From anti-gravity yoga to Megaformer: the LA fitness trends coming to London

From anti-gravity yoga to the new Reformer, Hollywood's hottest workouts are heading to the capital says Phoebe Luckhurst
From LA to London
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London is fit. The capital is thirsty for fitness trends: be they workouts or smoothies sauced with spirulina. Whenever the little voice posits that all this might be a storm in a well marketed teacup, we silence it with renewed, zealous devotion to whatever is offered next. We are eager consumers.

But London’s scene is old-fashioned compared with the offerings in Los Angeles, and its appetite for newness looks restrained when pitched against theirs. The Angeleno is a sunny, hewn creature: limbs long and corseted in skin-tight lululemon. He or she totes something greener than Eden and talks — breathily — about the latest trends in workouts and transcendental meditation.

Luckily, London cynicism will likely preclude us from becoming quite so earnest, though we’ll continue to borrow the workouts. What starts in LA makes its way — at high velocity — to London. These are the workouts to look out for.

The Megaformer

The Megaformer sounds like a cutesy family nickname for the remote control. In fact, it is an imposing jungle gym on which you can prostrate yourself, tangled and perspiring, in order to lose weight (and self-respect, probably). It is like a high-octane Reformer Pilates machine — and is at the centre of workouts by Studio Lagree, an LA studio that opened a studio in the City at the tail end of last year. Kim Kardashian is rumoured to be a disciple of the studio.

Studio Lagree cannot promise your proportions will end up as confounding as hers, but the workout, which pledges to test your “core, endurance, cardio, balance, strength and flexibility … in every move” reportedly whittles the body. The machine places resistance on the muscles in order to work them to stretching point. (35-37 Chiswell Street, EC1, studiolagreeuk.com)

Hiking

LA is pitched in the Santa Monica mountains: the terrain is an invitation to those who wish to work out outdoors. On the other hand, London is surrounded by the Home Counties, which are not an invitation for anything much. However, those who wish to mimic the LA workout should book the new, intense treadmill workout at Equinox in Kensington: it’s interval training, that builds in hills and slopes. Squint and it’s almost the Hollywood Hills. (The Roof Gardens, Kensington High Street, W8, equinox.com)

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Aerial fitness

Aerial workouts are very popular on the West Coast and there is a growing movement here; seemingly, LA is so spiritual that its people prefer to hover above the ground, like literal angels.

Skylab in Camden is a specialist studio that offers four different aerial classes (25A Ferdinand Street, NW1, skylabstudio.co.uk).

Aerial Fit is a conditioning class involving press-ups, pull-ups and tucks suspended in the air; Aerial Stretch, on the other hand, sounds far more pleasant: “With the weight of the body supported in a soft hammock we can build flexibility and core strength with ease.” Aerial Yoga London has a studio in Whitechapel: there are different classes for different abilities and paces (30 New Road, E1, aerialyogalondon.co.uk).

Gymbox, which has eight gyms in London, also offers an anti-gravity yoga class of its own, promising “all the benefits of yoga but with the added ability to hold challenging postures longer, allowing your joints to decompress” (gymbox.com).

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Meditation

Not strictly a workout but Los Angeles takes silent contemplation very seriously. You could take a moment of repose on the Tube, or a deep breath before you unlock your flat and have to face down your housemates, or you could do things properly and go to Frame, which has its own mass meditation class, which is far more LA. It is hosted by former ad woman Jody Shield, who also has a meditation “residency” at Soho House and is — of course — an ambassador for lululemon (Frame’s Shoreditch and King’s Cross branches, moveyourframe.com). There is also Inner Space in Covent Garden, which bills itself as a “meditation and personal development centre”, which has a Creative Meditation class, as well as a “Quiet Room” into which you can retire if things in central London are getting a bit much (36 Shorts Gardens, WC2, innerspace.org.uk).

There is probably much London does not want to mimic about LA — but we wouldn’t kick their abs out of bed.

Follow Phoebe Luckhurst on Twitter: @phoebeluckhurst

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