Review: Fitness Playground

Embrace your inner child with one of the newest workouts in the city. Tag – you’re it! Plus, ONE WEEK OF FREE FITNESS PLAYGROUND sessions for all readers (see bottom of page for details).

What: Fitness Playground
Where: South Bank (coming soon to St James’s Park and Canary Wharf)
When: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday (soon Tuesday and Thursday too)
Duration: 1 hour
Price: From £10 per session or £45 per month for unlimited sessions. Or get a FREE week with us! See details at the bottom of the post.

 

Playing Fitness Pacman

Playing Fitness Pacman

Being a kid was ace wasn’t it? Playing in the street, climbing trees, British Bulldog… (We’re conveniently forgetting about homework, bullying and wetting the bed for the purposes of this story alright?)

Once you’re grown up though, opportunities to run around tagging people and telling them they’re ‘it’ are scarce. Well, unless you go to Fitness Playground that is. Possibly the most fun you can have on the city streets without getting arrested, Fitness Playground is a chance to embrace your inner child, laugh a ridiculous amount (it works the abs) and get fit while you’re doing it.

 

Charlotte, soon to be tagged!

Charlotte, soon to be tagged!

We tried out the one-hour outdoor workout class this week, and by jingo it was fun. Taking place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays from London’s South Bank University (plans are afoot for sessions in Canary Wharf and St James’s Park too) the sessions are split into classes called burn, best, blast and build.

We signed up for the full body ‘burn’ session, which involves running around the streets of London behaving like kids who’ve had too many E numbers. Using the parks, pavements and random pieces of street furniture around the South Bank as our playground (you get the name now right?) we jogged from workout station to workout station – the stations are set up in random places around the South Bank (no such thing as park perimeter constraints here) – stopping at each one to play a game or perform an exercise.

 

Bet you never even knew this was there

Bet you never even knew this was there

To give you an idea of just some of the intervals, they included splitting into teams and playing Uppies and Doonies (basically one team trying to turn cones upwards, while the other tried to turn them all down – it got pretty competitive), wheelbarrows (oww arms and core!), sprinting through tunnels, tricep dips off sculptures, planks in parks, charging up and down steps, a game of duck, duck, goose – remember that? And the Fitness Playground speciality, Fitness Pacman – pretending to be ghosts and pacmen and chasing each other while bemused tourists watched in wonder. We also experienced the truly wonderful Roxanne initiation. You know the drinking game, yes? Well think burpees and squat thrusts rather than beer and shots and you get the idea.

 

A few underground sprints

A few underground sprints

The best thing about Fitness Playground though? Aside from the lovely trainers Pete and Dan (welcoming, helpful, cheeky and fit), the fact it was so much fun you didn’t realise how much of a workout it was, and the constant shrieking, shouting and laughter? It has to be the teamwork. Working in teams and pairs in a lot of the tasks, plus the fact that numbers are capped at 16 per session, means you get to know your fellow Playgrounders really quickly and all support and encourage each other. Despite a range of different abilities in the group, no one gets left behind – if you’re one of the faster runners, then you just turn back and meet the others or jog up and down steps while you wait. If you’re a less confident runner, there’s always a trainer at the back to show you the way and if you need to walk, no one’s going to judge.  A truly inclusive, bloomin’ hilarious way to work out. All in all Fitness Playground gets an A+ from us. Loved it!

 

Trainers Dan and Pete, lovely, lovely guys

Trainers Dan and Pete, lovely, lovely guys

Because we loved Fitness Playground so much, we’ve done a little deal with them so that you can all try it – for FREE. Simply go to www.fitnessplayground.co.uk/lunges-and-lycra or click the image below to register for the offer. That’s up to five sessions, gratis! You must register your interest by Thursday 11 July and have until Friday 9 August to take your sessions. Seriously guys, do this, it is freaking ace!

 

Fitness Playground offer

Terms and conditions

  • No cash alternative
  • Readers have seven days from Thursday 4 to Thursday 11 July 2013 to register for the FREE one week pass
  • Readers can roll out free week anytime up until Friday 9 August 2013 by enrolling via the following link http://fitnessplayground.co.uk/lunges-and-lycra
  • Fitness Playground sessions must be attended in a seven day period only.  Reader can attend max of 5 classes per week. Subject to availability. Sessions capped at 16 people.
  • Fitness Playground sessions meet at a central meeting point.  Storage facilities available for bags.  Preferable to arrive in training kit.
  • Transport and kit not provided

 

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