Review: Lift Studio LDN, Clapham in London

Tucked down a side street in south London’s Clapham is a new studio that packs a punch. Pioneering female weight training, Lift Studio LDN, which opened earlier this year when restrictions allowed, offers a safe and friendly environment which revolves around three-month programmes. Each is designed to boost the strength and confidence of members, whilst educating them on the principals of how to lift.

London is known as a city that can be hard to make friends in, and that is often the case in many of its fitness studios. At Lift Studio LDN, in a manner of a few months they have managed to establish a close community of women who are enthusiastic about connecting with fellow like-minded women, making friends and training together in a positive environment that thrives off encouragement.

Encouraging their community to develop a healthy relationship with their body, here you’ll never spot a before and after shot, or even a burpee… but instead rep increase snaps that celebrate individual progress.

Log onto their website or Instagram page and you’ll instantly see their mission statement: ‘It’s not about how much you’ve lost, only what you’ve gained’. This epitomises the ethos of Lift Studio LDN in every sense. Steering clear of mainstream diet culture and unrealistic aesthetic goals, they favour instead genuine wellbeing and well-rounded progress. Encouraging their community to develop a healthy relationship with their body, here you’ll never spot a before and after shot, or even a burpee, but instead rep increase photos that celebrate individual progress.

A place filled with plants, brightly coloured walls and ‘kettle boobs’, Lift Studio LDN isn’t your regular weight training gym, and this is just what they wanted to create. Challenging the norm of this male dominated fitness sector, each and every workout is based on unique evidence-based methods across both intimate group sessions and one-to-one personal training.

Founded by Mimi and Dani, who met whilst working in the same gym together, each are qualified trainers with a passion for weight training and the wonders it offers the female form. Together, they offer a holistic approach to their training methods, and along with getting to know, and becoming friends with those they train – they also develop periodised progressions to empower clients to become both mentally and physically stronger.

After training at Lift Studio LDN over just a one-month period, I could physically feel and see the results that many of the other HIIT studio’s I’ve been visiting for years have not offered. With a logbook handed to each person who steps through their welcoming doors to track progress week on week, and a positive affirmation concluding each session – I quickly got to know both Mimi and Dani and the other women I was working out with. This included regularly celebrating each other’s PB in a safe, open environment.

Lift Studio LDN vouches that 2021 is the year to lift. This is clearly apparent after the London Evening Standard pinned them as ‘one of the best new fitness studios’, serving up something very different to the post-pandemic fitness scene. Those who want a slice of the action can choose from three tiers of membership: ‘foundation, classic and ultimate’. At £250 per month, the studio’s foundation membership provides two classes per week, classic (£325pcm) offers three classes per week, and the ultimate membership (£442pcm) to unrestricted class access. In addition, a number of reduced rate memberships are also offered regularly to women from low-income backgrounds to ensure the studio is accessible to all.

With memberships offering detailed coaching that will impart knowledge and skills for life, choose from six intimate classes each day Monday to Friday, with a number of additional classes on Saturday mornings, allowing members to easily fit training into their regular weekly routine. Two favourite classes regularly loved by members include ‘Bum Club’ and ‘The Gun Show’. For those who want to gain a taste of the studio, these faster moving, one-hour long classes are now available throughout the week via the ClassPass APP, alongside a new drop-in class for novices, ‘Lifting Technique: Learn to Lift’, on Saturdays. Additionally, Lift Studio LDN are also offering a 50% discount for the first two weeks alongside an initial complimentary technique session, with no commitment to sign up afterwards.