Travelers from across the globe flock to the Vessel at Hudson Yards as a notable attraction. They spend $10 to ascend the 16-storey edifice, which boasts 2,500 steps over 154 interwoven flights, allowing them to enjoy city vistas from 80 diverse platforms.
But for some local New Yorkers, the Vessel is just a huge piece of gym equipment.
Recently, an Equinox workout session has enticed fitness enthusiasts to shell out $55 for the challenge of sprinting up and down the beehive-shaped monument, four times in a 45-minute window, culminating in a demanding upper body workout at the summit. It’s certainly not a leisurely stroll.
“I found it more intense than anticipated,” remarked Edgar Irizarry, 32, a tech professional residing on the Upper West Side, after attending the class on Tuesday. “At first, you feel energized, but as you near the top, your legs begin to ache and feel immensely heavy, and you still have two flights to conquer.”
The classes take place on Tuesday at 7 a.m. — for Equinox members only — and Thursday at 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. for the general public. Reservations must be made in advance.
Andrew Slane, one of the instructors, said the class is even difficult for those already in good shape.
“It’s very humbling,” he told The Post. “Many of the people taking the class run marathons and they were like, ‘This is hard.’”
Christopher Vo, Director of Group Fitness Programming for Equinox, said it’s uniquely challenging because of the climbing aspect, which strengthens the glutes and legs.
“A lot of times when we are in a group fitness environment we are able to do things front to back or side to side but rarely do we get to go vertical,” said Vo. “It’s also a great cardiovascular workout.”
Equinox has been wanting to do a class at the Vessel since it reopened last October, following a three-year closure necessitated by a string of suicides. Vo said it’s a truly unique fitness venue.
“To be in it and have the structure swirl around you, it’s really special,” said Vo.
The class, which has 20 to 25 people, starts with a stretching session at the base. Then participants rum up the Vessel, back down, and up again. At the top they do upper body resistance movement with arm bands for about 10 minutes, before running down again and doing more exercises, such as mountain climbers and planks, at the base. Then they repeat the entire process — or at least some do.
“Some of the runners come down and never go back up,” said someone who works at the Vessel and has observed early classes.
Shahar Ifrah, 24, who lives in the city and works at the Israeli consulate, said one of the advantages of the class is that you get to be at the Vessel hours before it opens to the public at 10 a.m.
“It was crazy intense, amazing, and so much fun to get to experience this without any tourists around,” said Ifrah, who participated in Tuesday’s class. “I absolutely want to do it again as many times as I can sign up.”
Another advantage: she recorded herself running up the structure on her phone.
“I’m definitely going to post these videos,” she said. “Everyone is going to see that I did this.”
But she had her limits. At the end of the class the instructors wanted to take a group photo back at the top of the Vessel. Although they told the group they could walk, not run, even that seemed like a stretch.
Ifrah asked, “Isn’t the elevator working?”
