Good Vibes in the West End

When I took on the challenge of the five-day ‘boot camp’ at Good Vibes this dark, miserable January, I thought I would have to drag myself to its central London studios for a workout each day. Yet I actually got really into it and loved trying the different things on offer at the gyms – warm yoga, Power Plates and spin.

Good Vibes offers fitness services out of two sites, Covent Garden and Fitzrovia. The Covent Garden site is decidedly more sexy than the Fitzrovia location. Fitzrovia is a little rough around the edges but the staff there are just as warm and helpful as in Covent Garden.

I absolutely adored the Glow Yoga sessions which are held at the Covent Garden gym. If you live in London and have a stressful job all you need to do is come to a couple of sessions a week and you’ll feel de-stressed and ready to face life’s little challenges once again. For a start, the room is heated to the temperature of a hot summer’s day.

You feel comfortable at the beginning of your session, making muscles more flexible. You heat up a bit throughout and get sweaty enough to feel you’ve done good but you don’t feel as though you’re about to faint as tends to happen in Bikram Yoga studios. The expert yoga practitioners take you through the sessions, which are aimed at all levels. Afterwards I felt energised and toned.

Some of you will have heard of Power Plates. For those who haven’t, you do a set of different exercises on a platform that vibrates extremely hard!  The idea behind it is that it makes your muscles work overtime. The beauty of it is that you only have to do it for 25 minutes.

Finally you can do spin at Good Vibes’ Fitzrovia gym. Basically, you rock out on a bike to loud music for 45 minutes, training hard with an instructor who shouts encouraging commands and by the end of it you feel as though you may faint. But an hour after that, you feel amazing!

So my diary was cleared out to make way for Glow Yoga, Power Plates and spin for five days on the trot. The sessions were really complementary – Power Plates to tone, spin to lose weight and yoga to build flexibility. Although it was a big effort I really enjoyed working out with Good Vibes – it was the perfect antidote to the sluggishness I had felt after the festive period.

A pass for all classes comes to £135 per month which I found quite expensive, but if you have the money and want to stay sane while keeping fit I’d definitely recommend you try out some of the sessions. You can also choose to do shorter ‘boot camp’ style classes at less cost.

Good Vibes Covent Garden
14-16 Betterton Street
Covent Garden
WC2H 9BU

Tel: 020 7240 6111

Good Vibes Fitzrovia
11 Tottenham Street
Fitzrovia
W1T 2AQ

Tel: 0207 580 1276