Take The Lunge Christmas Gift Guide: Women’s

Here we go, here’s the ladies stuff – a gift guide complete with laughably naff floating festive graphics. Here are some nice bits suitable for those who are already big into fitness, as well as anyone wanting to get started exercising.

Puma Active Training Women’s Shatter Tights, £40

LOOK HOW PRETTY THEY ARE. These gyms tights combine making your legs look like an oil painting with dryCELL moisture wicking technology, a pocket in the waistband to keep valuables safe, and at £40 they’re a fair bit cheaper than similarly trendy gym leggings.

lululemon Loop It Up Mat Strap, £18

Anyone who’s dropped their yoga mat and had it unceremoniously unroll down the bus will know how much it harshes your zen vibez. This adjustable buckle-free strap means that won’t happen, and makes it much easier to carry.

Adidas Duramo Slides, £14.95

Whether you’re poolside, or just trying to avoid the curse of the changing room verruca, these slides look super cool and take up very little gym bag space.

Domyos Energy Loose Fitness T-Shirt, £8.99

Not everyone wants to frolic about in tiny sports bras, you know; this breathable loose fit T-shirt is for medium-intensity workouts, and is said to follow your movements – ie. not ruck up to your armpits at the slightest hint of high knees.

Reebok 16oz Boxing Gloves, £39.95

If they’re good enough for Gigi, then they must be pretty damn good. With a velcro fastening around the wrist and padding to protect fingers and knuckles, they’re perfect to join in with this year’s huge boxing fitness craze.

Move Your Frame Sophie Zip Front Crop, £40

Designed with Pilates, yoga and barre classes in mind, this crop top is UV resistant, made of quick-dry cotton-feel material, and the zip element means you can take it off without having to drag its sweaty demise over your face at the end of a workout.

Nike 2.0 Push-Up Grips, £18

Bodyweight exercises are incredibly useful for building up your strength – these push-up grips have several benefits to just doing push-ups on the floor: they’re elevated to give you a larger range of motion, benefitting muscles in your chest, triceps and shoulders; the ergonomic design also puts less pressure on your wrists, and the non-slip base means you won’t fall on your face. Hopefully.

Sweaty Betty All Sport Backpack, £75

As a big backpack fan, I may well dream about this guy. Made of durable scuba fabric, there are pockets inside to separate your wet kit from the rest of your stuff, zip-up compartments for valuables, and – unlike many other functional backpacks – it doesn’t look like an abomination. Score.

The unstoppable rise of gym leggings

All leggings available from Cope Active

Thinking back over 2015, arguably the most coveted item in many women’s wardrobes was not a dress or fabulous pair of high heels, but outrageously patterned gym leggings – the more mental the better.

A few years ago, if someone had rocked up at the gym with disco ball leggings they’d have been considered a right weirdo. But now, crazy leggings are a statement – even a status symbol. Fitness and wellness is ‘in’, and proving that you’ve put money and thought into your gear places you firmly into that trend – I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with any of this, by the way, it’s just an interesting development.

Leggings have been around in various cultures throughout history –  worn separately in buckskin by Native Americans, the ‘trews’ of clans in the Scottish Highlands. They’ve been worn for protection by cowboys, worn in wool by Russians to keep warm.

Aside from the Eighties, and the unfortunate legging resurrection of 2006 – you know, when we all wore them with denim skirts and massive waist belts? – leggings have a long history of being practical items. And the latest craze has reclaimed that. Now, aside from being covered in emojis, leggings often come with sweat-wicking and compression technology to actively help your workouts.

And now we’re basically at the point where, well –  actually, this video explains it all.

If you are yet to get on the wacky leggings bandwagon, here are a few new releases that should have you itching to get dressed for the gym.

Emoji by Zara Terez, £69; copeactive.com

Emojis. Emojis all over your legs, so that when you’re broken and sweaty and think you can’t possibly go on any longer, all you have to do is look down and there’ll be an aubergine, a panda and a smiley poo willing you to carry on. If that doesn’t keep you going, I don’t know what will. Genius.

 

 

Turquoise/patterned sports tights by H&M, £14.99; hm.com

Granted, if you go for one of the big brands, you’re probably going to have to pay a big price. But there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy exciting gym gear on a budget. These have a concealed mesh pocket, are made in fast-drying material, and will kind of make you look like a Cubist painting. Great all round.

 

 

Sia High Rise Full Length Tight by Running Bare, £65; activeinstyle.co.uk

If you can’t wait for spring to get here, just wear it on your arse. Seeing as these leggings have a full length and high rise style, they’re perfect for anything from running to yoga or gym classes as they’ll hold you in everywhere.

 

 

Walt Disney Concert Hall Legging by Laurie Nouchka, £100; copeactive.com

A brand with a calling card of featuring hand-drawn architectural landmarks, these leggings proudly bare LA’s Walt Disney concert hall. You’re actually wearing a (Lycra, lightweight, sweat-wicking) work of art, which is pretty damn cool.

 

 

Stability 3/4 Leggings by Sweaty Betty, £60; sweatybetty.com

These leggings are made from high quality sweat-wicking material, which means they’re particularly well-suited to high intensity exercise – where you’re welcome to perspire all over them. They also remind me of a colouring book I got for Christmas…

Trends for 2016 are looking to increase the amount of time you spend in your workout gear (‘barre to bar’) – at least sweating on the dancefloor when Bieber comes on will be all the more socially acceptable.

What to expect from a Sweaty Betty Body By Simone class

Image courtesy of Body By Simone by Sweaty Betty

This week saw the launch of sportswear brand Sweaty Betty‘s #GetFit4Free campaign featuring new class Body By Simone. If a lot of that sentence meant nothing to you, bear with me and I’ll explain.

We all know fitness classes can be expensive, whether you’re paying for them individually or as part of a gym membership. But they’re also really effective – having someone show you the moves and encourage you to keep going when your muscles are crying means you get much more out of a workout than being left to your own devices. So, how about getting all this for free?

Sweaty Betty has been offering various free exercise classes for a while now, with more than 50 classes taking place in its boutique stores every week – there’s circuits, bootcamp, pilates, barre and more – but this week a new dance-based high intensity class launched, and will be on for three weeks. Body By Simone is a workout from dancer and personal trainer Simone De La Rue. Oh, here she is…

Image courtesy of Body By Simone by Sweaty Betty

Look at Simone for a millisecond and you’ll soon see how she managed to get away with naming a class after the concept of getting her body. We all want it. A lot. And when it turns out that you can get it by dancing around to some awesome tunes, it’s even better. As someone who had never tried any of the Sweaty Betty classes before, it seemed only right to give it a try. If you want to do the same, here’s what will happen:

You’ll be working out in the actual store. I know this may sound really obvious, but I hadn’t really considered the fact that I’d be squatting amongst the (really quite pretty) racks of clothes – I wondered if every store maybe had some kind of separate area, lest one’s sweat flicked on a £90 pair of leggings. But, no. It’s not weird after a few minutes – though anyone who’s a bit self-conscious about squatting in a shop window (the exercise kind) you might want to consider where you set yourself up.

The songs will be great. Upbeat, fast tempo pop that’ll have you tapping your feet and itching to dance anyway – think Calvin Harris, Nick Jonas (his new one’s catchy, OK?) and other chart boppers.

You’ll want to buy all the clothes. I guess one of the pros of hosting a free exercise class is that there’s not often many other times when several potential customers will be in the shop for an hour at a time, possibly associating the pretty-patterned sports bras with the adrenaline rush they’ve earned from a few minutes of high kicks. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to buy all the clothes – they’re very nice – just keep your credit card bill in mind before doing so.

You’ll sweat, a lot. The main thing I learned from the class I went to was – TAKE A TOWEL. As the class is structured to make you do a few minutes of high intensity cardio followed by slower toning exercises, as soon as you stop jumping around your body will be manically trying to cool you down – mainly through your dripping face.

You’ll get an all-over workout. You’ll use dumbbells to tone up your arms – I inwardly scoffed a little when I saw that they were only 1.5kg, but you do a lot of reps and half-reps, so I’m pretty sure even big weights lifters will feel a burn. Then, while on the mat on all fours, there’s a legs, bums ‘n’ tums-esque routine, which involves lifting your leg up a lot – doesn’t sound like much, but your glutes will soon be burning. As for you core, a mix of dreaded plank variations and mountain climbers are what’s in store.

Image courtesy of Body By Simone by Sweaty Betty

You’ll learn a little, jumpy dance routine. Once you’ve cooled off and made your muscles burn, you’ll be getting your heart rate up again with a series of aerobic style-routines. We did three, which featured lots of kicks, squats and punches, and then put them all together for an extended, final sweatfest to finish on. It was good fun – and if you’re not the most coordinated of people, don’t worry – everyone’s going the wrong way and looking a bit ridiculous. It’s not like you’re being inserted into the Single Ladies video.

You’ll leave pretty damn happy. OK, I can’t guarantee this one – it might be raining outside, you might have a heart of stone and dislike dancing and endorphins – but you’ll probably leave pretty damn happy.

The next class will be available to book from Sunday (depending on which store you want to go to) , or you can do the online workout video at home now. Either way, get dancing.