Group fitness classes have undeniably changed the exercise game, with specialized studios in all areas of the city. Putting your workout fate in the hands of others means you don’t have to spend your spare time brainstorming workouts or coming up with new ways to prevent gym boredom. Plus, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll work harder in class than on your own. However, finding the most efficient workout with real-life benefits can be a challenge, especially with so many options. But if what you’re looking for is a no-nonsense, high-intensity, 45-minute workout with a focus on real-life functionality, F45 Bloor-Yorkville might just be the place for you! Offering exclusively HIIT (high-intensity interval training) classes, but without a treadmill in sight, F45 has carved out a definitive place for itself in the fitness market.
Located just south of the Village of Yorkville Park, F45 has been a welcome addition to the neighbourhood for two and a half years now. The owner, John Ledbrook, originally from Sydney Australia felt immediately connected to the Bloor-Yorkville area,
“When I first moved to Canada from Sydney, Bloor-Yorkville felt like home with the smaller streets, the unique boutiques and coffee shops. There’s a true community-feel here. F45 has been welcomed by all the other businesses and people in the area.”
The concept behind F45 is its focus on functional fitness and how it applies to your life. Utilizing specific styles of workouts and strategic training can improve strength and range of motion, ultimately leading to a better quality of life. This could mean anything from daily tasks such as bending and lifting something off the floor or improving the performance of an athlete. Classes run 7 days a week with Monday, Wednesday, and Friday focusing on cardio and Tuesday and Thursday focus on Strength. Saturday is reserved for their infamous 60-minute Hollywood class which is a combination of both strength and cardio but also features a live DJ, so its an intense Saturday workout with a bit of a party vibe.
The maximum number of clients in a class is 27 with 2 coaches on the floor throughout the workout. TV screens at the front of the room play videos demonstrating each workout, so you don’t have to worry about remembering what to do at what station and this allows the coaches to focus on correcting your form rather than demonstrating the smaller details. This approach gives the session a more personalized feel and certainly helps to maximize your time in the studio. While the workouts are intense, the focus is always on safety, especially when it comes to the strength-based workouts. The emphasis is on slow, controlled strength-training, working within your own capacity to build lean muscle.
Whether you’re brand new to working out or a well-seasoned athlete, the intensity of the class is tailored to you. Because it’s interval-based, each person is working with the 45-second block to do as many safe reps of a particular move as possible. The coaches are able to modify and work with clients to establish what’s safest and most effective for them in regards to injuries or strength level. With brand new workouts every day and over 3500 exercises in the F45 database, it’s guaranteed you’ll never get bored and certainly won’t plateau with your fitness. Having recently taken the Wednesday Docklands workout I can confirm that the class energy is high, the music is loud, and the cardio is tough.
Check out the studio at 110 Bloor Street West (there’s also a Critchley Lane entrance next to Sorry Coffee) or learn more about their Bloor-Yorkville studio and classes online.