BXR – possibly the most beautiful gym in London

BXR London. Just off Great Chiltern Street so you’d expect nothing less than a haven made out in the highest spec with marble tiling, artistic boxing details and the most flattering lighting and mirrors known to man.

WHAT IS BXR?

Launched in January 2017, this gym is the passion project from Anthony Joshua, so everything oozes boxing. It combines a members only gym, BXR, and a fitness boutique concept, Sweat by BXR that launched in February.

As my salary can’t quite stretch to a membership here, Hannah and I opted for the Sweat by BXR route on their intro offer of 2 classes for £30.

THE WORKOUT – STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING – TOTAL BODY STRENGTH

Walking into the S&C, we were met by the vibrant Liberty who was taking the class. She explained that this class was more strength focused so our heart rates wouldn’t get up as much as the other VersaClimber or Boxing classes.

As a result, I began to worry if I’d even get a workout out of the session…

How wrong I was!

We started the class focusing on activating the muscles using rollers followed by a whole host of band work to wake up those glutes (not gluten as my laptop seems to think…). Yep, they were certainly wide awake after endless squats, knee rotations, kick backs, plank jacks. 

You name it, we did it.

And that was just the warm up.

The core workout involved 3 rounds of 5 exercises using a mixture of bodyweight or weights with 1 minute on each. With each round, we progressed the exercise to work that bit harder, so the walkout into press-ups became a walkout with a double press up into burpee (you get the gist).

So, after 3 rounds and the core finisher, our initial worries of not getting enough of a workout were a sweaty memory. Time for a deserved post workout protein shake, right?

Cost: £30 a session (however they are doing an intro offer of 2 for £15 if you’re quick)

Value: 7/10 Based on the Sweat Circuits class, I probably wouldn’t pay the full £30, but then if you’re looking to go there to use the steam and sauna facilities, chill out in the ringside Joe & the Juice bar and use it as a working space, it’s not too bad.

Facilities: 10/10. The set-up means us pay as you go types have access to high end member facilities so there was everything you could possibly need. Has to be said I’m looking forward to using my second class and will probably arrive a fair few hours earlier and leave a lot later!

Sweat level: 7.5/10. It certainly lived up to its name, however the strength focus meant it wasn’t as cardio heavy. I’m starting lower on this scale as I know there are sweatier workouts out their and I’m yet to try out their Versaclimber ‘Climb to the beat’ class.