I'm a bit of a yoga snob, training and teaching myself in LA the last few years has spoiled me with…read moreso many great options. When I'm in London, the yoga always feels a little weird, not satisfying. I've shopped a lot of studio in LDN, and Heartcore in Notting Hill has been my favorite so far! It's absolutely adorable, well kept and well staffed. Front desk was incredibly welcoming and warm, and I loved Sarah's class! One of the best flows I've taken in awhile, even in LA. Very unique flow and I felt wonderful afterwards. Save yourself the run around and take class here!

From the owner: London's leading boutique fitness studio offering a variety of highly effective group classes in…read moreDynamic Pilates, Barre, Yoga, Ride and TRX. Team Heartcore is looking forward to welcoming you at one of our 9 beautiful locations across Central London. Ride 45 Together we cycle through independently sequenced climbs, sprints and intervals. A 45 minute musically-synced ride with a fun and contagious group energy. Classes extend to include a dedicated endurance track, giving you time to powerfully turn the wheels, immerse in the sound, and embrace your inside-out strength. Ride2Tone A fun and challenging, overall conditioning workout. Ride2Tone is our unique blend of 30 minutes powerful ride, followed by a series of Yoga and mat-based Pilates. A highly effective workout to improve your cardio health, balance in strength, flexibility and all-round wellbeing. Yoga Classes - Power Open - Power Level 2-3 - Restore - XYB (Open) - YIN (Open) - Pregnancy Uplifting, empowering and immersive, our Yoga classes combine mobility, strength and rejuvenation with integral and centering breathwork - providing you with the time and space to truly, be. Our approach builds on the physicality of the traditional practice with an inherent respect towards habit in everyday awareness. Warm, light-filled and energising, Heartcore Yoga charms the Yogi and non-Yogi alike in an open minded and welcoming environment.

Form is an adorable little studio right off of portobello road. I have only tried the Pure Motr…read moreclass here but have seen some of the other classes in session and they look even more intense/physical! Pure uses a Pilates type machine that I have never seen anywhere else, a cylindrical shaped base with straps for your arms and hands similar to a reformer. Elissa, the instructor explained that these machines are very good for your feet and posture, some areas we forget about in other workouts. The class is a mix of barre and pilates and incorporates a bunch of fun yet hard moves. Elissa is extremely sweet, motivating and helpful ensuring that everyone is working their hardest and getting the most of the class. The class is good for people of all levels and I would encourage anyone to try it out! A great studio with a different, fun, intense selection of classes.

I went here with the free first class pass and really enjoyed it. I had never used a pilates…read morereformer but the teacher was very helpful and accommodating to someone who had no clue what they were doing. The class is very small but it allows for individual attention from the teacher. I consider myself to be in decent shape but there were some things in this class I could barely do! I mean that in a good way the class was great and definitely an intense workout, I was sore for almost 5 days afterwards. The classes are a bit pricey but I think it is worth it since the classes are so small.

From the owner: We are a luxury boutique fitness studio offering the best workouts in London. Our highly effective…read moreclasses deliver optimal results that sculpt your physique in ways traditional exercise simply can't match. If you've committed to fitness in 2015 and you're still waiting to see results, it's time to stop blaming yourself and start training smarter with Heartcore. In this studio we offer Dynamic Pilates. Dynamic Pilates Heartcore's reformer-based classes use core-focused functional training in a highly effective, high energy class format to provide a comprehensive full body workout in the shortest possible time frame on our custom made coreformers. Personal Training Integrating a wide range of disciplines and methods to best support your needs - we draw on strength, mobility and cardiovascular exercise in ratios to fully support and achieve your goals. Designed to be progressive and empowering, we guarantee our commitment, alongside your own, will deliver the results you want to see and most importantly feel.

I'm a big yoga geek and consider myself fairly limber and in shape. I also run. Nothing in the last…read moreyear has physically kicked my ass as hard as these classes. Nothing. After my first class, I could barely walk up the two flights of stairs in my house. I have done mat pilates regularly before, but this is like the difference between being a psychic that does $5 readings and being a Jedi. While I am making it sound brutal, Beautcamp gives you a good kind of hurt. Within two days, as the pain subsided, I could actually feel my core muscles tightening as I walked around, sat down or otherwise worked out. If you like fitness and want to add a new challenge into your routine, this place is great. If you want to figure out how to get back in shape, this is also a great thing to do once a week. If you have never worked out before...i might be hesitate to recommend it. It WILL work you but pilates- like yoga involves really being present in the movements so you work your muscles in the right way- otherwise its a waste of time and money. The best thing about these places is 1) you book advance online and there are plenty of early morning classes so people can go before work. 2) Your first class is free and I highly recommend doing a beginners for your first class if you are nervous. 3) Both facilities have showers. Having been to both the City location and the West location... I have to say i prefer the West. Its just got more space (the City one has more showers though). Beaut! Beaut!

A-mazing...these classes make me want to be a yummy-mummy and do nothing but work out all day, eat…read morebons bons, give my kids to a Nanny and order out for wildly fabulous dinners. I digress - reasonably priced classes guaranteed to make even the most stubborn bulges go away. The small size of the classes (10 peeps) ensures the instructor gets to spend a lot of time correcting your form and ensuring you're getting the most out of it. And did I say it was tough? It's back breakingly, limping the next day, OMG I'm about to die tough. Which means its good.

This gym/club wants to be sort of like Shoreditch House - at least that's what one of the managers…read moretold me when I recently took a tour of this little gym in Notting Hill. They've just come under different owners, and the new proprietors are aiming to capture a bigger share of the luxury consumer pie by trying harder to position themselves in that cachet of exclusivity and cool - limiting the total members to somewhere around 1700. I'd say they have a bit of work to do. Much like Shoreditch House (and maybe this is where they got the idea that they had a chance of being its pseudo-version in the first place) Body Works West has a beautiful pool... clear sparkling water of a gentle chlorine colour, surrounded by calming neutral tones and blues; the pool is so serene, just looking at it makes the thought of a relaxing swim a very compelling idea (I had to hold myself back from jumping in fully clothed - and I'm not even that big into swimming). Another nice thing about BWW is that they have a good number of power plates - those vibrating platforms that are supposed to boost your metabolism by 50% just by doing some light exercise and stretches atop them - it's a nice extra detail that hasn't hit mainstream gyms just yet, and especially nice if you've wanted to try one. The gym, however, is very small... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I guess I do tend to like more roominess and anonymity in my gyms. The classrooms looked especially tiny - definitely not the sort where you can hide in the back. And I absolutely hated their elliptical machine setup- a single row of machines perched high up on sort of a makeshift balcony overlooking the weight/stretching area - the people working out up there looked awkward, and I can imagine why... who wants to be so prominently on display while panting away? In case it catches your fancy, however, you should know that there are DVD players attached to the machines - so that you can sweat away to whatever comedy or action film will make your workout less painless. The manager who gave us our tour (sorry sister to the other manager, Thea, I forget your name...) was a bit strange... ice-cold and uncomfortable to be with - maybe it's because we didn't fit into her image of the new cool customers they are looking for... but still, it certainly tainted my image of the place - if I were rating the gym just based on my encounter with her, it would get 1 star. Seriously, I couldn't wait for our 'tour' to be over so that hard stare and furrowed brow would stop. Thankfully, the rest of the staff that we interacted with were very courteous and nice. While there are some true destination gyms out there with too-rad classes and fantastic fringe benefits, I think gym membership decisions unusually come down to the convenience factor - so if Body Works West is close to you - it certainly has the requisite weights, classes, machines, etc. most gym rats are looking for - so nothing should stop you from joining. But if you don't live nearby...no matter how prestigious this place wants to be, it certainly doesn't offer anything that would make a person want to put in any extra effort to be a member.

This is my gym and I don't know what I would do if I lived further away than I do. It's owned and…read morerun by a New Yorker who wants it to be a full-service gym with all the bells and whistles. The gym itself has about 10 treadmills, 8 ellipticals, 5 cycles, 2 rowing machines, 3 power plates and all the weights and equipment one could want. If you're there off-peak then you basically have the place to yourself! Every member has free monthly training sessions, but the trainers don't do much in the way of helping you out when you're on their own -- they are either too busy chatting with each other or giving privates. Being from New York, I expect attention from trainers even if I am not in a session, but I guess they just do things differently here. I recommend Fabio for men, Simon for everyone and the new girl (Kia?) for women. The classes are great and I think Daniel is one of the best reformer pilates around. The steam room, sauna, pool and hot tub get me motivated to actually get to the gym, and Beauty Works West, next door, offers a whole range of spa treatments. The lobby downstairs is always very nice with internet connection, daily newspapers, tea, coffee, a TV and magazines. My criticisms are mainly due to the workers, in particular Thea or something similar who works on accounts and signed me up. Never in my life has someone working in the service industry -- let alone a luxury health spa/gym -- been so incredibly rude and demeaning. I have thought about writing directly to the owner to voice my complaints, but maybe via avenues like this people will get the message. She has a serious attitude problem and every time there has been an error with our account (yes, more than once!) we have been blamed and scolded (!) I think she needs to get out of client services pronto, but anyhow, avoid her and your experience there can be care free and lovely!

I absolutely loved this studio. I was in London on a layover and I was in dire need of a good yoga…read moreclass. I found the Life Centre and was able to catch a yoga and meditation class with Zephyr. I was so in love with the 90 minutes that I spent there. I was offered everything that I needed. Zephyr taught with such extensive knowledge and was able to share so much of her own experiences. The meditation portion was absolutely wonderful. The studio space was pretty good. I took class in the studio located on the main floor which was an all white room. There were mats available for use along with straps, bolsters, and blocks. The locker space was small but they did offer locked lockers to use which is a huge plus. I am definitely looking forward to my next time in London so I can go try another class. Thanks for a wonderful afternoon!

This practising and teaching centre was taken over five years ago by Elizabeth Stanley and…read moreChristine Letter who I must say have turned this into a very smart welcoming centre which is at the top of its game. There are 60 classes a week held here offering many different types of disciplines.They rang from Astanga,Iyurvedic,Self-Pratice and hard or gentle yoga. The Life-Centre has a huge following and other than classes they also hold talks and teacher training programmes to anyone who would like to teach the disciplines or open up their own school. The centre is alos know for its impressive list of complementary therapies.

Om Station 3 in Ladbroke Grove run by Laura Bauman is a good place to work out especially if you…read morelike your yoga with a lot more dynamism. I am not such a follower of the discipline as I like to keep fit more with stretch exercises, running machines and resistance machines to enhance the aerobic performance of my body. But I went with a friend of mine who swears by it and I was pleasantly surprised at the way it is taught which is more related to breathing as opposed to anything else. Judging from how many people attend her class obviously her technique is very successful because she began by working from home and is now planning to open a posh studio some-where. Other than holding classes in London Bauman also teaches at several yoga retreats outside the UK.