The Loop Guide to Clubbing, Drinking, plus West Essex and East London living.

New year new bum.. These were the words I uttered to myself at the stroke of midnight. I am one of those people that while blessed with a tiny waist I have the unfortunate displeasure of child-bearing hips (although great for when I do have children) and an Anika Rice bum! Its never really bothered me before but as my jeans are fitting just that little bit tighter around and it slowly seems to be moving to the tops of my legs I now feel I need to take action!

I am one of these people that goes to the gym nearly every day or not at all and although I feel so much better when I exercise both mentally and physically its hard to drum up the enthusiasm after quite a flat Christmas and dreary January. So what’s the answer? I didn’t want to commit to the gym at the moment because I couldn’t get there as much to warrant the £75.00 a month fee and I can’t get motivated with fitness videos because I just end up sitting there watching them – although I must say Sonia from enders has come a long way since the trumpet don’t you think!

Anyway after racking my brain and as if by magic (or cosmic ordering) I came across a leaflet for Concept Fitness based in Epping A fitness studio that offers a more personal way to train and more importantly a much more informative one. They were offering six key aims 1. To be approachable friendly and fun 2.To be professional 3.Affordable 4.To be creative to your needs 5.To be a community resource and more importantly 6. To de mystify the world of personal training. I think the last aim is the most important to me personally; I have always liked the concept of personal training but had a few reservations. I was always worried that my trainer would be like one of the corporals from bad lads army and turn exercising into something I dread.

I also had the fear of not getting on with them or just not clicking I believe that exercising is quite a personal thing that can make you feel subconscious so if you can’t stand the sight of each other then that will cause a few problems! Then there’s the cost, I have heard that some personal trainers cost up to £40.00 an hour which is unrealistic and unaffordable. So I was interested to see what Concept Fitness had to offer and thankfully so was Heather so we both booked ourselves in on the same day and took the plunge.

From the moment we walked in we were shocked by the size and décor of the studio, if I am honest I was expecting it to be a small room with a large gym mat a couple of those inflatable gym balls (of which mine has never been out the box) and maybe a few weights but how wrong we were! The studio was massive with a giant mirror, weights bench and other contraptions – some I had never seen before. The changing rooms fully equipped with showers and were also lovely and quite homely with a hairdryer, towels and even hair straighteners and they were GHD’s!

After we had a nose we met Brett for the first time and straight away I felt at ease with him of course he was big and muscley but not intimidating in anyway. We started off with a chat and Brett asked us what we would like to achieve, naturally I said I want to lose weight and tone up but also focus on areas like the muffin top and big booty! Heather wanted to get some muscle’s back in her tummy after being pregnant for what seems like forever and as we were told by Brett, after you have a c section you need to re build the muscles in your stomach because they have been cut to get your bubba out so a weak tummy was to be expected!

Before we went through the exercises we needed to do, Brett mentioned that he noticed we both had a problem with posture, I knew I did because my dad constantly says ‘put your shoulders back’ and I do suffer with back and shoulder ache but I just put that down to always carrying a Mary Poppins type bag with everything in it! What was interesting to find out is that if you improve your posture not only do you look taller but also your boobs will look bigger because they are sticking out more, now I liked the sound of that!

It’s hard to believe that posture had anything to do with breathing but it does and Brett took us through some breathing exercises both on the floor and standing up and you could feel the difference. We were then talked through the weights we would be using for our problem areas and what I found interesting is posture was always something we were working on throughout doing the weights and different exercises so in the end you were doing it without thinking.

I know what you’re thinking about weights ‘but I don’t want to get muscles’ I was worried about that too, Brett said that for a woman to get muscles it would take steroids and some serious training because we just haven’t got the testosterone which I believe. I used to love body pump and did it twice a week for about a year without so much as a peanut size bump on my arms, so that I believe.

Another myth that was dispelled was that cardiovascular exercises like running helps you burn more calories than weights, this isn’t the case and weights not only burn more calories while you’re doing them but they keep your metabolism high so you carry on burning calories for hours afterwards – now I won’t feel so guilty about the chilli con carne I had when I got in that night! There was one weight that I had never seen before but was designed to eradicate the muffin over spill and it looked like a giant bell, I only did about 3 sets of 20 swings but I could feel the difference the next morning believe me and while it was easy at first I was sweating by the end of it. We then moved onto bench pressing and when Heather was doing it I could actually see her muscles working and it was the same when we did sit ups its which makes you really feel like you’re working each individual muscle.

By the end of the session I felt both mentally and physically boosted, I was tired before I went it but felt refreshed and like I had accomplished something and this was only my first session!

What I liked most about Concept Fitness was the personal service, Brett put you at ease so you didn’t feel self-conscious and was a great teacher. I walked away feeling like I had learnt something about my body, diet and shape. Its so much more that just going to a personal trainer that watches you run on the treadmill for 30 mins – I mean you can do that on your own. Concept Fitness adapts to what you need and it’s like having a nutritionist, exercise coach and physio all in one and for me it’s all you need. The studio is fabulous and modern with all brand new equipment, plus they are having a power plate installed next week, which I have been dying to try. So all in all it’s a great place to ease you into fitness and continue your journey whether its weight loss, pain relief or relaxation. I can’t wait for next week!

P.S Concept Fitness also do classes which is perfect, also make sure you read the dietary guidelines and the hierarchy of fat loss.