The common thought of Pilates is that it's for middle-aged women with rich husbands and not much to…read moredo. Definitely not for a rugby playing man in his mid-twenties. Ok, late Twenties. The common thought is totally and utterly wrong. Isofit, conveniently located in Central on Wyndham street, is the leading Pilates exercise studio in Hong Kong. Stepping through their entrance is like stepping through a portal. Where the old realm is hot, humid, and dirty the new one is cool, refreshing, and clean. A small snack corner (only healthy foods) sit on a counter to the left, an area I hover above while waiting for my appointment. Hon, the charismatic receptionist/money collector let's me know that the instructor is ready for me. The first time I was persuaded to take a session I thought, yea sure, I'd rather work on real muscles, like my guns and bench press, but fine I'll do it. My instructor was a petite, peaceful looking woman named Mingni (if she's still around then ask for her!) and her immediate response at seeing me and my horrid posture was a shake of the head and "You should do more then bench press when you're at the gym." I wanted to show her my biceps but I knew it wouldn't make a difference. An hour later, after being forced to lift weights that questioned my manliness, I had aches and pains in muscles I never knew existed. Mingni rambled off a list of exercises to do at home, I nodded thinking, not happening, the gym is way easier! A week later I was back, I paid for a ten-session package after all. A month after that people began to notice the improvement in my posture, I was able to touch my toes and my lower back didn't trouble me after training. My core was stronger and my lumbar flexibility increased. Considering I didn't know what the word lumbar meant I'd say the improvement was significant. I pop back in every once in a while to rebalance my body after an injury and make sure to ask for homework. And what do you know? I've just read an article about professional rugby teams forcing their players to take Pilates twice a week. The world is changing!

From the owner: A wide range of Fitness Classes at our Hong Kong Pilates Studio…read moreIso Fit prides itself on having a wide range of state of the art and most up to date Pilates and GYROTONIC® equipment for both our Private/Semi Private (Studio) Pilates classes as well as our group pilates classes, TRX classes, Barre Classes, Mat Classes and Reformer Classes. Our expert team are able to tailor group or one-on-one private sessions to all of our clients requirements, whether you are looking for prenatal/pregnancy pilates or postnatal pilates, improve sports performance, or generally looking to improve your fitness and posture. We also have a physiotherapy clinic offering traditional physio services as well as clinical pilates in Central, Hong Kong.

So I'd like to start off with the good. I think this works, because I did lose some inches off some…read moreplaces on my body, which was the reason I decided to sign up in the first place. However, let me backtrack. Hypoxi is basically a machine targeted at hard to lose weight areas such everything spanning a women's lower body pretty much. You get to "exercise" for 30mins on a bike whilst reading a magazine, doing work on your laptop if you bring one etc. Seems pretty darn simple. Oh also youre not allowed to eat two hours before nor two hours after. So inherently you should be losing weight as well.Now the bad, I feel like some of the staff are trained really poorly, there was one session where they did not monitor my temperature AT all and when she tried to fix it, it didnt get fixed and thus I still kept cycling with a broken sensor which ended falling to the ground as she re-tied it poorly. DID I get an explanation or a compensated session? No. jsut keep going "its not important" hmmm. I assumed also measurements should be done in the beginning of ones package, middle and end as that is how one will judge their progress via this weight loss machine. However, yesterday was my last session and I asked the first girl, "hi so this is my last session right?" Shes like "yup". "So do I get any measurements?" "No" WHAT? I gave her a bewildered look and she got her other colleague and told her I wanted measurements. The other colleague was like "well we dont usually measure you but if you want to do it as a request, then we will" ERM* not with that attitude I need you measuring me, going into the deepest darkest shamed parts of my body. so I left, not knowing how well this contraption actually works as it was not policy to take a measurement after a certain amount of session. Lesson learned - same amount of money? Just go to a good PT. Youwont regret it!

My cousin belongs to this club , so I asked him to bring me here for a workout, in the States I…read morepractice TKD on a regular basis but due to travelling I have not done anything except walking in the last 2 weeks, therefore I was really looking forward to it, the Thai instructors were friendly and very motivational to help and guide, therefore I had a great experience and I highly recommend this club.

I signed up for 10 classes and was having an awesome time. The instructors were amazing too! Due to…read moreprotests in HK, I didn't want to use up my classes within that period as I stay far away from causeway bay and didn't want to risk getting stranded. Long story short, I had one class left, my package expired on the 25th / 26th of November. I'd initially signed up for my last class on 25th but due to unexpected reasons, I wasn't able to make it. I called the location to check if it was okay to change the booking date and the lady on the phone informed me of my expiration date. I asked her if I could reschedule to the 28th ; however due to language barrier there may have been some miscommunication? When I went in for my class, they were under the impression that I was going to sign up for another package, when I said no, they said I had to pay a single class fee. Yes I was aware of the policy, which is exactly why I called to speak to someone to avoid such a situation from happening!! There was no courtesy to ask what had happened just a mere "you have to at least pay the single class fee". Despite mentioning I called to verify and asking if there could be a one time exception; NO initiative to check the full story! Thoroughly disappointing end to the package!! Instructor wise, they are great; customer service wise expect no courtesy at times when it's needed the most!!

I was a member of this gym for a few years while I was in Hong Kong. It is a very friendly gym and…read morethe equipment is good. One great reason to join this gym is for the yoga classes conducted by Sky. He is a great yoga instructor and will stretch your body and mental resilience.

One of the top items on my to-do list for January was to sign up for a gym. I first looked around…read morethe Wan Chai area and decided to check out California and Physical. Since Pure was really close to my office, I also gave it a go. After a couple of workout trials at both Pure and California, I wasn't still convinced with any of them...I thought Pure was too expensive (although very convenient as they provide you with everything you need to exercise, you are just required to bring your training shoes) and California wasn't such a great value for money either. By chance I found out that Physical had a branch in Wan Chai, 3 minutes walking from my place. I have to say I had been discouraged to sign up for Physical; I was told their gyms are way too crowded with personal trainers trying to sell you their services which, for someone who just knows what she wants to do at the gym in a time efficient way, is not very appealing. As the other options were falling apart, I decided to find out whether their PT annoyance tag was deserved. I was lucky to talk to the manager who offered me a pretty good deal compared to the other two gyms and invited me to try the gym sometime. I did, and joined. Why? Because Physical just had all I needed: their facilities are great. The gym is split across 6 levels: entrance; fitness area (a ton of treadmills!); machine-strength training area; weights training area and changing rooms. It also features a 'chill out area' with newspapers and magazines, and a couple of PCs, and steam room and sauna. Now, compared to other cities, the value for money for Hong Kong gyms is just great. I do have to say something about their staff though. It is true the place is run by way too many people and you may feel stalked by PTs sometimes, but if you make clear from the beginning that you are not interested, it should be okay. I would recommend you go there at the off-peak times (weekends, in the late afternoon or evening) if you can. It's almost empty. Expect to pay no more than 5,000 HKD for a full year membership, with 60 coupons for extra classes.

Deborah Dewey, is a clinical hypnotherapist and detox specialist, specialising in health, well…read morebeing and weight loss. She has been established in HK for over 7 years. The last time I needed to detox (far too much good HK living!), I contacted Deborah and took up her Cambridge detox programme, which is a meal replacement programme developed in the UK. If you want more information, there is plenty on her website, but in a hut shell, you replace some meals with shakes, and then have smaller normal meals at other times. The detox was very easy to follow, and actually not that hard in terms of getting hungry or not having any energy. I was able to clean out, and lose weight too! One of the great things about having Deborah guide me through this, was that she is such a lovely down to earth person, who keeps in regular contact with you, to encourage and motivate. To start the programme, she will come to your house, do a consultation (which does unfortunately involve measuring you up - ugh, so fat!), and present you with a recommended plan. Don't worry, it's not all about getting you to take the most expensive one! After that, you are on your own, after all, you will have to put some effort in to detox! Deborah is always on hand to help you through it though. You will find that there is some effort involved, and I don't mean just being hungry. You will have to plan meals at home, or eat very carefully when out. The meal replacements do require preparation, and for best results a blender! Why not give it a go, your body will love you for it. Right, I'm off for a meat pie...