Grab a pew for NYC’S chair-bound workout

We city dwellers are notorious for being “deskbound” — hunched over our computers, slumped on a Tube seat or slouched in front of the TV. And according to recent studies, it is lopping years off our lives.

Yet the new chair-based workout could change all that. What began (of course) in New York has arrived here in London as Gymbox prepare to launch a new, one-hour “Chairlates” class (pronounced so that it rhymes with Pilates).

Like the now common Reformer, the chair is one of Joseph Pilates’s original muscle-training machines. It is essentially a box with a seat on top and two springs that allow you to vary the resistance of exercises. Unlike the Reformer, however, it’s compact enough that you can fit 15 machines into the average dance studio, and already Gymbox has a waiting list for Londoners wanting to try the new Holy Grail of toning.

“The recent trend for ‘fusion’ Pilates classes incorporating kettlebells, dance or spinning can detract from the original technique. To stop yourself falling off the chair, you are forced to use your lower abdominals and retain a neutral spine correctly throughout the class,” says my ultra-lithe instructor, Dalia Mikneviciute.

After stretching to warm up, I sit on the chair with my heels on the pedals and, using correct Pilates breathing (in to prepare, out on exertion), push down on each in turn. After a minute of this, followed by another with just my toes on the pedals, and a final 60 seconds of doing the same while having my feet in a ballet-like first position, my quads, hamstrings and glutes are feeling the burn.

Yet as the class is choreographed to transition seamlessly from one exercise to the next, along with the beat of the music, there’s no let-up. I move onto the “swan press”: lying with my back arched over the chair I press down on the pedals to work my biceps and shoulders. I then flip onto my back and have to engage every core muscle to remain stable as I crunch my legs and torso towards each other.

“Using the chair, we can create hundreds of exercise variations to improve the tone, co-ordination and flexibility of the whole body,” says Mikneviciute as she sits on the box, leaning to one side in a waist-lengthening “mermaid stretch”. “Yet because there are fewer springs, it’s easier to pick up than using a Reformer. It’s perfect for those who want a new challenge that gets results fast.”

I leave feeling energised — and wake up the next day with my abs nicely sore and my glutes excruciating. Always the sign of a good workout.

Classes start in May, Gymbox Bank EC3 (gymbox.com).