TRIED & TESTED: Love Your Body Health Hub

HACKNEY

Love Your Body is a health hub set up by Wesley Williams who employs a diverse range of fitness professionals and personal trainers to offer a select range of classes from ballet, to tabata, to circuits, boxing and their signature class, cavemen. Oh, and there are also classes for mums and babies too.

I went along to their February Fitness workshop to trial several of their classes, including Penny Pea’s inversion workshop, tabata and caveman. The gym is compact and split into two sections – a cardio and weights area (with boxing bags – YAY!) and a studio.

I can’t stress enough how much I LOVE inversions – there’s something so fun about being upside down. Or maybe it’s just the blood going to my head? Either way, any chance to practice them is great. Penny took us through a strengthening session first which included lots of chatarangas. For the uninitiated, the chataranga is like a punishing version of a plank. It’s a killer. The inversions we practised included a 90′ handstand, then a headstand, followed by a handstand. My handstand is definitely improving!

The tabata session was a gruelling 30 minutes, rather than the usual 20 minutes I’d been used to. But I can’t deny it wasn’t fun. We paired up and went through 3 different sets, each with 8 reps and a 10 second break. Think a giant crazy mix of cardio, arm and leg work. I loved the team work some of the exercises required and by working together we pushed each other harder than we ever thought we could do.

If you really want to get lean and strong, however, then caveman is the workout for you. With a hint of crossfit, this has you repping slamballs (I hate the way they don’t bounce, but probably just as well they don’t…), swinging Viprs around, skipping, jumping onto boxes, playing with the heaviest ropes in the world and more. It’s a proper whole body workout that will leave you grunting like a caveman (or cavewoman).

The trainers we met, Wes, Kate and Sophie, are all enthusiastic, know their stuff and look the part. They encourage, cajole and most importantly, make you sweat. All with good technique of course. If you’re looking to make changes to your body whether that’s in losing that extra bit of weight from Christmas or you want to gain muscle, personal trainer clients are put through a fitness test that includes taking measurements including weight, hips, muscle and body fat percentage and more. It’s a smart way of setting yourself a baseline from which to measure improvement.