Review: Gymbox

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Today, 24th  September 2018 I tried out my first Gymbox   class. The gym just opened at Cannon Street and I was lucky enough to have a taster of the facilities. See below what I got up to, what I thought of the class and if I would recommend it as a top workout spot in London. What class did I do? I did the BadAss class Who was the instructor? Phoebe What was the class like? Described on their website as 'the next level workout for your derriere', I can confirm that this class certainly does make your booty burn! The class was 30-minutes and consisted of a dynamic, cardio warm-up and then 2 sections of weight-based workout. Squats, lunges, pulses were, as expected, all included in the workout. The 2 sections of workout were made up of 3/4 exercises which you did for 1 minute each before switching, complete all the exercises and then have 30 seconds rest. You then repeated that section through again before moving on to the 2nd section. I definitely struggled
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Results: 5 Weeks of Cardio

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I hate cardio.

Okay, let me rephrase.

I hate the traditional forms of cardio. Running, swimming, sitting on a bike for hours at a time.

I have been weight training for a year and a half now and whilst I have seen improvements in my strength and my physicality has changed, I wasn't as lean as I thought I could be.

So, I decided to an experiment with myself. I dropped the weights sessions and instead I decided to do 5 days of cardio-based training for 5 weeks. I made a sheet so I could tick off my workouts and keep myself accountable. I also measured my body fat using calipers.

This is what my training schedule looked like in those 5 weeks:
Monday - home circuit
Tuesday - zumba
Wednesday - treadmill circuit and abs
Thursday - legs, bums and tums
Friday - rest
Saturday - full body circuit and abs
Sunday - rest

Zumba and Legs, Bums and Tums are easy way for me to get cardio in, class-based workouts work really well for me as I don't need to come up with my own workouts and a good instructor will push and encourage you!

Home circuits are great if you can motivate yourself to do them. I like to do pick 5-8 exercises and do 30 seconds on/30 seconds off with 3-5 rounds. These take MAXIMUM 30 minutes and can be done with no equipment.

A personal favourite of mine is:
Squat jumps forward
Burpees
Toe taps
Hut hut hike (check out Whitney Simmons YT for this!)
Wall sit

For this, I would do 5 rounds, 25 minutes - workout done.

Treadmill circuits were my least favourite workout of the week. As I said earlier, I hate running. Sprints are good but tough so I decided to mix it up.

I would do the following:
5 minutes walking
5 minutes sprints (30 seconds on/30 seconds off)
5 minutes uphill walking
5 minutes sprints (30 seconds on/30 seconds off)
5 minutes uphill walking
5 minutes walking

This helped me keep my heart rate elevated throughout the workout and really work up a sweat. And I didn't hate it!

My favourite workout of the week was my gym circuits. Being able to use weights, plyometric exercises, equipment... really helped me challenge myself and I LOVED it.

Here is an example of what I would do:
7 box jumps
15 battle rope slams
10 wall balls
15 barbell rows
15 military press
10 thrusters
40 toe taps
45 seconds rest
5 rounds

This circuit is tough. But you feel so good afterwards.

Down to the results.

I took my body fat measurements with calipers at the start of the 5 weeks and again at the end.

I used the Jackson Pollock 4-site fold test and used an online calculator to calculate the results.
Start
End
Tricep
23.9mm
17.9mm
Thigh
30.8mm
30.8mm
Suprailiac
12.8mm
13.8mm
Umbilicus
19.1mm
14.8mm
Weight
154lbs
156lbs
Body Fat
24.5%
22.5%

As you can see, I am down 2% body fat!

Now, I am not an expert and I did all these measurements myself using digital calculators so there will be a margin of error however, I did try to be as accurate as possible.

Going forward, I am now going to adjust my training to incorporate weights AND cardio whereas I was previously avoiding cardio as much as possible.

To do this, I am going to train in a 2-week cycle, 1 strength week and 1 cardio week.

I am hoping that by combining the 2 styles of workout this will allow me to continue to improve my strength whilst dropping body fat and improving my overall fitness

Hope you found this interesting and can maybe take some tips away for your own training

CFG x

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