PERFECT FIT

As January’s cast-iron resolutions evolve into February’s slightly less solid aspirations, it is worth reminding ourselves that the options for feeling fit and healthy in Marylebone are of such breadth and quality that using them is more treat than trial. Here’s our brief roundup of some of the options.

Sweat It Out

In Marylebone, the places for working up a sweat on a treadmill or building muscle in a weights area are many and varied. Third Space offers everything you want from a large modern gym, including a dedicated strength area, functional training, watt bikes, a full-service spa with an 18m pool, and a huge range of classes. Fitness First in the 55 Baker Street complex is similarly well equipped, as is the highly affordable Seymour Leisure Centre on Seymour Place, which has a large sports hall for basketball, badminton and volleyball, as well as a pool and gym.

Work It Up

All of the area’s big gyms offer personal training, but there are some more boutique, specialist training spaces available too. BXR on Paddington Street brings the energy and rigour of professional boxing training to a public gym, including individual coaching and group-based classes. AMP is a personal training gym offering small-group sessions or oneto-one training, as well as group fitness classes. Or for a coaching experience that drills into your sleep quality, diet and personal goals as well as fitness and strength, Jon Denoris’s boutique Club 51 offers intelligently designed programmes that will put you on the right path for years to come.

Stretch It Out

The flexibility, stability and core strength earned through yoga and pilates can make a huge difference to physical and mental wellbeing, especially as the natural elasticity of youth gives way to the creakiness of later life. Total Chi on Baker

Street, with its four tranquil studio spaces, offers a wide range of yoga and pilates, as does The Light Centre at the top of Marylebone High Street. To stretch things out in the most stylish of settings, Nobu Hotel on Portman Square is home to a beautiful studio offering Nobu’s signature style of pilates: a hybrid of classical pilates and high-intensity training. Pilates is also among the services on offer at Wellthy Clinic on New Cavendish Street, along with osteopathy and nutritional therapy.

Swing It Round

Dance has the benefit of being a fairly vigorous form of aerobic exercise that never really feels like exercising. The famous Arthur Murray Dance Studio on Baker Street can get you moving to ballroom & Latin or Argentine tango, whether you’re a beginner or seasoned dancer. Capital Dance School on Blandford Street offers group classes and private lessons in a wide range of dancing styles, from cha chas to waltzes.

Rub It Down

To complement all that relentless activity, there’s nothing better than a massage. Getting a massage won’t make you fitter, but it will ease the aches that stop you from wanting to try.

Lemongrass Boutique Spa on Seymour Place specialises in the traditional Thai style of massage, as does Marylebone Thai Spa on Paddington Street. All About Eve, in the same high street building as The Light Centre (which also offers massage), can provide a full range of massage therapies, extending to specialist services such as palliative massages, and oncology massages for people undergoing cancer treatments.