The China fitness club making workouts as exciting as a concert, with music at the centre of every class and instructors like DJs
Fitness as entertainment is the goal at Space Cycle, where spinning, yoga and barre classes are taught by instructors trained by top Hollywood fitness instructors including Simone de la Rue, JJ Dancer and Barry Ennis
In a dark, tiered room resembling a cinema, with a large screen on which stars and planets are whizzing by, I am on a stationary bike – and I am flying.
I’m not really flying, of course, but it’s easy to get that feeling with the universe whizzing by and purple pinpricks of light skipping across the floor. A young and enthusiastic instructor yells encouragement as he skips across the front of the room, clapping his hands above his head in time with the music.
The music is loud and all-encompassing, a relentless mix of upbeat pop from Beyoncé, the Black Eyed Peas and Fall Out Boy.
That music is at the centre of things at Space Cycle, a relative newcomer to China’s burgeoning boutique group fitness studio market, is no great surprise, given it’s the brainchild of former music industry executive Matthew Allison – who is on a mission to make exercise an experience in entertainment.
“When we go for a run, it’s almost hard to imagine doing that now without a playlist – we would feel almost naked. It’s hard to imagine that we would feel inspired if we didn’t have that playlist,” Allison explains.
“[Often] when we take group classes, music is so far pushed to the background, it’s seen as background music. But it’s such an essential aspect to that class – whether that music is inspiring and whether that can be managed in a bigger way, as part of the ethos.”
That is certainly the ethos at Space Cycle. “Music is the secret sauce and we use it to create a vibrant social community and an entertainment-driven, multilayered fitness experience.”