Review: Speedflex

What if I told you there’s a HIIT workout that burns serious calories and doesn’t cause you pain the next day? Well those are the claims of Speedflex and I got to see for myself if it lived up to those claims.

Speedflex says that men can burn up to 1000 calories in the 45 minute workout and women average 600-700 calories. Impressive, but seeing as I burn 550-650 calories in a 45 minute spin class at Psycle, I was really intrigued by the no-pain claim. I’ve tried many forms of HIIT workouts but have always ached the next day, always. No pain sounded too good to be true so I asked one of the trainers at the London studio near Bank to give me the lowdown. It’s all down to the specially designed machines exclusive to Speedflex which look like big levers, but I’ll get into that later.

The induction and body assessment

When I first went to Speedflex I had my induction which included a free in-depth body assessment. I was told my weight, body fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, total body water, visceral fat, BMI, body fat percentage, waist-to-hip ratio, BMR and how much muscle is in each of my arms, legs and trunk. It was seriously detailed, I couldn’t believe it was free. The trainer explained my results to me and gave me a print out with all my stats on. There were about 5 of us having our induction and we all had the body assessment individually in a private room. After we were done we were taken to the workout studio and shown how to use the machines. Speedflex provides you with heart rate monitors that are connected to screens on the wall so you can see how hard you are working compared to everyone else in the room. You can opt out if you wish, but I personally loved this as it motivated me to push harder. Our taster workout was only 10 minutes long but it was enough to make me want to come back.

The workout

In my first full session, we were equipped with heart rate monitors, then shown what moves we’d be doing on each machine. The trainer then started the timer on the wall and we were off! 20 seconds to go as hard as we can on the machines, 10 seconds rest then move onto the next machine and repeat. The more force you put into the machine, the more resistance it gives you back. In other words, a very strong bodybuilder can use the same machine as a weak pensioner and they’d both get very different workouts. This is where the no-pain claim comes into play.

Imagine you’re doing a bicep curl; when you lift the weight up your bicep contracts, when you lower the weight back down your bicep lengthens. It’s this lengthening that causes mini tears in your muscle which causes the aches and pain as your muscle repairs itself. The Speedflex machines cause the contraction in your muscle but not the lengthening because of the way the resistance is applied to only part of the movement. This means no tears in the muscle which means no pain.

And it’s true, I felt no pain in my upper body in the following days. I did ache in my legs and bum because of the squats we did, unfortunately there is no pain free way to work out your legs – yet! I burned just over 600 calories in each of the Speedflex sessions I went to and seeing my heart rate on the screen motivated me to work harder.

Who is it for?

There were always a real mix of people there when I went – men, women, overweight, in-shape, old, young. It showed how Speedflex can work for a wide range of people. The HIIT and circuit style training using the resistance from the Speedflex machines is designed to burn body fat, which is great for people looking to lose weight and tone up. If you’re trying to put on muscle mass then Speedflex isn’t for you, due to it preventing muscle tears. But if you want to burn calories, improve your cardiovascular fitness and get stronger then give Speedflex a go.

I highly recommend going for the body assessment, even if you’re not convinced about the workout. The assessment is £10 on it’s own, or free as part of the FREE two week trial. Yes, that’s right, you can try out Speedflex as many times as you want for two weeks, plus get the body assessment, all for free and with no obligation to sign up either. I haven’t ever heard of an intro offer as good as that before.

Have you heard of Speedflex before? What do you like most about it – the heart rate monitoring, the circuit style training or the no pain? Let me know in the comments below.

I was gifted a trial of Speedflex in exchange for my review. My opinions are always true and honest, that is my promise to you.