Lifestyle

1Rebel Spinning

Start a ‘New Year Revolution’, suggests the uber cool advertising campaign for one of London’s newest fitness boutiques. And revolutionary it was.

As soon as I stepped inside the luxury venue I felt as though I was being ushered into the opening of a club in New York’s Meatpacking District. The brickwork was exposed, the floors were concrete and the lights were neon. But I wasn’t at a hip club opening, instead I was in Liverpool Street and I was about to embark on a spinning class.

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After being greeted by some extremely friendly members of staff who proceeded to explain how everything worked, I was pointed in the direction of the changing rooms and handed some complimentary towels and bottled water (1Rebel branded no less).

Feeling like an imposter (I’m more of a no-frills gym kinda girl) I stared in awe at the Aladdin’s Cave of a changing room, with its huge light bulb lined mirrors, hair straighteners and beauty products. Even the industrial style lockers were striking. I would have been happy to stay there, but I had work to do, so I kicked my arse into gear and made my way to the studio.

En route I stopped to pick up my complimentary cleats (yes that’s right, you don’t even wear your own trainers here) and was shown how to use them before the class began. Like I said, I’m a basic gym goer and I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t know how to attach the cleats.

As I waited in anticipation I admired the darkened room and club style lighting, however I was slightly more nervous than I would have been had I not managed to accidently pick a bike in the first row, directly in front of our instructor Robin Persad.

But as soon as Robin turned up the volume on the stereo and instructed us to spin in sync with the beat, my worries evaporated and off the class and I went at full steam.

The session I’d picked (Rebel Ride) is said to offer a ‘full body work out incorporating weights and bands’ and I can say with some confidence that my body was worked out fully.

Robin had us spinning at double time, spinning with dumbbells and squatting. And although the session was tough my motivation was kept alive through the surprisingly good mix of songs, ranging from Inxs – Need You Tonight to Wilkinson – Afterglow.

Along with the music, Robin barked words of encouragement throughout the session, but his kindness certainly wasn’t a sign of weakness as he singled out any sneaky individuals in the class who weren’t working hard enough.

There’s no time for slackers at 1Rebel and I loved that.

As the session came to an end we made a team effort to spin at double time for what felt like an exceedingly long couple of minutes and when the music stopped all that could be heard was the sound of heavy breathing and a few groans.

After awkwardly hobbling off my bike I looked around the room to check everyone was as red faced and sweaty as I was and much to my relief they were.

We’d been worked hard and although we may not have looked particularly attractive at that moment, as we were sweating with so much style who cares?

 

For more information about 1Rebel check out the website: http://www.1rebel.co.uk/

 

Written by Laura Hill

Twitter @builtlikeaboss

www.builtlikeaboss.com