Forget HIIT: why slow workouts are the new way to get fit

Turn down the treadmill — maintaining a steady-paced workout is the new way to get ahead, says Samuel Fishwick 
Slow is the new fast
Shutterstock / Rocksweeper

Dial down the treadmill speed and row back your reps per minute on the ergometer, London is getting with the slow-gramme. Fast fitness, HIIT classes and explosive, high-paced workouts have been intensely popular in the capital for years, but now a surge in slower, mindful and intelligent movement classes is catching them up.

At Equinox, regenerative classes including self-massage and meditation are increasingly being pushed. “You can’t expect to achieve results without proper rest and relaxation,” says Michelle Morrey, group fitness manager at the Kensington branch. “Low-intensity, steady-state training is not to be forgotten and has an important place in your fitness regime.”

Slowing down to get ahead may sound backwards but taking your foot off the pedal can make for better gains. “I’ll put people in poses for anywhere between five to 15 minutes,” says London Triyoga teacher Anna Ashby, whose restorative yoga classes focus on “activating the parasympathetic nervous system and bringing about a relaxation response”. While she recognises that in life there can be “good stress”, used for “stimulation that’s helpful for creative endeavour”, she says the results of high stress are obvious: “Performance drops, the ability to focus is no longer there, and you experience burnout.” Justin Rogers, co-founder of

Ten Health and Fitness, says: “There’s a myth that speed and intensity are linked but they’re not.” Ten’s Pilates reformer and Ten Stretch classes help to unlearn habits that have been inefficient, unsafe and unnatural to the body. “If you talk to a lot of weightlifters they’ll tell you about the importance of time under load to help muscles strengthen. In our classes we’re starting out to be precise, controlled and mindful of the muscles we’re using and the way in which we’re using them.”

Intelligent movement, Rogers says, isn’t something you can rush. “In the purist sense of the word you have to be mindful. You have to focus on the muscles and the way you’re using them, what your posture is like, where your limbs are, the technique you are using. If you get that wrong, two things happen: one you don’t actually benefit from the exercise you’re doing, the second is that you exacerbate the risk of injury.”

Both Rogers and Ashby insist that a more sedate, mindful approach to exercise is the antidote to our “always on” way of life. “One of the biggest problems affecting people in the 21st century is we’re the most sedentary generation in human history, and along with all the sitting that you do comes a range of postural and musculo-skeletal problems that we’re all paying for,” says Rogers. “Neck and back pain are among the most common reasons for being off work.” With a new Great Titchfield Street Ten Health studio having just opened, Rogers is determined to make “injury-proofing” part of London’s routine.

Going steady: Ten Pilates specialises in controlled and intelligent movements

If you can’t slow down your pace in the city, take it to the great outdoors. Drew Collins works at a marketing agency in Farringdon but will take on the first 407-mile Three Peak challenge walk, between Ben Nevis, Snowden and Scafell Pike, expecting to take a month from April 27. An extreme feat, but it’s one he’s not going to rush. “I admire people who run but I just find I cannot get into the right frame of mind when moving fast,” says Collins. “Walking is a way of taking in everything around you. Furthermore, walking in the wilderness you can take in everything around you without the distraction of a phone signal, and that is a superb way to hit the rest button.”

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To paraphrase Simon and Garfunkel, slow down, you’re moving too fast, make that morning exercise class last. Take a ride or run in the slow lane and you’re halfway to feeling groovy.

Follow Samuel Fishwick on Twitter: @Fish_o_wick

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