Blok London (Shoreditch): Callisthenics Class Review

I hadn’t heard of Blok London until it popped up on my Instagram feed but I am very glad it did! Blok are offering free passes to people who hadn’t tried their studio before, and I decided to take them up on their offer.

Looking through the class list at the Shoreditch studio, I settled on a callisthenics class. I hadn’t done one before and was interested to see how hard you could work without using weights.

On a cold February morning I turned up at Shoreditch High Street station and walked a few minutes down the road to the studio.  The entrance to Blok feels like a modern cafe/restaurant.

I checked in at the reception desk, which also doubles up as their cafe. The front of house staff were lovely, they explained where the changing rooms were and which studio I would be in for my class.

I loved that the Blok changing rooms even have Balliste dry shampoo in them because it’s exactly what you need post workout (especially if you are going back to work).

The callisthenics class was 60 minutes in length and was run in the boxing room.

Callisthenics is basically body weight exercises and movements. I googled it for a more detailed description and google informed me that the word calisthenics comes from the Greek words kallos meaning beauty and sthenos meaning strength. When performed in a continuous, rigorous fashion, calisthenics train up your strength and aerobic capacity.

The class insructor was very friendly and got us straight into the class with some warm up movements.  The first part of the class was focused on using different movements to travel up and down the studio, such as bear walks, jumping squats and burpes.  The second part of the class was focused on partner work, so for example 30 seconds holding a squat whilst your partner does squat jumps and then swap over.

The final part of the class involved pull ups (in which we used a resistance band) and handstand practice.

I really enjoyed the class and ached for a few days after, so I know I worked hard.  The vibe of the studo was great too – so I will go back.

Blok London, Shoreditch is based at Tram Depot, 38-40 Upper Clapton Road, E5 8BQ.