How to keep things interesting in the gym?

The gym is one of those places you either love, hate or tolerate. I fall between the love and tolerate sections. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I fully began exercising and training. My sister Gloria is the co-owner of E&G Physique, a spin class group back in Ireland. So during the pandemic, she would be live streaming her classes and I got involved every morning. At the time it was the perfect opportunity to build some routine into our day and then I would go and sit at a table all day to complete my final year of uni.

So by spinning every morning and doing circuits, when the gyms were officially allowed to re-open, this is when I started to become a regular. When I moved to Liverpool I joined a local PureGym and at the beginning, I was attending 3-4 classes a week and they were great. To change it up from the classes I like to do my own thing with the machines and use the studio when it is free. But sometimes this can get really boring and monotonous, so much so, I was considering cancelling my membership and choosing a different gym.

Switching things up

Some of the classes I had been attending were just pure roaring sessions which I am not about. I am all on for motivating people and encouraging us to work harder but I really don’t appreciate the shouting, it does my head in. Thankfully, the gym added some new classes to their weekly timetable, these were Combat, Step and recently Yoga. I decided to try all of these before cancelling my membership.

What is Combat?

“Combat is a cardio class inspired by martial arts where you can punch, kick and strike your way through a total body workout to motivating music. Expect to burn heaps of calories and feel great whilst you’re doing it! Great if your goal is weight loss or general fitness.”

So after spending a day binge-watching the latest season of Cobra Kai I knew I had the martial arts ability to attend my first combat class. There were around 10 people in the first class and our instructor taught us these sequences of punching, kicking, squat holds and more kicking. To say that I have absolutely zero coordination is an understatement but nonetheless, the class is brilliant. It’s something different and with all the kicking and high legs you leave the studio exhausted but in a good way.

What is Step?

“For both beginners and advanced steppers, this great cardio workout is choreographed. As you progress, so will the movements, always giving you something new and fun to experience in the class. You’ll have a fantastic athletic workout that helps to burn fat and tone up to some great music! Great if your goal is weight loss, toning or general fitness.”

Step aerobics is a dark horse, at the beginning of the class, the instructor was showing us our routine of steps and movements over the platform. Nothing too difficult I thought and surely my time would be better spent downstairs at the weights. Well, how wrong I was. Building on the lack of coordination in the combat classes came the immense next level at step. 10 minutes into the class sweat was pouring from my face, between each movement lunges and squats were added into the sequence. I went to this class thinking I’d be like step legend Jane Fonda but left more like the cast of Derry Girls.

What is Yoga?

“Experience mind and body connection through a series of disciplined physical postures, breathing exercises and relaxation. You’ll be increasing flexibility and balancing all parts of the body through this strengthening workout. Yoga can help reduce stress levels and improve overall health.”

This wasn’t my first yoga class, the gym had started bringing an external teacher in to teach the class and I attended the first week of it. But I found it very difficult to concentrate on the class between the boxing happening on the other side of the wall and people dropping weights so I decided not to go back. But this new class was to be taken by the same instructor from Combat so I decided to give it another go.

It was super beginner’s level which was great, we did a series of poses and sequences that whilst at the beginning weren’t strenuous, you could really feel it at the end of the class. It is definitely something I will be going back to purely for the fact that my joints are all extremely tight. When sitting cross-legged on the floor my knees were at my chin whilst the obvious goal is for these to be parallel with the floor. I’m sure I’ll get there in the next few classes.

It’s all about the environment

Before I started going to the gym regularly the thought of it made me so nervous. I fully appreciate that as an environment it can be really overwhelming with all the different types of people who look like they know what they’re doing. What I like the most about the PureGym I attend is that there are very few Instagram-esque people. It’s completely mixed ability and mixed ages. I really believe that takes the pressure off the environment when everyone is there for one thing; to exercise.

The Gym Group chain recently shared a campaign focusing on this very notion, it addressed how women, more than men, were deterred from the gym due to feelings of not belonging there. The advert they produced talks about “gym-face”, you can watch it here. It’s spot on in showing that whilst we think people are looking at us in the gym, everyone is focused on their own thing. For me, it’s listening to The Diary of a CEO and trying to balance on the stair master at the same time.

Experiment with the classes available

So for anyone who is bored by their current training routine or is just looking to switch it up I would recommend trying as many different classes as you can. Obviously, this doesn’t have to be just in PureGym but whatever is on offer in your local areas. Who knew exercise was bearable when you enjoyed the classes and weren’t getting screamed at?