Nothing says team spirit like a roomful of people lifting you up to the ceiling, and team healthy got to experience this first hand at Gymbox’s new ‘Crowd Surf Ready’ class, launched in collaboration with ticket marketplace StubHub.
While the crowd surfing you see at a music festival might have the on-site Health & Safety team biting their nails, the aim of this class was to teach you how to ‘lift and be lifted’ in a safe – and, as it turned out, hugely fun – environment.
The 45-minute-long class kicked off with a gruelling ‘bootcamp-style’ cardio workout: think planking, squat jumps and running on the spot. Three circuits later, even the fittest among us were reaching for sweat towels and begging for mercy.
Next up was the weights section to build up our strength: lifting 10kg plates above our heads while performing reverse lunges and, unsurprisingly, more squats. We also passed medicine balls between us, followed by ‘Jim’, which was actually a set of clunky logs attached together by ropes. ‘It’ll be much harder lifting actual people,’ warned our instructor. Yikes.
Finally, we moved on to crowd-surfing with actual people. We all stood in a long line, ready to be ‘surfed’ upon. The (brave) instructor let us lift him first, putting his arms around the first two people while the other two lifted his legs – then off he sailed down the line. After demonstrating the correct technique to be carried (it’s crucial to keep your body taut rather than letting yourself relax, in order to make it easier for others to carry you), it was time for us to have a go too. We each got a turn to be lifted along the line, while our helpful teammates kept us soaring above the crowds. The funnest workout ever?
With festival season in full flow already, we’re seriously considering living out that carefree crowd-surfing dream among the music-loving crowds. The other, more unexpected, merit of this class lay in the overwhelming feeling of camaraderie: unlike some challenging fitness classes, where you might be tempted to hide at the back, a crowd-surfing class is by nature collaborative (if you want to avoid dropping your classmate, that is!). For those who want to try out a new workout for summer, crowd-surfing should be on your must-do list.
Want to try it for yourself?
When: Thursday 14 July (every week for six weeks) at 12.15pm-13.00pm
Where: Gymbox, 20 Farringdon Road, London EC1M 3AP
Price: Free of charge for members, £10 per class for non-members (limited space available)
Have you discovered a new favourite workout recently? Tweet us @healthymag – we love to hear from you!