Class Review: Anger Management

30th January

We get it, life can be stressful at times. Which is why we’ve created Anger Management, a class that will help you let off steam through flipping tyres, swinging bats and other high velocity movements. We sent our blogger to give it a try!

It’s Monday evening and I’ve just undergone Anger Management.

No, I didn’t head to an anonymous community meeting or go to a therapist to discuss my problems; I spent an intense 45 minutes at Gymbox Elephant & Castle that has left me physically shaking. And oh boy, has my anger been managed.

When asked which class I’d like to review, my decision was obvious. Described as a way to release ‘daily stress and frustrations’ with the help of high velocity movements, Anger Management is broken up into three sections: anger inducement, anger release and meditation. I figured that it would help me A) conquer the first working week of 2019 and B) step up my gym game.

And so it was that at 7.30pm, I found myself amongst other angry individuals mentally prepping myself for what was destined to be one hell of a class.

Gymbox instructor Sam Bradley kicked it off the anger inducing session by asking us what had already pissed us off in 2019. Answers ranged from co-workers in the office, heading back to work and, of course, gym members leaving their equipment out on the gym floor. With all that rage out in the open, Sam lead us through a warm up and turned up arguably the best Gymbox playlist I’ve heard in ages, featuring angry alt rock classics from the likes of Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit (a huge guilty pleasure - don’t judge me).

With the seemingly never-ending stream of burpees complete, Sam ran us through the evenings anger releasing circuit. For those of you who’ve done an Escalate class, the concept is similar. Partnering up, you go through 12 exercises for 3 rounds, with a small breather in between. You then finish off with a relaxing few minutes of meditation.

These exercises ranged from: hitting a tyre with a massive hammer; swinging a weighted ball repeatedly against the wall; flipping a tyre; cycling for your life on the assault bike and whacking down battle ropes.

Intense? Hell yeah.

Me and my partner both said a little prayer before we began the first circuit, but I can confirm that no Godly entity gave us the easy way out. Whilst I started off thinking it wasn’t too bad, it only took the first six exercises for me to realise how wrong I was. By the time it was our turn on the ski ergs, I was officially hurting.

So you can only imagine how the next two rounds went.

As my partner and I hyped each other through each exercise, it became obvious this is what my workouts have been missing: a serious sweat sesh to beat all sweat sesh’s. Going through circuits like this at such high speed really does help you release all frustrations, and the class setting ensures you push yourself to your absolute limit. All too often I’m guilty of not working as hard as I can in the gym, and it was great (though painful) to take part in a class that really pushes you to do just that.

It was only down to Sam’s incessant encouragement (and the angry voice of Fred Durst) that I managed to keep it together through all three rounds, collapsing in a merciful heap as the timer finally went off. By this point I was beetroot red in the face and had long since given up acting like it was all a walk in the park. Simply put: I was knackered.

With the music toned down to some more soothing sounds, Sam lead us into the final meditation stage and through some breathing exercises as we lay back on the floor, legs raised against the wall. Given that he’d pumped us up with reminders of our own angry thoughts, Sam was weirdly good at getting us to leave them all behind. I finished the class not only feeling stress free, but on one of the best exercise highs I’ve had in months.

If, like me, your gym routine needs kicking up a gear, or you simply need a way to release stress, Anger Management is the class for you. It might be hard, it might be exhausting, but one things for sure: it definitely works.

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