Why Dubai fitness studio Bare is full of surprises… and not just its workouts
▶ Ashleigh Stewart discovers no two classes are the same, and that she can have her cake and eat it, after the calorie-burn
As I stumble out of the changing rooms, calloused and sore with sweat still pouring off my forehead, I’m greeted by a sight I’m generally terrified of seeing post-workout: a hulking great chocolate cake.
It’s Jade Palmer’s birthday, and she’s eagerly cutting off a hunk for each of the fellow trainers milling around. As a plate is thrust under my nose, I’m stumped. Is this a test? Isn’t it some sort of wellness sacrilege to consume something even half this decadent in these hallowed halls? “It’s about balance,” someone says. “You’ve earned it.”
And indeed, these two concepts are central to Bare’s ethos. The gym that is not a gym, for they prefer not to call themselves such, is a place where you’re encouraged to have your cake and eat it too.
The boutique studio has been pioneering the nightclub-esque workout since it opened a couple of years ago in Clover Bay Tower in Dubai’s Business Bay, way before Barry’s Bootcamp arrived in Dubai International Financial Centre.
While it started off trying to offer “everything at once” (Les Mills classes and the works), the space has since evolved into a centre for those wanting to focus on HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and weight training, general manager Tjaart Gray says.
Bare now offers just three classes: its signature Black class, LAB (legs, abs and glutes) and CrossFit. The first is said to burn 1,000 calories in a single session.
“Really?” I ask Gray. “Have you tested that?” “Actually, we have,” he says. I would certainly hope so. Otherwise the complaining I had done for days after the previous Thursday’s Black session might have seemed overdone. Black is a timed “competition-style” class, which is characterised by a ticking (Tag Heuersponsored) wall clock, a live DJ and flashing lights.
After a warm-up that seems like an HIIT workout in itself, we spend 20 minutes alternating exercises in a group of four, without a single break. The loud music and nightclub-like scene does initially detract from the pain – and thankfully the relative darkness makes it easier to collapse on the floor after a round of burpees with fewer people noticing.
The second half of the class is spent alternating between sprints and planks among our groups – a process that became a hugely vocal affair and, dare I say it, almost fun. But just when you’re whooping and high-fiving and thinking
The darkness of the Black session makes it easier to collapse on the floor after a round of burpees with fewer people noticing
you might have this thing worked out, be aware: no two classes are the same. In fact, the trainers pull them out of thin air before each session.
There’s cardio, there’s weights, and a lot of elements are sourced from CrossFit, but generally the order of the workout isn’t decided until just before it begins. It’s a tailored approach that helps the body resist plateauing after three months or so.
The trainers might be familiar faces from the Dubai fitness community. Hendrik Hoogenboezem and Amy Fox are well known, and birthday girl Palmer is also a Nike master trainer. The community feel – not just within Gray’s team, but also among the members – is a crucial part of what makes Bare succeed.
There are monthly brunches, regular post-workout doughnut-eating sessions (Bare’s Instagram page suggests this is a daily routine), and a general feeling that everyone is friends.
They’ve also managed to get some high-class sponsors on board – Nike, Red Bull, Tag Heuer and SmartWater. “Anyone who wants to be part of the community can join us,” Gray says. “We’re not arrogant here, we don’t have egos. We’re not a traditional gym.”
For a monthly fee of Dh800, you can attend as many times as you like, along with obtaining nutrition and lifestyle advice and a coach at your beck and call via WhatsApp. That monthly rate hasn’t changed since the studio opened. If you just want to attend oneoff classes, they are Dh120.
With a members’ list that is almost full, the team is now scouting for a second location in the city, in DIFC, and is fitting out its first international space, Bare Manila.
“As soon as you join, you meet with a coach for one hour to say this is what you’re trying to do and this is how we’re going to help you,” Gray says.
But what about the cake, I ask. Surely that’s not part of the meal plan.
“What we say is you can be 80 per cent good and 20 per cent bad. We don’t want people to be calorie monkeys for the rest of their lives. The only thing that purely works is to eat right, train hard and do what’s right for your body.”
I needed no further encouragement. Besides, Fox had just put me through 500 reps (50 non-stop reps of 10 exercises. Think burpees, wall balls, chin-ups and box jumps, to name but a few) of a harrowing CrossFit session and my hands are blistered.
You bet I ate the cake.
For more information, visit www.bare.fitness