Is this the best hotel gym space in London?

As many of your know Precision Movement has been making extensive additions and changes to our little Mayfair studio space courtesy of Grosvenor House Apartments.  And though she be little she is (mighty) fierce and versatile.  Here are the new changes to the space and how they optimise your workout.

The rig 

This March we had a custom designed BeaverFit rig installed into the ceiling.  This has been the most anticipated change in the studio since we moved in.  The rig will be used for pullup/chin up and brachiation training. Also check out the fat GRIPZ for extra intensity without extra load.  It has proved super popular so far! 

Suspension Training 

The rig also enables us to use TRx, Crosscore180 and Olympic Rings for suspension and aerial training.  Bring on the strength!  The rig is 3.5m long meaning we can have someone working on the Kinesis, someone working on the TRx and someone in the weight area quite comfortably.

The floorspace 

The matted floorspace has been increased by a third meaning more workable space for people to use and more people using the space at the same time.  It also means the floorspace becomes more versatile - we can bring out a barre for a ballet workout or clear the space for kickboxing or a yoga based work-in.  We have had some guests using the space to practice their karate katas and MMA moves.  We have left the space open for just this purpose because no single person's workout is the same and we want to cater to that as much as possible.

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We now have adjustable weights up to 41kg each alongside the original rack of 1-10kg.  We have a few olympic bars and weight plates for more traditional strength training as well as weighted medicine balls and powerbags.  The original Kinesis cable machine is still installed as well.

 The bring out put back system 

We have lots of different equipment that can be used in the space - kettlebells, powerbags, battling ropes, agility equipment, olympic bars, medicine balls.  We bring out what we need into the space for your specific workout and then put it back to open the space up again.  It sounds really obvious but many gyms, particularly hotel and residence gyms are the same space as our little studio but packed full of machines which limits the type of exercise you can do in the space. Training has moved on past machines... there are some uses for machine work but at Precision Movement we are more steered towards challenging your body in different ways. Which is why we think our space is becoming one of the best hotel gyms in London. 

The space is being used more than it ever has been and it's being used in many ways, for all kinds of movement, workouts and sports conditioning.  If you haven't been down to visit yet, then please do. We'd love to have you! 

How to get a fitter body with less exercise

We live in a culture of more is better but when it comes to exercise more is not always better.  In some cases it's just down right worse.  There is a growing culture in the fitness industry of late that more intensity, more volume of workouts per week and more of the same thing is the only way to get serious about your fitness.  I wholeheartedly disagree and I have seen this result in serious injury, total burnout and illness as well as mental and emotional fatigue and irritability.  I consider over exercising a form of self sabotage or self-harm and I can speak from personal experience on this.  I have grossly over-exercised at times in my life and it's never led to anything good.  So, this week I talk about how much is too much and how to find a balance that works for you and your life.  Remember you are only ever competing against yourself!

Too much intensity

In the past few years there has been an uprising of high intensity group workouts which really push the limits of intensity to the threshold.  But the most shocking story I recently heard was of a gym in NYC that does the toughest workout ever burning a minimum of 1000 calories in a hour.  Apparently you get a badge of recognition if you can get through the warmup without stopping.  Are you kidding me?  A warmup is not a place to compete - EVER!  That is just dangerous.  The point of a warmup is to prepare your body for the intensity of your workout.  If your warmup is the workout you are putting yourself at greater risk of injury because your body is not warm yet!

Monitoring intensity

An easy way to measure the intensity of your workout is to wear a heart rate monitor.  Set your age and weight and it will calculate training zones for you.  A high intensity workout oscillates between 70-90% of your maximum between 1-3 minutes.  You can work longer than 3 minutes depending on what you are training for and your current fitness level.  For strength training heart rate monitors are not so effective because time under tension is often shorter than a minute and you get a delayed heart rate increase.  And FYI a warmup should work from 50-70% over a period of 7-10 minutes.

Too much volume

This is the biggest problem I have with too much - too much volume.  Volume is the number of training sessions or the total amount of hours spent exercising per week.  Everyone thinks the more I exercise the quicker I'll achieve my goal.  Not true.  Over exercising induces a prolonged sympathetic stress state which leads to mental, emotional and physical burnout.  It can also lead to injury. 

Monitoring volume

I talk more about volume in next weeks blog (The work-in is the new workout)  but here are the basics; for general health, wellness and fitness choose 2-3 high intensity (between 70-90% of your max effort) 40-60 minute workouts a week. Balance that out with 1-2 calmer work-ins like yoga or tai chi.  When you go through more stressful times you can switch this to 2-3 work-ins and 1-2 workouts.  For very stressful times I would opt for the work-ins only.  Movement helps to relieve stress if it is done in a gentle and reparative way.

Too much of the same thing

Another problem of too much - is doing too much of the same thing.  This can lead to injury because of continuous repetitive motion particularly from running and cycling.  It also becomes very boring and can lead to mental burnout and then stopping exercise altogether.  As humans we have amazing movement potential and I believe we should utilise and practice the diversity of human movement as much as possible.

Changing it up

I always encourage my clients to a variety of different exercise and sports.  Try new things until you find something you like.  Team sports are always fun to be a part of and I also really value solo workouts like running or cycling when you can be with yourself.  Hit the gym, go to a class, in London there are so many options!  As long as you are doing good movement - vary it as much as you can.

Train smart

So in conclusion your body and your mind will thank you if you train smart.  Harder is not always better.  If you are training for a specific sport or event that does require very high intensity training then seek out a professional to guide you.  Just as you are specialist at what you do and people seek out your skills to help them, so are sports and fitness professionals specialists at helping you train. 

Lastly, as I said in the third paragraph, as long as you are doing good movement.  If you are not sure what good movement is and have never sought out help with learning what good movement is then I would highly advocate that you do.  We seek out specialist advice for everything else - movement masters are there to help you learn better movement.  Once you know the basics then you can apply it to any sport, class or workout.  We can definitely help you with that at Precision Movement! - contact us to discuss your specific situation.