Spa spy Keep on moving

A Cavefit session at The Edinburgh Grand can take you to another level in the gym

The treatment

A 45 minute Cavefit session (£12.50) at the new branch of Cavefit at The Edinburgh Grand. High Performance membership is £105 per month and includes unlimited HIIT Zone Sessions from Monday to Friday, open gym use, an induction and more. They also offer drop in 30 minute CAVEHIIT classes (£11.50), 60 minute Cavelifting (£13.50) and 45 minute Caveconditioning (£12.50).

Why go?

To visit this studio’s second incarnation (the first is at Edinburgh’s Long Craig Rigg, on the Waterfront) and try out the trend for HIIT, which is supposed to burn a ridiculous amount of calories and turn you into a strong and lean dynamo.

Our spy says

“Excuse me, where is Cavefit?” I ask a waitress in Lady Libertine, since the receptionist at the adjoining Edinburgh Grand is busy.

She points over at a bright red neon sign, pointing down to the basement. Aha!

Down a flight of stairs, and corridors lead to what must be the coolest gym in the capital, in the vaults of this former bank.

There are chic shower rooms, unisex facilities, lockers, and a gym with giant Belfast sinks, punch bags, branded merchandise, and lots of fancy equipment that I wouldn’t know what to do with.

Owner, Peter Oakden, takes me along to the Blade Runner-esque HIIT Zone room where my Cavefit class will take place. It’s all bare brick, and giant colour changing halo lights that, in some classes, mark where you should be standing.

We start with a 30 minute induction. I am shown how to lift kettlebells properly, do deadlifts with the free weights, and how to use the gruelling echo bike and ski machine.

It feels like it’s going in one ear, and out the other, due to nerves.

After a break and, once the Cavefit class starts, I realise I needn’t have worried. Well, not really. Yes, it’s hard, but the music and my adrenaline is pumping and it’s a blast. We do a few sets of three exercises, repeated three times for one minute each, then have 15 seconds break in between. Peter is in control of all the timings to keep us right, and is extremely motivational, doling out encouragement and tweaking our form.

Routines include lifting the barbell for a minute, pedalling on the bike for the same amount of time, then stepping up onto the plyo box (others are jumping onto it, but that’s not happening for me). Or, there’s a trio of pain that involves sit-ups, dumbbell presses and a tortuous toe-touch pull up on the bar. I can’t do the last move (luckily, what happens in Cavefit stays in Cavefit), so Peter gives me an alternative exercise.

We finish with a flurry of endorphins, and lots of sweaty high-fives.

The results

I survived and really want to go back. As someone whose exercise regime plateaued a few years ago, this is the sort of thing to take you up a level.

The Edinburgh Grand, 42 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh (0131-230 0400, www.cavefit.com)