Barry’s Bootcamp doesn’t just do high-intensity workouts – it does high-intensity everything.
From the skull-shaking bass of the music to the moody lights and the sweaty, beautiful people packing the place, you’ll want to go to a nightclub just to take the energy levels down a notch or two.
Why? Because try not being motivated when the red lighting makes it look like you’ve entered a boutique version of hell, and the only way out is to push through the pain while an instructor with a somehow negative percentage of body fat yells at you.
The cult US fitness brand has landed in London, bringing with it a workout experience so intense it makes most gym classes look like a gentle stretching session in a retirement home. The concept? A brutal but effective mix of treadmill sprints and strength training, all done in a nightclub-style ‘Red Room’ where the instructors don’t so much encourage as straight-up demand your best. They even have a thing called Hell Week, in which you take seven of their intense classes in seven days, and come out either a chiselled Greek God or a whimpering emotional wreck.
The format is simple but punishing: half the class on the treadmills for sprint intervals, half on the floor for strength training, then swap. Repeat until you regret every life choice that led you here. The trainers are part fitness coach, part hype man, yelling at you over the club-level sound system as if your ability to keep up is a matter deeply personal to them.
And somehow, despite the pain, people love it. Barry’s has built an almost religious following in the States, with devotees swearing by its ability to sculpt bodies, torch calories, and make them feel like they’ve survived a spin-class war zone. Us Londoners, ever the masochists, are apparently signing up in droves.
Post-workout, you can grab one of Barry’s (supposedly) famous protein shakes – because, of course, no nightclub-gym hybrid is complete without a bar. And if you can still stand, you’ll stumble out into the daylight, drenched, euphoric, and somehow already considering when you’ll put yourself through it again.
Painful? Yes. Worth it? Just ask your future abs.
NOTE: Barry’s Bootcamp is open, and ready to shout at you, in over half a dozen locations scattered across London. You can find out more at the Barry’s Bootcamp website.
Soho | Victoria | King’s Cross | Qeeensway | Shoreditch | St Paul’s | Canary Wharf
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