There are bloody MILLIONS of exercise classes to pick from in London these days. Fancy an hour’s spinning in a studio that resembles a club while a woman in neon lycra shouts at you TO PUSH IT HARDER? No problem. Feel more like a bit of panpipey yoga on a Shoreditch rooftop while the sun rises? Easy peasy. Worried that your earlobes are starting to get a bit saggy? There’ll be a class for that somewhere too.

I tend to be a running in the park slash Ten Pilates girl. Running to keep me sane (ish), reformer pilates two or three times a week to stretch me out again afterwards.

This weekend, however, I went to 1Rebel in the City. A new studio near Liverpool Street, it’s all gleaming copper lockers and exposed pipes and free bottles of water and fresh towels, thank you very much. It’s also one of those places you can only go to for classes – no treadmills or stairmasters for you to fanny about on for 20 minutes on your own.

 

I am reasonably fit – even if I say so myself – and their Double Shot class nailed me. Thirty minutes of both high-intensity floor work and sprints on the treadmill (up to a speed of 18 and an incline of 10) in their studio downstairs, followed by 30 minutes of spinning upstairs. And I PROMISE I’m not writing this because I told them I would. I’m writing it because if you work or live anywhere near then book yourself in for a nailing, because it’s waaaaay better than several other classes across London I could mention. You are pulversised. You properly sweat and shake and have to take your festering gym kit home in a 1Rebel plastic bag afterwards because it’s so, erm, wet. Plus, they offer 30 minute classes during lunchtime in the week where they lob a free protein shake in.

I know that going to new classes can be a hideous experience. You’re the newbie doing the wrong thing with the wrong weights while lithe people bounce around doing it all perfectly as if they’re auditioning for Cirque du frigging Soleil. But don’t panic because it’s fairly dark in their studios so less obvious if you cock it up to begin with.