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Exercise. I’d be lying if I said I loved it, but thanks to our membership at David Lloyd Club, I have found quite a few classes that I do really enjoy. But they have just introduced a new fitness class called Blaze, and I went to the launch last week.
I have to admit I was quite nervous about Blaze. I’d seen videos on the David Lloyd Facebook page and it looked kind of terrifying for an exercise novice like me. But some of my blogger friends were going too, so I knew we’d have fun. And fun we definitely had. Plus we burned hundreds of calories (thousands, between us!) in this new and fun exercise class.
What’s Different About Blaze?
Blaze is David Lloyd’s new boutique group training class, which combines intense cardio, strength training and mixed martial arts. So it’s a full body workout in 45 minutes, synced to dance music. We also had a DJ and sax player, but I’m not sure they will be there every time.
The room is closed off from the rest of the gym, and air conditioned. There are neon strip lights everywhere, and it feels more like a nightclub than a gym, especially once the DJ set up his decks!
Each person wears a MyZONE heart monitor, which is linked to a big screen. This means you can track your calories and effort rates in real time. It also lets you see how everyone else in the class is doing, if you want to be competitive.
What Happens in a Blaze Class?
There are three different zones, with a Woodway treadmill for cardio, a weight bench for strength and punch bags for mixed martial arts. Your activity rate is classified into blue, green, yellow and red. When you’re in the red zone, you’re working at your highest capacity.
Blaze is run by three instructors, and I have never seen anyone with more energy in my life. They spent the whole class bopping about to the music, shouting encouragement, and pushing us to do just a little bit more.
The instructors quickly learn your names and let you know how many calories you’re burning. They also shout at you to keep going for the allocated amount of time. This was my first time running on a treadmill (I’ve stuck to fast walking up to now) and it was a bit of a baptism by fire!
The Blaze instructors demonstrated each exercise to us a few times. They kept a close eye on us when we did them, to make sure we were doing them right. As we got tired, we didn’t concentrate as much, so they came round and demonstrated the exercises again for us, which I appreciated!
This is me and my friend Danielle from Tres Paper Co getting ready to do some strength training. I chose the lightest weights, at 5kg each, but they were still very heavy for me.ย
Danielle took these pictures of me and Vickie from In No Particular Order punching the living daylights out of the punch bags. They really make me laugh, our faces are so funny!
How Did We Do at Our Blaze Class?
I didn’t realise we would be doing three rounds of each exercise and I was shaking at the end of the class. It is really, really hard.
This is the screen at the end of our 45 minute session. As you can see, I was at 91% effort and burned a huge 635 calories. It actually went even higher, above 700, as you keep burning the calories for some time after. I got a mini cheer when the instructors gave me a shout out for having the highest effort levels at the end. But you can see my heart rate is also really high, which I think means I’m not very fit.
We got this rather hot and sweaty photo after we’d done the class – and we’re all still smiling!
From left to right: Me, Hayley from Southwood Living, Amanda from Ginger Mum Style, an instructor, David the manager of David LLoyd, Alice from More Than Toast, Vickie from In No Particular Order,ย ย Danielle from Tres Paper Co, and our other instructor. DaxOnSax and the DJ are in front.
Will I Go Back to Blaze?
I was in agony the next day, and the day after. They say that which does not kill you makes you stronger, and I think that’s the case with Blaze. It’s really hard, but will definitely give you results. So I will be brave enough to go back, as I can see it’s a fantastic way to get fit.
