“Forget about the week.  It’s over now.  This is all about you now.”
This is how my Saturday started, peddling madly in a spin class at the newly opened Psycle.  But let’s rewind a sec…

I’m often asked how I stay lean when I eat out so often and drink so many cocktails – just look at the my Instagram to see how many food snaps there are!  Of course, there is no magic secret to this – it’s all about balance: I workout hard so that I can indulge whenever I fancy.
Obviously I love a good beasting at Barry’s Bootcamp (an hour of intervals and strength training that claims to burn 1k calories!), but today I decided to try something new…

Psycle has just opened 3 minutes from Oxford Circus.  I walked past the other day and the gorgeous interior décor caught my eye.  Once I’d looked online to see the introductory offer of 3 classes for just £20, I signed straight up (the website is super easy and convenient to use).  Here’s what went down…

Arriving on Mortimer Street in the pouring rain, I headed straight inside to the sleek reception – I am hugely appreciative of anywhere that will give you a great workout without letting up on the interior design.  I checked in and received my cycling shoes, and headed to the high tech locker rooms to change and psyche myself up.


The changing rooms are the nicest I have ever experienced.  Great interior, modern locker system, ghd hair dryers and straighteners, luxe shower products, huge mirrors, complementary towels – it was perfect.

I went down to the basement, where the studios are located.


Down in the studio, one of the Psycle guys helped me set my bike up.  I had signed up for the 09:30 class with Natalie – absolutely gorgeous, she was exactly the kind of thinspiration you need in this situation!  Her Psycle profile informed me that Natalie is a netballer, model and presenter – for her, Psycle “is the most immense drug and miles better than clubbing”.  #girlcrush

The studio filled up (I was on a bike next to YouTube sensation Jack Harries!) and the volume of the music rose.  The lights went down, and the colourful neon strip lights criss-crossing the ceiling lit up and phased through a rainbow of colours.  It seemed I was about to go cycling in a disco…!

The workout itself was not your average spinning class – the high intensity intervals were combined with clapping routines and some hand weight actions to give you a full body workout that varied with the beat of the music.  Apparently my leg strength is poor, because I was really suffering during some of the sets!  I sweated a lot and got very out of breath, so I definitely felt like I’d achieved something significant.
We wound down with some stretches and a round of applause, and I skipped upstairs to the showers, revelling in the Bumble and bumble seaweed hair products and ila body and face washes.

There are also complementary Scrummi towels for drying your hair – super absorbent eco-friendly single-use salon towels – a novel idea, the thirsty towels remove the excess water so that you can move straight onto the ghd styling tools!

Once groomed (but still totally red in the face!) I hit reception for a Purearth Hydrate juice (free for first-timers), and skipped out into the rainy streets in search of brunch, energised and ready to get cracking with the Bank Holiday weekend!


Psycle
76 Mortimer Street, Marylebone, London W1W 7SD