I Tried A Les Mills Grit Class And This Is What It Was Like
I have been a member of Les Mills since I was in uni, how I afforded this membership as a student is somewhat of a mystery but regardless I Body Pumped and Body Balanced my way through a degree – but I had never tried a Les Mills Grit Class.
I can remember walking down the stairs and seeing a Les Mills Grit class (who ever thought it was a good idea to put endless staircases in a gym really needs to reevaluate their choices). All those lycra-clad, Nike-shoed fitspo people doing burpees and whatever else looked terrifying. As did the description of how fit you needed to be to take the class – “This is a highly challenging workout suitable for those who are serious about taking their fitness up a notch.”
It wasn’t until this year when someone else from the office joined Les Mills that I thought I stood a chance at trying this class. Of course, like any good millennial I googled “what is a grit class really like.” I struggled to find an up-to-date description, so for all those wanna-be fitspos out there. This one is for you.
We know that HITT workouts are the best for busting belly fat, so there really is no reason not to try a Les Mills Grit class.
Don’t get me wrong, I leave with jelly legs and struggle to walk down to the changing room and at least 3 times during the workout I ask myself what I was thinking!
Les Mills Grit Athletic
This is definitely our favourite of the Grit series. Start the class with a platform/step and some weights and plenty of room. The warm up consists of a lot of jumping on and off your platform, whether it is running, squatting, burpees or lunges. You then go through a few different sequences, again including your platform and a whole lot of jumping. Each class we have done has been different, but here are a few of the things we do.
- Jump on your platform and off your platform – really fast!
- Staring on your platform, jump down with one leg either side and land in a squat.
- Run on to your platform, jump off, squat, jump down into push up jump back up – repeat.
- Start with legs either side of the platform in a squat, jump up onto the platform and drive your arms into an overhead press – with weight.
Once you have gone through a few sequences, you think it is over – but it doesn’t end without doing abs!
This might sound terrifying, but at the end of the day there are always plenty of options. If jumping is too much for you, you can step up on to your platform. There are always ways to make it a bit easier (and to cheat, yes sometimes I do less reps and I am not sorry!) After all, these classes are just 30 minutes and once you have done one or two, they seem to go by a lot faster.
Les Mills Grit Cardio
Much like Athletic, this class starts with a warm up, goes into sequences and then ends with abs – most of the time, the instructors can change  it up but my advice is don’t think you are done until you have done abs!
After the warm up, which is a lot of high knees, ski jumps, tuck jumps, squat jumps, burpees etc you go into sequences that follow a similar pattern. You may do high knees to the side followed by a few tuck jumps for a certain amount of time, then you do a different move – say mountain climbers. Then you are back up to start again.
Most classes go over the same sequence a few times and by the end of it your tuck jumps are a little less tucked – but fatigue is good, it means you are working as hard as you should be!
Both classes are actually a little easier than I thought they would be (we are yet to try a Grit Strength, but watch this space). Don’t get me wrong, I leave with jelly legs and struggle to walk down to the changing room and at least 3 times during the workout I ask myself what I was thinking! But, it is possible and not reserved for those super fitspo people that seem to flock to Les Mills.
