A lot of fitness challenges can be letdowns. They beat you to an inch of your life with consecutive over-the-top workouts you’d never think twice about doing again in the long run, then one person goes home with a reward for being the biggest loser on the scales.
Once your 30 days are up, you dish out hugs and goodbyes, snap a few pictures of your new body on holiday, then return to work and a semi-sedentary existence, only to put your foot down again just before Christmas.
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In fact, if what you’re looking for in a health membership is a familylike support system as you work (intelligently) toward sustainable goals of weight loss, muscle gain, healthy eating and all-round physical and mental wellness, then this is the family you should do it with.
Among their many impressive services is the Lean & Clean challenge, our October fitness mission.
It includes unlimited access to all classes offered at all Fit & Flex studios, BCA assessments before and after, so you can track your progress in numbers – from inches and fat percentage lost to calorie burn per day; a goal-setting workshop with a life coach, and interactive nutritional consultations and planning.
Just as we were about to start the programme, we heard that due to an overwhelming response they had added a second group, catered for on evenings. This was very encouraging – knowing that many more of us were all in this together, particularly as a private Facebook group was set up for challenge members to communicate, share tips, healthy recipes and moan about aches and pains.
We used it a lot (and still do), which is but one massive perk of joining the very friendly Fit & Flex community.
Then, we were handed a bunch of rules. We had to make sure we were in the studio at least five times a week, for classes recommended to us based on the goals we shared with trainers beforehand.
This tally included two mandatory, extra-hard, Lean & Clean-specific classes per week.
As it turns out, it’s not difficult to clock into Fit & Flex studios as often as five times a week; they have a full suite of classes ranging from Les Mills’ popular Body Pump, Body Attack and Body Combat and other high-intensity smashers like Tabata and Fit Boxing, to recoverysupporting yoga, and toning workouts like Pilates and adult ballet.
Their most in-demand class is the ruthless Xpin & Sculpt, which brings together indoor cycling and free weight and body weight training at intervals across 50 minutes.
Fit & Flex owner and head trainer Raquel Rodrigues, who enthusiastically teaches the class, says: “It’s like High Intensity Interval Training or Tabata (which follows the idea of alternating between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest). In terms of fitness results and getting fitter, this is the most effective way.”
Similarly, the Lean & Clean-specific classes are an ever-changing mix of circuits, Tabata-style routines,high intensity partner work,and more to ensure every muscle group gets a wake-up call that increases in intensity each week.
The challenge, much like the gym as a whole, doesn’t just glaze over the nutrition element either.
In fact, not only were we instructed to keep a detailed diary of what we consumed each day, including all ingredients; every Sunday Raquel came onto the Facebook page to share the “extra credit homework” of eliminating one food/bad habit per week and replacing it with a new one.
Food is the hardest part, and yet it plays the biggest role in achieving weight loss goals, but it helped that we were told we had to share our notes. All possible effort was made to keep our diaries as clean as possible to avoid embarrassment.
With a little more planning and a slightly earlier start to press raw, fresh juices and smoothies, to consult the web and learn quickand-easy recipes we could survive on throughout the day or before going out; and while out, making sure to monitor any bad choices by the plate in fear of affecting the dreaded diary, we came into a routine that suddenly started to seem
not so impossible.
Maybe our friends became annoyed that they saw us for far less brunches or last call at the bar, as we opted for an early night to catch yoga on a Saturday morning; but many of them got over it and even took a few pages from our gymobsessed
ways.
Indeed, the programme was able to work its magic in a tiny ripple effect across our entire lives until we were caught doing up to eight classes a week by Day 15. That energy meant we no longer needed midday siestas or as much coffee and sugar, and it suddenly seemed less urgent to have a pizza topped with everything on cheat day.
Week 3 was the hardest as everyone’s bodies hit a wall, but incorporating more recovery sessions, and with the immense supportiveness of Fit & Flex’s truly wonderful and dedicated team, it was a no-brainer to keep going until the end.
By Day 30, many people lost kilograms of fat, looked slimmer and sleeker, were tired but just generally in more tip-top shape; with plenty of new recipes in tow too as we were asked to each bring in a healthy treat we’d made to
celebrate.
Personally, we didn’t achieve our over-the-top idea of a Misty Copeland figure, but the numbers went down and so many smaller battles were won that we’re not about to stop working at it anytime soon.
Just a few slots remain for November's 30-Day Lean & Clean Challenge, starting Sunday, November 8 (must register by this weekend), but the challenge returns on a monthly basis and costs Dh1,000.
www.fitnflex.com | [email protected] | 055 146 6123
