Photo via FlowPlay
Photo via FlowPlay

When we heard about game company FlowPlay‘s workouts, we knew we had to give it a try.

Last year, GeekWire toured FlowPlay’s new offices with CEO Derrick Morton walking us through the new space in Pioneer Square. The open-floor plan holds everyone’s work stations, while private rooms, based on FlowPlay game characters, leave space for napping, meetings or jamming on a guitar.

The group has found another way to blow off steam — T25 workouts, or those intense “beach body” things you see on infomercials, on Mondays and Wednesdays, and yoga on Fridays.

Photo via FlowPlay/CEO Derrick Morton
Photo via FlowPlay/CEO Derrick Morton

“One of our staff members is a super-fitness guy. He’s done the T25 program, and we saw him lose about 20 pounds as result of it,” Morton told us.

“Everybody was questioning him, ‘Hey, what are you doing? You look great.’ So we decided, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

FlowPlay’s “T-core” group is about nine people out of a staff of around 50. Morton says they’ve been doing it for about six to eight months, adding that “they’re all in much better shape than they were a year ago.”

I was warned about the worst part: Spider pushups.

“There’s this one thing they do, the spider pushups, that’s definitely tough,” says Aaron Jasinski, lead UI designer and the guy who introduced the team to T25 (to the right in the above photo). “You’re doing a lot of pushups, and then you go into this situation where you’re basically balancing on one leg.”

At 4:30 p.m., three days a week, FlowPlay staffers gear up for their workout and head to the exercise room, where they kill the lights and project the workout on the wall.

I decided to do it with them. And it kicked my ass.

The 25-minute workout starts out innocently enough with a warmup that includes walking and running in place:

Photo via FlowPlay
Photo via FlowPlay
Photo via FlowPlay
Photo via FlowPlay

Then it kicks into high gear, taking us though a variety of moves: squats, lunges, push-up variations (including the dreaded spider pushup), planks and boxing moves. It quickly escalates into a high-intensity cardio workout that uses your own body weight as resistance.

Morton and his FlowPlay partner, CTO Doug Pearson, both work out with the team:

Photo via FlowPlay/CEO Derrick Morton
Photo via FlowPlay/CEO Derrick Morton
Photo via FlowPlay/CTO Doug Pearson
Photo via FlowPlay/CTO Doug Pearson (right, blue shirt)

The T25 video going into the dreaded Spider pushup:

Photo via GeekWire
Photo via GeekWire

After 25 minutes of huffing and puffing, it’s clear that this is not a few easy stretching exercises away from the desk. We were all sweaty and panting. And I was sore the next day, too.

In addition to getting people away from their desks and healthier, Morton says there’s another surprising benefit to the workout habit.

“For me, the best thing about it is to see the staff really bond,” he says. “It’s one thing to see them get in great shape, but it brings them closer together.

“We used to be a really big drinking company,” Morton adds. “We used to have ‘Whiskey Fridays.’ This new fitness craze has taken that down a notch. We don’t drink as much whiskey as we used to, and we do a lot more exercise than we used to.”

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