The Future of Fitness

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London’s boutique fitness market is booming like never before, with new pay-as-you-train gyms opening on every street corner. DOSE rounds up the hottest new workouts and studio openings in 2017. From a nightclub turned naughty fitness playground, to the world’s first biophilic gym that measures the impact of exercise on mood. 

When I tell people I live in Queensway, they look at me perplexed. The eclectic thoroughfare between Notting Hill and Hyde Park houses not one but two tube stations and a department store to rival Selfridges, yet nobody seems to know where it is.

Thanks to a £1 billion development by Foster & Partners that will introduce 100 new homes, a hotel, cinema, shops and an affluent clientele, Queensway is set to make a comeback. A canny place to set up a fitness studio, wouldn’t you agree (ahem) Barry’s Bootcamp. Rumour has it they’ll be opening there in March.

And now I have your attention…

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January 2017 kicks off with the launch of BXRA sprawling members only facility in Marylebone specialising in boxing with nightclub sound. Who knows, maybe you’ll spot an A-Lister stumbling from nearby Chiltern Firehouse to a morning class, with Mark Ronson on the decks and Victoria Secret models knocking back shots at Joe and The Juice. Memberships start from £150 per month with a £150 joining fee. But they will be launching a pay-to-train concept Sweat by BXR in February.

In North London, Total Boxer, home to cult workouts like Get Fit Not Hit and Boxing Yoga, opens a second studio in Hornsey. The new location will have showers, Everlast boxing bags and a dedicated BoxingYoga floor.

Kobox opens a second studio in London Wall in February. The ‘nightclub meets fight club’ boxing studio with a punch by numbers system will no doubt help stressed City lawyers let off steam. While 1Rebel is set to open a third studio in Southwark.

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If you can’t make it to a boxing studio, download the BoxxMethod. A new online workout video platform that pairs intense shadow boxing with high intensity interval training with no bags, no pads and no ring. Just you, a pair of optional hand weights and an expert instructor coaching you through a series of 3 minute relentless rounds for the ultimate boxing workout.

On the Pilates and yoga front, Centric:Tribes opens at Sweaty Betty in Muswell Hill to take some of the pressure off its other two studios. Bootcamp Pilates launches its sixth reformer pilates studio on the Strand with a new Express HIIT class. While Hot Pod Yoga Notting Hill moves out of the playground (literally) into their own shiny new digs on Great Western Road.

Studio Lagree, home to the The Megaformer workout (aka reformer Pilates on crack), opens in Canary Wharf in April, with another studio planned later in the year in West London. Moving East, ChromaYoga will be launching a new yoga concept in Redchurch street, combining colour therapy, sound frequencies and aromatherapy.

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If you like to mix it up, pay a visit to Oncore in Clapham, which offers a mix of Spin, HIIT and Yoga under one roof. Or for some functional training, head to F-45 which will be launching a new branch in Parson’s Green.

From 9 January – 3 February 2017 visit BioFit – a pop-up organic gym concept in a biophilic indoor environment, designed to bring the outdoors in. During the pop up, Biofit will conduct research for the ukactive Research Institute – aimed at evaluating the impact of exercise in a biophilic indoor environment, on mood and anxiety levels, attention span and mental performance.

Word on the street is Boom Cycle will be rolling out another two studios this year, though the locations are still unknown. While GrooveCycle moves to Third Space in Canary Wharf.

But what i’m most excited about this year is a nightclub institution turning its space into a naughty fitness playground for healthy hedonists. With a functional training studio housing some of the best lighting, disco balls and sound systems (and a bar with an alcohol licence), it’s sure to re-define the way we party in 2017. I speak of Ministry of Sound. Or should I say, Ministry does Fitness. Gym and tonic anyone? Get ready to HIIT the dance floor from February….

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This article was written by Hettie Holmes, Co-founder of DOSE

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