Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself to go to the gym solo, especially in these cold winter months. When I feel like that, I go along to group classes, to up the motivation-factor! This week, I was invited to an all-singing, all-dancing, all-sweating, all-girl fitness class in London’s West End. With a catchy, cheeky name like ‘The Skinny Bitch Collective‘ how could I decline?! The class was held just off Baker Street, and is led weekly by the founder, Russell Bateman. Under his enthusiastic guidance (and stern yelling!) all ten girls had to put in 110% to keep up with this very demanding routine. The class is basically an intense metabolic workout including some unusual ‘primal movements’, and is set to classic Ibiza house mixes, which marks the aim and tone of the session!
Here are just 6 of these primal movements included in the ‘Skinny Bitch’ session – they definitely got my poor legs bitchin’!!
1. SQUATS – great for all over body composition. Sculpts the legs, butt and core, and is a great cardiovascular exercise. (Check out my previous post on Leg workout)
2. PUSH UPS – build strength and equally sculpt arms, chest and core. Slow tempo is key to strength gains and core recruitment. No picture for this one, because everyone knows what a push-up looks like!!!
3. LUNGES – reverse lunge with dumbbell hold into ‘plyometric’ jump lunges. This is a great mix of slow and controlled movement going into an explosive power-move, great for developing the glutes and a big test for your overall stamina. Just the slightest micro adjustments and tempo control of the exercises can totally change its effectiveness thus changing your shape, and making you stronger. Think slow eccentric movement (the way down) and explosive concentric (the way up) – like you might remember from my previous post here.
4. SPIDER CRAWLS – engaging core, legs, glutes, arms, and most importantly, your heart! They look easy, but done at pace, they’re utterly exhausting, and an all-over exercise of a truly primal nature!
5. SLIDING RUNNERS – with palms planted, and alternating your legs, slide the knees under your chest, then back away from your body. At pace, this is a demanding workout for the whole body.
6. ONE LEGGED SHOULDER PRESS – through balance, this exercise really hits the core, and forces the abs to engage. You get the added kicker of working your shoulders too. I particularly liked this one – it was a real challenge!
….Also I’m pretty sure Russell gave me the heaviest weights throughout the class, so if you’re reading this Russell – thanks! All-in, the Skinny Bitch class is great cardio, balance and strength training, all rolled into a 60-minute session that gos quicker than you’d think.