I’m no surfer. Went water skiing on a school trip once. Well, was dragged headfirst around a lake a couple of times: not an experience I’ve ever been keen to repeat. When the invitation to road test the new Float Fit class at Westminster’s Dolphin Fitness Club plopped into my inbox almost two decades later, however, I was just about ready to test my sea legs once more.
Inspired by the popularity of stand up paddleboard (SUP) yoga, AquaPhysical are taking things a step, a squat and a jumping lunge further than your standard sun salutation, on a mission to rebrand water-based exercise. The benefits of working out in water (light on impact; heavy on resistance) are well-documented, but ‘aqua aerobics’ is still seen as, well, more seniors-and-winter-sun than Shoreditch fitness hipster. Enter water-based HIIT. All the benefits of high-intensity interval training with rock-like balance and an iron core thrown in for good measure? Sold.
You do, however, need to check your dignity – and mascara – at the door. ‘You will fall in,’ we’re warned. But the AquaBase boards have been designed to maximise stability and they’re safely tethered to the poolside, so it can’t be that hard, surely? (Spoiler: it can.)