound cast iron skillet, for example, could do it.
The Orgy version has more equipment and is designed for Naughty Gym members with access to a commercial gym. Or a sweet-ass basement gym. Which I have! Though, I don’t have a rowing machine or other cardio equipment. Sometimes Orgy workouts have you row for 20 calories or something. Alas, I cannot do that in my home gym.
These workouts parallel each other in design. Some are almost identical, such as dumbbell deadlifts in Nude and barbell deadlifts in Orgy. Other times the differences are a bit more pronounced—Nude being prescribed Wall Walks whereas Orgy is getting Push Presses—but the same muscle groups are being worked in similar ways. One workout might be harder, but both are comparable.
These usually take between 15 to 30 minutes with most falling in around 20. When the whole thing is supposed to only take 10 minutes, that’s when you know it’s a hard one.
Ripped/Grind
Often (but not always depending how intense the Nude/Orgy was) the coaches provide a supplemental exercise for those masochists amongst us who feel we have more sweat to give.
Ripped workouts are typically three to five rounds of three to five exercises meant to be done at a slightly heavier weight with longer rest time than the Nude/Orgy routines. These focus on smaller muscle groups like the arms and delts, the groups that are hit during the big compound movements in the main workouts but aren’t the focus of them.
That’s just smart routine design. Pull-ups work the biceps and push-ups and presses work the triceps, sure, but curls and extensions help build the arms more.
Ripped workouts are meant to be muscle builders. Not to say the WODs don’t build muscle. But the Ripped workouts lean toward a more standard bodybuilding-style routine meant to increase muscle mass.
Which is completely different from maximum strength building, if you were wondering. Not to say the WODs won’t make you strong. But it’s different training than if you wanted to be able to, say, lift a heavy flaming log off yourself.
Grind workouts are mostly cardio focused routines designed purely to burn extra calories. Often it’s something like adding a run or jumping rope and doing some plyometrics. Simple but effective.
Ripped and Grind workouts can also be divided it Nude (no equipment) or Orgy (some equipment). But it seems less common.
The Lube
Otherwise known as the cooldown phase, this is mostly just five to 10 minutes of stretching to help stay loose and limber. I get why it’s called the Lube, but I don’t usually use Lube after I’m done fucking. I think it should have been called the Wipedown or the Snuggles or the Exchange Info With the Couple You Just Banged.
The Positives
And now I list some of the positives as I see them for Naughty Gym. Note that these are things that I feel are positives in general but that aren’t necessarily incentives for me personally.
Variety
Sure, many of the same moves come up multiple times (like burpees…so many burpees!), but every day is different. Some days I might be racing the clock to get as many deadlifts as possible in within 10 minutes. Other days are cardio-wrecking affairs that leave me lying in a pool of sweat gasping for air.
I enjoy reading the next day’s workouts and seeing what new horror…um…challenge…has been laid out for me.
It’s as Hard as You Make It
The very nature of the workout design lends itself to adjusting to the individual’s current fitness level, from people who are completely new to the whole fitness thing to seasoned gym rats. As many reps as possible (AMRAP) and set-reps-for-time setups are self limiting.
The newer person won’t get as many reps or will take longer to complete the workout, but everyone can get a killer workout from the same routine as long as they are pushing themselves to move quickly.
The effort you put in creates the results you get out. All you need to give it is as much as you can. Your hustle doesn’t need to look like my hustle.
It’s Short
Most of the workouts are around 20 minutes. If you don’t skip Foreplay (and you shouldn’t) and you use the Lube (which you should), it’s often closer to 30 minutes. That’s not too much of an investment especially if you can do these at home.
Instructions Are Clear
I’ve been doing this fitness thing for a long time. If a program says 10 BB STDLs to 10 Hang Cleans to 10 BB Thrusters at 135, I know what that is. And fuck that program very much.
But Naughty Gym doesn’t require that kind of background knowledge. For every prescribed movement there is a video explaining and modeling the movement with variations to make it harder or easier as necessary. There’s no guesswork.
And if you have questions, the coaches are there and will respond.
There’s a Newbie Program To Get You Started
Apparently. I completely missed that this was a thing when I started, so I just jumped right into the workouts. And I’m not a newbie.
But I did read over the Newbie Program. It’s a four-week program that builds in intensity. Like the daily workouts, everything is written out and there are links to videos. By going through this, those who are fairly fresh to working out will not only ease into the more intense daily workouts but also learn the basic exercises and routine design elements.
A few members of the Naughty Gym have used and completed the newbie program and are now on the daily workouts. It seems like it worked.
Community and Accountability
Accountability is often cited as the most important factor for successfully sustaining a fitness routine. Having an active community that cheers your victories and sympathizes with your struggles helps people stay motivated. Because Naughty Gym is meant to cater to Lifestyle peeps, you know that the group is already “in your tribe” so to speak. As noted, many of the workouts have a scoring mechanism, which can help competitive people stay motivated and push themselves.
This really isn’t a draw for me. I don’t need external accountability—I’m going to bang out six to 10 activities a week regardless. Nor am I particularly competitive against other people. I track times, weights, and reps very precisely so that I can compare it to my past and future performance.
When I signed up for Naughty Gym I did so with the intention of going all in for a few months to test it out completely: I would do every workout as prescribed to the best of my ability, and I would post my results every time in the comments. My normal inclination would be to silently do the workouts and not participate in the community.
Solid Workout Design
As a certified personal trainer (and someone who’s been building my own workouts since college), I understand the principles that go into creating these routines. Other trainees might not notice or even care that the coaches are creating supersets to prevent muscle fatigue or are using PHAT to maximize cardio intensity across this workout. Or how Tuesday’s workout was created to target different muscle groups than Monday’s. Or that this whole week is more focused on endurance cardio whereas last week was more resistance training.
But I see it.
The Negatives
Again, some of these are negatives to me personally. Others are things some people might view as negatives. Most of them aren’t really that bad, but I think these are worthy of consideration.
Equipment
You don’t need much of it for the Nude workouts nor do you need it often. But you do need a solid pair of heavy-enough dumbbells, and that alone isn’t always easy for complete beginners especially right now during the pandemic quarantine home gym equipment shortage.
On the other hand, I have a lot of equipment, but I don’t get to use much of it even in the Orgy workouts. Occasionally there’s some barbell deadlifts in the program, but it seems like a lot of the Orgy equipment is cardio equipment designed to count out calories. All well and good, but if the Orgy program assumes a full commercial gym, I think there’s more equipment or variations on certain moves that could be explored.
Sometimes I blend the two, like for tomorrow’s workout.
It’s Short
OK, so, hear me out. I’m the kind of person who liked going to the gym on the weekend because I didn’t have restrictions on my time. I could go in, bang out 20 minutes on the elliptical as a warm up, do an on-the-spot wacky lifting program for an hour hitting all the muscles, crank out 10 minutes on the row machine for full energy depletion, and then run for 20 minutes on the treadmill as a cool off. And then sit in the hot tub for 10 minutes, swim around in the pool for 10 minutes to lower my body temperature, and then sit in the dry sauna for 20 minutes.
I also enjoy going out for two to three hour long runs.
I feel like this has been less true in the past couple weeks, but in my first few weeks, I finished in just 20 or 30 minutes, from Foreplay to Lube, and including the extra work from the Ripped. There were times where I ended my workout thinking, “That was it? I feel like I just hit my second wind.”
Obviously I can just add on extra time or reps or just go for a run at the end—I can make my workouts longer when I need to. Hell, I added throwing axes into one workout because I could.
But for people who enjoy and want a longer workout, I felt I should mention this.
The Variety
I signed up for Naughty Gym because I wanted the daily challenges and variations. However, this isn’t how I typically like to train. I’m used to setting up a four to eight week plan with specific splits across a week to train particular muscle groups. I plan rest days, deload weeks, and sometimes even change my eating based on my days (e.g., leg days are high calorie intake, chest days are medium intake, rest days are low intake).
If you are someone who prefers that kind of regimented plan, then you probably aren’t going to thrive in this system.
So far, I’m liking the WOD. At some point, that might chafe me.
No Strength Training
Not that Naughty Gym routines won’t improve your strength, but I’m surprised that there isn’t more dedicated strength training built into the program. My guess is that it would be too skewed toward the Orgy people; the home workout members wouldn’t be able to rig up something heavy enough to benefit.
As I said before, I am good at and therefore tend to gravitate toward maximum strength training (i.e., three to five reps at 85% of my 1 rep-max weight). I miss it when I’m not doing this. I’ve kept this kind of training in my program by doing it on the weekends. Maybe now that I have over a month of WODs under my belt, I’ll start adding some additional strength training to my Nude/Orgy work (which also helps with my It’s Short problem, too).
Sometimes I Need to be Outside to Do the Workout
My house is very old, and the ceiling in my basement is low. Box jumps aren’t safe. I have a pull-up bar, but I need to maneuver my head between the floor joists, and even then, I can’t go chest to bar. When I do toe-to-bars, I have to be wary of catching my feet on wires or kicking my vents. Overhead press movements can be tricky.
Every evening when I review the next day’s workout, I have to decide if I can reasonably do this inside or if I need to work outside. I don’t mind working outside, even in winter. In fact, I find value in cold weather training. I’m glad so many of these workouts have pushed me toward working out in the cold.
But it can be inconvenient. Especially when I have to lug a bunch of stuff from my basement to my backyard before I can even do the workout. It’s even worse when the workout blends things I need to do outside (running or box jumps) with something I can’t do outside (pull-ups), so I’m going in and out of the house a bunch.
There’s snow on the ground. I don’t want to workout in snow!
That’s All Well and Good, But Does Naughty Gym Work?
Here’s where I’m a really bad fitness person. I tell everyone I’ve given advice to over the years to have multiple tracking mechanisms and to use them whenever starting a new program.
- Scale weight
- Seven-point body measurement (or at least waist and hips measurements if nothing else)
- Skin-fold measurements
- “Before” photos
- Test clothes (either something that fits well now and you want to fit less well or something that doesn’t fit the way you want it to yet)
I usually tell people to have at least two methods, but three is better, and to compare them weekly or every other week. If two of the three are showing progress, solid!
But do I ever do any of this? Well…yes…but not often enough is my point. And I didn’t before starting Naughty Gym.
I’m down roughly six pounds since the start of the new year. I can’t say my clothes are fitting better cause I basically wear workout gear 24/7 these days. And I didn’t take progress pictures or measurements. Alas!
Fortunately I’ve been at this a long time. There are certain signs I can point to to gauge my leanness (when certain veins start showing or how much of my abs I can feel through my stomach). These very unscientific signs are pointing toward fat reduction and lean mass retention.
So yes, so far it’s working.
How Naughty Is it?
The coaches and gym members interact in a private MeWe group. I don’t particularly like MeWe, but it’s secure and unrestricted, so unlike a private Facebook group, full on naughty pictures and videos are allowed.
Yes Girl wears really small clothes when demoing moves. And Trunks is certainly Very Male about how he’s filming her demoing the moves in her really small clothes. (For which I will say, Thank you, sir, and keep up the good work.”)
Their earnest love for and enjoyment of each other comes through as well, which I find endearing.
Lauren and Richard have had video tutorials with the coaches that have been shared with the group. The most recent tutorial was about proper deadlift form. Richard felt it was important that these be demoed without pants on so that proper glute activation was on display.
I hope these “Richard Thinks Lauren Is Doing It Wrong but She’s Got Better Form Than He Does” videos become a regular feature.
Another new feature is the Hump Day Sexercise Wednesdays, during which Trunks and Yes Girl demo a sex position that is in some way exercise related. At least, I think that’s the point? One of them involved a Swiss Exercise Ball.
I’m not allowed to bring workout equipment into our sex lives. For reasons.
Yes, Naughty Gym is a bit naughty. I think as the community grows and more friendships form amongst the members, people will feel even more comfortable posting, and it could become even naughtier.
The Final Verdict for Naughty Gym…
I like Naughty Gym. The workouts are challenging and enjoyable. The coaches know what they are doing, have years of experience with this kind of work, and have ironed out a decent system for disseminating the necessary information to their members that should allow people to do the program safely and effectively. And it can work for anybody regardless of current fitness level and past workout experience. The coaches are there to work with you. They genuinely want everyone to succeed, and it shows.
I plan on sticking with Naughty Gym for a couple more months to see if the program continues to fit my wants and goals. I plan to tinker with their program a bit to better match what I want to get out of my workouts, but that would be minor and personal customizations. Most people would not need to do that. And shouldn’t.
If you want to improve your health and fitness—and possibly make some naughty friends along the way—give Naughty Gym a try. At the very least, you are getting a solid workout routine professionally designed and expertly explained by experienced coaches. That alone is more than worth the price of admission.