Beauty

Banish post-workout aches with a heart-rate monitored Speedflex gym session

Get fit with a Speedflex gym session

The treatment

A 30 minute Speedflex session at The Bannatyne Health Club & Spa, Edinburgh. Membership for a 12 month direct debit contract starts from £34 per month, or £40 per month for a single one month contract. There’s also a day pass for £15. Also available at the Bannatyne club in Dunfermline.

Why go?

The inventors of this high intensity interval training (HIIT) class say that it suits everyone, since the set of eight machines respond to your body weight and strength, using concentric force. This makes it low impact and, according to them, the joints aren’t stressed and muscles aren’t stretched so you won’t be aching for days after.

Our spy says

Although this class is on at various times on Bannatyne’s timetable, I’m getting a special out-of-hours session.

Usually, if participants don’t want to launch into their first class, they can try a 15 minute Speedflex Technique session. Personal trainer Alex is going to give me this induction before running me through a typical session (with nobody else in the class to laugh at me).

First of all, I slip on a MYZONE Physical Activity Belt, which clips around your ribs to measure heart rate and calories burned, among other things.

The results flash up on a big screen, turning from grey to green then yellow and red, depending on how hard you’re working. It feels a bit like there’s nowhere to hide.

Next Alex talks me through the machines. They’re all pretty easy to use, with handles to pull down, push up, squat and row, and clean and press, as if you’re weightlifting. Then, once he’s put some motivational music on, I do a warm up circuit, with less than a minute at each of the stations. My heart rate has gone up, but it’s manageable.

Ding ding. It’s circuit two, and Alex pushes me to work harder. Then he mixes it up, so I’m doing a few mountain climbers on a mat, then onto a machine, some tricep dips on a bench, then another machine, then some squats with a weight on my shoulders.

If there were other people in the class, he might pair us up, or put us into teams. According to him, they vary the routine so nobody gets bored.

I’m in the red zone now, but thankfully we’re not there for too long, before the class winds down and my chest stops going bumpetty bump. On the monitor, I can see a record of my heart rate throughout the class, but it’s up to about 90 per cent of its capacity for less than a third of the half hour session before being brought back down into the gentler blue zone... and relax.

The results

That was a blast and I feel high on endorphins. Also, though I feel like I worked hard, as promised there’s zero muscle soreness. When can I go back? n

The Bannatyne Health Club & Spa, 43 Queen Street, Edinburgh (0131-225 8384, www.bannatyne.co.uk)