I sweat through Body Conceptions’ BroCo, the fitness class for bros

It’s another day and another fitness class has debuted on New York City’s ever-expanding menu of ways to expel sweat. This time it’s BroCo, a class that claims to be designed specifically for men (although women are more than welcome).

BroCo is a variation of Body Conceptions’ usual dance-oriented workout and is marketed as a “dude-friendly sweat-sesh” — with “sweat-sesh” being a huge understatement.

I like to believe that I have become more fit since starting to write about fitness, and that my body has evolved a bit more of a tolerance for the physical torture of trying to stay in shape. The cold reality is that this is not true.

BroCo, which featured about as many men as it did women in my class, was extremely challenging and relentless in its constant desire to give me pain and make me feel weak.

Our instructor was a tiny woman who made us jump around, run in place, plank, squat and wish we were never born. Every movement was instructed to the beat of the music blasting around us, which helped both keep classmates in line and remind us of how slow we were going when we couldn’t keep up.

I was sweating so much that I could watch myself suffering in the reflection of the puddle of sweat beneath me. It was a real Lacan mirror stage moment, in which I think I may have finally developed a higher level of self-awareness. It was both humanizing and refreshingly humiliating.

I loved it.

But is it a class truly meant for bros?

Well, considering the stereotypical bro is someone who probably never does any sort of cardio and only works out his chest, arms, abs and back, and can’t keep rhythm for his life (unless they’re rolling at GovBall), BroCo’s emphasis on lower abdominals, glutes, legs, cardio and keeping up with a beat could be less of a class tailored to what bros want, and more to what bros need.

Also, all bros could benefit from a little time to reflect in a puddle of sweat.

Body Conceptions’ BroCo costs $32 for single classes, $155 for a five-class package, $295 for a 10-class package and $320 for an unlimited monthly class package.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.