Getting AMP’d with Steve and the lads (and Amy)
Have you ever found a gym you absolutely love?
I’m talking, you can’t wait to get there, and once you’re there, you don’t want to leave?
Yeah, me neither.
Ok, you gym bunnies high-fiving at the back can leave, this one isn’t for you. We get it, you LIVE for your local gym crew.
*rolls eyes*
This one is for the people who understand that sharing a few bottles of wine with your best friend in the pub or spending that extra hour snoring in bed is by far more enjoyable than sweating in front of a full length mirror sandwiched between a guy that has a 24-pack and a girl that’s so toned SPANX model their control pants on her.
Yes, the gym can be OK, and there is no doubt that the rush of endorphins is bloody lovely, and don’t we all feel smug after we’ve done a spin class and not vomited? Sure, sure, but how many of us have found a gym that makes you actually want to keep going back, and not just because you feel guilty that you regularly deepthroat a large donner and chips on a Tuesday night?
I was unhappily carrying on with my thrice-weekly session at the free work gym, and sometimes (read never) going to my local boxing club to be hit in the face by the instructor, when something very millennial happened... I won an instagram competition. No really, I legit won a competition on instagram. Who knew those things were real?!
Anyway, the prize was a free month at a new gym that had just opened in London called AMP. The premise of AMP is “Small group personal training”, basically 4 people per coach for a 50 minute workout that combines weights, core and cardio. Because of the small number of people in each session, you get serious attention from the coach, meaning you can’t get away with sitting on the mat and only moving when they are looking in your direction (What? I don’t do that...).
As I’ve always been one for a freebie (I am very much my mother’s daughter), I threw myself in to committing fully for the month to then run off into the night and never be seen again when they asked me to sign up. Haha! So long suckers!
Before you start training you have to have a fitness test (sounds awful), so before my first session I trundled down Harley Street, through streets of the rich to find a cute (hello Instagram!) little mews next to Marylebone High Street. On entering, the first thing that hits you is the large neon sign telling you exactly where you are... AMP!
Next, you’re greeted by a smiley, super cute girl on reception who seems genuinely happy to see you. Once you’ve stored your stuff in one of the many lockers, had a wee, and resprayed yourself with the free deodorant (because yes, the slow walk from the tube has got you sweating) you follow the corridor to the gym... and so it begins.
For my fitness test I was introduced to Matt, a friendly looking guy from Yorkshire who seemed like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. But it fucking would, in fact it would burn in there. This boy is fire. He put me through my paces, making me do various exercises, balancing tricks and even a body composition test to figure out what in the hell had happened for me to get to a stage in life where I’m on the road to becoming the size of a small village (spoiler alert: sausage rolls happened.)
Matt’s funny, smart, and genuinely non-judgemental. He’s also a trained sports therapist, so my dodgy knees were nothing new to him. OK, this AMP place seems cool, I can do this.
In my head, I committed to the month, planning on coming 4-5 times a week before work. The small personal training sessions run every hour on the hour daily so if I could achieve my goals of an 8am session most days then I’d be getting my (free) money’s worth! Winner!
The next day was session one. I skipped into the gym past the girl on reception (her name’s Amy and she’s a legend, but more on her later), ready to have a little chin wag with Matt, a few laughs, maybe a squat, then skip off to work. Lovely! This gym thing is easy!
Then the real session started... beginning with Cat-Cows (stretching your back out) then warm ups including banded leg work and fast feet (basically running tiny steps really, really fast). Then on to the main bit of the workout... every day varies; sometimes you’ll find yourself lifting 100kg barbells with your lower body, some days you’ll be trying to lift your own body weight above a bar that seems impossible until you see one of the coaches glide up there, other days you’ll be pushing a loaded sledge down the length of the gym like your Santa Claus on the 24th December. And just when you think you’re done, when you’re crawling into the corner of the room to get away from the coach’s encouraging screams, the cardio starts. You all drag yourselves to the Airbikes, straddle the nearest one you can and spend the last 5-10 minutes cycling like the devil is chasing you. Once you’re done (and only once you’re done), you can go hose yourself down in the gym's small but perfectly designed showers, stocked with Cowshed products and GHD hairdryers to get you smelling and looking halfway decent again.
After session one, I entered my office determined to tell my colleagues about the utter hell I’d been put through, about how they made me do things that no human being should do. But instead I found myself saying things like “Steve said that the form on my deadlifts is really good..” and “Matt says it’s all about strength and not necessarily fitness...” Hold on, what was happening? Was I actually enjoying this? Did the positivity of the coaches rub off on me? Did the fact that I had one of the best workouts of my life make me feel like, really great?
Be it the full moon, mercury in retrograde or the fact that AMP was actually really good, I found myself back there the next day... and the next, and the next, and the one after that...
Every session is different, and that’s one of the reasons coming back became so easy; no matter how I felt, I got a good workout, even on the days when I did manage to cheat when Matt’s back was turned, I came away from every session feeling amazing and fully worked-out.
But that’s not all with AMP...
In most gyms, you might get to know some people, maybe the teacher that does the Wednesday HIIT class, or the girl that helped you figure out how to work the lockers, but in AMP, you get to know everyone, and everyone gets to know you.
Firstly, there’s Steve. Steve is AMP, AMP is Steve. Steve is the govern’r ‘ere. This is Steve’s place. Steve is tall, and chiseled, and has a permanent smile on his face, but don’t let that fool you, Steve means business. And Steve’s business is to get you fit, keep you motivated and get you coming back day after day. He’s the OG, and the kindest man you’ll meet in all of London. Steve laughs, a lot, and for all the right reasons, he keeps everyone motivated by cries of positivity and jokes that mean your abs end up hurting from pure laughter. APM is Steve’s brainchild, he’s built this place and he’s the reason people come, and stay. But he doesn’t work alone...
Matt is another OG, he’s been here since the beginning and he cares about it, like he really cares, regardless of how cool he acts, he’s here for you, and every member that enters the gym.
There’s Flash, a perfectly toned, tall and tanned guy who makes everyone feel welcome. He remembers what you told him last session, he asks how your date was the night before and laughs at himself in a way that reminds you that life is fun.
Niall and Ciaran came late to the party, only just joining. They always have fresh garms, and banter for days (LADS LADS LADS!) and they check in on you, they ask how you’re feeling, if you’ve got a lot on at work, how your meeting was.
Then there’s Amy, the heart of the place. Amy is the person you go to with any problems, gym related or not. Amy makes the best coffees (in branded AMP reusable cups of course) and keeps the boys, and members in line, She also runs a daily yoga session, which I tried once, and damn girl it was hard. But she doesn’t make you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, quite the opposite, she accepts everything and anyone with an open heart.
There are walking weekends in the Pennines, bike rides you can join, charity events with the brilliant Tuesday Night Bites, and summer and christmas parties that end in prize giving and prosecco. This place is a community, not just a gym.
And that’s the unique selling point of AMP, the reason I didn’t run off into the night after my free trial ended, the reason I happily signed a direct deposit and have continued to go every day (almost!) before work for the last 6 months, because AMP is more than a gym, it’s more than just working out with a group of people hoping to shed a few pounds.
Since starting AMP, I’ve gotten stronger, going from not being able to move an inch on the pull-ups to be able to pull myself up to the bar, I’ve gone from lifting 50kg in barbell hip thrusts, to over 100kg, I’ve managed sledge pulls and pushes I thought were only achievable by those guys you see pulling cars on TV. But more than that, I’ve found a gym that is enjoyable to go to, a gym that I miss when I’m on holiday (yes really), a gym that I look forward to getting to in the morning, so I can see how Amy’s date was, what restaurant Matt went to the night before, if Flash had a nice birthday, and to hear Steve’s laugh that keeps us all coming back…