The new workout that brings Naomi Watts to tears

NAOMI Watts, Christy Turlington and Gisele Bundchen are fans of this ‘boot camp-meets-therapy’ workout where women grunt and scream their way to enlightment.

060315 - 291 Broadway. THE CLASS instructor /founder Taryn Toomey PH:Michael Sofronski

TARYN Toomey slips a wireless microphone around her tousled blond locks, lights a small bundle of sage, and hits play on her iPod.

As the Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done blasts through a packed New York City studio, the 36-year-old starts to wake up the room by leading everyone in getting loose and then jumping in place.

When the song hits a crescendo, the group of 40 svelte women in nearly identical Lululemon tights scream and erupt into loose arm-swinging and leg-thumping that makes them resemble a gaggle of sugared-up toddlers.

“You have a choice,” Toomey evangelises. “You can give up and listen to the voice in your head that tells you ‘can’t.’ Or you can change what you are saying to yourself.” At which point her disciples embark on punishing backward leg lifts.

Welcome to the Class, the newest workout that’s gripped the city’s fickle fiterati. The punishing, 75-minute, $US30 sweat session is part emotional catharsis and part butt-kicking fusion of yoga, cardio and weight-training principles.

Founded by Toomey, a former Ralph Lauren fashion executive-turned-yogi, the cult-like method counts Naomi Watts, Gisele Bündchen and Christy Turlington among its devotees.

“Naomi Watts was sweating on me today,” recalled one fan of The Class. Photo: Lionel Cironneau.

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s like boot camp-meets-therapy,” says Rashia Bell, a 36-year-old interior designer from Chelsea.

Since starting the Class nearly two years ago, the former ballet dancer developed a five-times-weekly habit. “It has a therapeutic quality, and the bonus is you look great as a result,” she says, adding that she’s the leanest she’s ever been.

Toomey launched the Class in the basement of her Tribeca building in 2011, but as word spread among the mummy set and well-heeled fashion types, demand for her motivational moves grew. She temporarily moved the Class to a studio on Broadway in September and is currently looking for a permanent home.

Toomey, a mother of two with an impossibly toned tuchis and perfectly flushed cheeks, says the routines help break up both physical and mental stagnation. “We work to get to the mind through the body.”

The Class is an ever-changing routine of burpees, jumping jacks, leg lifts and lunges with intermittent cardio bursts, punctuated by shouts and grunts.

The combination, Toomey says, will lower your body fat and give you a sinewy shape.

“Some people come to get their butt kicked and some people come to work on things that are going on in their minds,” adds Toomey, who also leads retreats and offers a popular nutritional cleanse called the Layer.

Gisele Bundchen recently announced she was retiring from modelling to give her body a break. Photo: Jean Baptiste Lacroix.

She is intense, but gentle. Those looking for drill sergeants will find that down the block at Barry’s Bootcamp.

“You can start and stop as much as you want,” says Toomey, who barely halts her own punishing movements. She’s in the trenches with her students, squatting and shouting mental challenges such as “make the decision to allow strength to come in” over the carefully curated playlist.

“Taryn doesn’t really take any breaks,” says Liz Newman, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mum. “I think that’s what makes the Class special. We are all in this together. It’s more than just a class, it’s a community.”

Newman calls the Class an “awakening.”

Some students actually cry as they sweat through their pricey racerback tops.

Before the meditation portion of the class, everyone synchronises in a “heart-opening series,” where arms are outstretched and the chest is flexed outward.

“I’m reluctant to sound too hippy dippy,” Toomey says, “but if you really close your eyes during an emotional song and breathing in the heart space, things will come up.”

Emotional breakthroughs aside, it doesn’t hurt that she’s attracting A-list clients.

“We are going because we love Taryn and the method,” says Newman, who concedes there’s an added bonus, too: “Naomi Watts was sweating on me today.”