Virgin Active isn’t just a fitness club. It’s a wellness community – one that feels thoughtfully designed rather than commercially imposed. There’s a kind of softness to it. It’s in the way you’re reminded that wellness is a journey, not a checklist. Think of it like a membership to your own wellbeing – a booking system that opens doors to everything: gym, reformer pilates, yoga, Zumba, body pump, sound bath, swimming and yes – the infamous spin room.
I signed up for their RPM class, which has a bit of a reputation. Word around the locker room? This one burns. RPM isn’t about fancy choreography or nightclub drama. It’s about rhythm. Power. Legs that won’t quit. The playlist is made up of familiar songs – the kind your body instinctively knows how to move to. We ride in waves: steady cruise, a push, then the hill. And we climb based on feel – not some number on a dial, but the honest conversation between your breath and your body. There’s a number if you want it, but they believe you just trust your quads. They always know. The instructor is razor-focused and fully present. The kind of person who can make eye contact from the front of the room and somehow see your resistance level. And after the ride, he shared tips on finding your ‘tune’ – not just musically, but the personal rhythm that makes spin sustainable, even joyful. Each track has its own identity: one’s a sprint, one’s a mountain, and one gives you just enough of a breather to catch your breath – but your heart rate never really drops. You stay in zone three, steady and strong, right where effort begins to feel like momentum.
And the best part is that you don’t step out into silence – you step into a community. People still flushed from class, refilling water bottles, heading to pilates class, or just unwinding on the couch with cold towels pressed to their faces. No one’s rushing out. Everyone’s here for the same reason: not to push harder, but to come back to centre – whatever that means today.