An online Callanetics class from Walk the Talk Studios, Edinburgh

Let Keira Thorley put you through your paces with an online Beautiful Torture class

The treatment

A 45 minute Beautiful Torture Callanetics class, £14 for dropin (£7 for your first class, £30 unlimited classes for a week, other packages available) with Keira Thorley, director of Walk the Talk Studios, Edinburgh. Their studio at 1 Abercromby Place has temporarily closed, and classes have been taken online. See www.bookwhen. com/walkthetalkstudios for the programme.

Why go?

To vary your indoor routine. Callanetics is an exercise programme that is designed to tone muscles, mainly using tiny repetitive movements. Keira sometimes chucks a bit of HIIT and yoga in the mix too. She was prescient and launched these online classes way before we’d even heard of coronavirus.

Our spy says

If nothing else, lockdown has been an opportunity to get to grips with technology we haven’t used before. For this one, we download video meeting app Whereby, then “knock on the door” at class time, so Keira can let us in.

I turn my laptop’s camera off, since I’d scrambled to get ready and nobody wants to see me, looking like a mole rat. Everyone else has their camera on, and it’s nice to see friendly faces. Also, leaving yours on means that Keira can help if you need any adjustments.

The others – a crew of all ages – seem to be regulars, and Keira greets all of her “ladies” and instructs us to turn off our microphones, so there’s no peripheral sound. It’s just me who’s the anonymous interloper.

Keira is taking this class from a light room, with her black cat, Buddy, mooching about in the background.

We begin with stretching each arm up and then over to the side, gently bouncing, to engage the obliques. It’s so effective that when we release and fold forward, I can feel the burn in my side, like gallstones, but beneficial.

Other moves include squatting, then lifting a leg to the front, squatting again and side kick, then a kick back. (You’ll need a bit of room, if you don’t want to boot the coffee table). There’s a genius move involving sticking arms out to the sides, rotating them forward, like you’re a misassembled Barbie, then pulsing, which targets bingo wings.

The hardest bit is probably the kneeling press up, with nose touching the floor, legs bent and feet crossed, which makes a minute stretch out into eternity. I’m glad that nobody can see me face planting onto the carpet.

Once we’re sitting down, with legs to one side, as if riding side saddle, we lift the back one and gently pulse, then take it higher and repeat. Tough on the glutes, and I really notice that my left leg, henceforth known as the withered one, is much weaker than my right.

The results

It didn’t feel too onerous, but I’m stiff for the next two days. I’m sure if you kept this class up, you’d eventually emerge from lockdown like a chiselled butterfly. Next time, I might even put my camera on. ■

Walk the Talk Studios (07415 206 975, www.walkthetalkstudios.com)