Sweat It
Good for: A proper challenge
What is it?: Choose from on-demand or live classes, but it’s a one-way send, so you’re never seen. The live classes have a chat function so you can ask the trainer questions as you go along. Classes are split into upper body, lower body, core, or their signature full body ‘guts & glory’. The different formats of each class constantly keeps you guessing – expect a mix of EMOM, EMRAP, tabata, and all that other good stuff. The coach does it along with you, and it’s all filmed in their London studio, so it has a really premium feel.
Cost: £7.99 / month
Current promo: First 7 days free
Equipment needed: Dumbells
F45
Good for: Home circuits with accountability
What is it? All F45s are individually run, so the exact format will change between studios, but my studio (F45 Tottentham Court Road) does Zoom classes every morning at 7.15am. Essentially a circuit format (but the timings change class to class), focusing on either cardio or strength. As it’s hosted on zoom, the trainers can see you (as can the other members), which helps keep motivation high.
Cost: £20 / week
Equipment needed: Basic weights are hepful, but a lot of the exercises are body-weight, or can be subbed.
FIIT
Good for: Face time with your favourite trainers
What is it? Huge library of on-demand classes, plus live classes. Filter available classes by anything from music genre to target area. Great for goal-lead fitness, as they have long and short-term programmes which take the guess work out of knowing what to train and when. Functionality to monitor heart rate – I use a Wahoo tracker.
Cost: Varitey of options – £10 / month for a yearly membership. £15 for quarterly. £20 for monthly.
Equipment needed: Depends on the class – you can filter classes to reflect what equipment you have available.
Current promo: 14 day free trial – sign up here.
Echelon
Good for: People who miss Psycle or Rowbots
What is it? Obviously a competitior to Peleton, but they’ve kept the cost down with clever tweaks like requiring you to connect a phone / ipad to the bike instead of it having its own screen. Note: this also makes the whole thing much less bulky and more aesthetically pleasing if you’re keeping it in a main room.
Cost: £39.99 / month. It gets cheaper the longer you commit – e.g. £599.85 for 24 months.
Equipment needed: This one’s a biggie – you need a bike or rower. Technically you could probably do it with you own versions, but you’d sacrifice the interactivity of the leaderboard etc while you’re riding. Or if you go down the Echelon FitPass route, you get access to the live and on-demand non-bike and rower classes. Things like yoga, cardio, and strength training.
Withu
Good for: Those who are easily distracted
What is it? Large library of on-demand classess that you can filter by your current fitness goals. The USP is that it’s audio-led, which means essentially you get a trainer in your ear. There is an avatar on the screen demonstrating the moves incase you need it, but the audio focus allows you to really tap into your form rather than being distraced by a screen. Interestingly, the audio was all recorded by the trainers with actual participants in-front of them, so the feedback they’r egiving (“don’t give up”, “keep your hips down”) refers to common mistakes and help you improve your form as you go.
Cost: Lots of options. Most flexibile is £7.99 / month. Most cost-effective is 12 months for £59.99.
Current promo: 6 month free subscription to NHS staff, to say thank you.
Equipment needed: Headphones, and class-specific things. E.g. kettlebell for the kettlebell class. But you can easily choose classes that require zero equipment.
Ballet Fusion
Good for: Toning, shaping, and tapping into core strength
What is it? Live stream, on-demand, and private online classes. Formats change depending on the intensity / style you use, Combining barre work, flexibility, strength and centre-work. At the very ballet-end, the classes focus on traditional ballet technique. Or if you’re more in it for a full-body sweat, the cardio flow classes involve zero barre work.
Cost: £45 / month
Equipment needed: Something to hold onto for the barre classes (e.g. a chair), and a resistance band if you’re doing the ballet band classes
The GS Method
Good for: Toning and sculpting without the impact
What is it? Georgie developed her Method as a reaction to over-training and becoming burnt-out. Sort of the antidote to high intensity, aggressive cardio or strength training, whilst still getting the results. The classes tap into Georgie’s dance background, focusing on deep local muscles that barely get used in the body. You are guided through small and controlled movements to contract muscles for a longer period of time, therefore gaining strength quickly. Prepare to feel the burn.
Equipment needed: Resistance band is useful but not essential
Cost: Lots of options. £14.99 / month is the most flexible. £130 / year is most cost effective. Also options to do a 10-day blast
