I tried Grit: the hardest gym class UoB has to offer

Back in September, many of us came back to uni with the goal of becoming healthier through joining the gym. I was one of those people. After forking out lots of cash for gym classes, I decided to commit to trying out lots of what the uni had to offer. While classes such as Body Attack are super challenging, they have nothing on Grit.

According to the UoB Sports website, Grit is a “High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout, designed to improve strength and build lean muscle”. The 30 minute session is by no means an easy workout.

To save you from wondering what the class is actually like, I decided to have a go last Monday.

Before we knew what was in store

Unlike most of the other classes, it’s quite a small group so there’s nowhere to hide, no matter how hard you try. This also allows the instructors come around and ‘help’ everyone, or in my case watch as I fail miserably to complete a single push up. I also somehow managed to forget my water making the whole ordeal so much worse.

The class uses weights and steps and involves a lot of jumping around. I chose the lightest set of weights as I didn’t know what to expect. I could barely even cope with them…so if you try the class out for the first time, don’t be embarrassed to grab the lightest ones.

Can we just stay here a minute

There’s no time for rest with quick sequences of exercises which work out different muscle groups. The class doesn’t include a cool down and stretch, so from personal experience I would highly recommend stretching out afterwards if you don’t want to risk aching the next day like I did.

While I’m clearly not cut out for this class, if you’re genuinely interested in an insanely intense workout, then maybe this is the class for you. The instructors were incredibly motivating and full of energy and to be honest they were the only thing keeping me in that room for longer than five minutes.

I just couldn’t understand how anyone could put themselves through that with such enthusiasm and not come out of it looking a bright red sweaty mess like myself.

Cute wall art though

So if you’re feeling up to the challenge maybe Grit is the place for you. Although I highly doubt I’ll be seeing you there.