HIIT Without the Hurt. It’s one of the most memorable straplines in the fitness industry and it’s been at the core of every Speedflex session for almost ten years

Over the last nine years, the unique group training concept has rolled out with leading operators, including Bannatyne Health Clubs, Everyone Active, Go Gateshead, Everybody Sport & Recreation, and énergie Fitness.

Speedflex studios now span right across the UK and into Ireland.

We spoke to Paul Ferris, CEO of Speedflex, to find out how the company has evolved, and why in a post-lockdown world, it’s now considered one of the safest group exercise concepts on the market.

With Speedflex turning 10 next year, how has the organisation grown since its inception and what key lessons have you learned along the way?
Speedflex has grown significantly over the last nine years. We’ve gone from a single site in Newcastle to 19 Speedflex studios and three Fortis Powered by Speedflex studios. We now have partnerships with some of the UK’s leading operators such as Bannatyne Health Clubs and Everyone Active.

We’ve always known we had a good product, but in the early days I think we tried to run before we could walk. We were bringing a whole new concept to market and yet we just assumed everyone would instantly get it. In reality we needed to put in the hard work, build key relationships and partner with the right people to ensure we could get Speedflex the recognition it deserves.

Speedflex has some great partnerships with operators, why is it such a good group concept for clubs?
The magic of Speedflex is the inclusivity of the concept. A free motion bar generates personalised resistance and every participant, from the professional athlete to the deconditioned obese individual, can train at their optimum level. So regardless of age or fitness level, all participants in the same session are getting the same great workout.

There aren’t many concepts on the market that can be offered to an operator’s entire membership base, but Speedflex certainly ticks that box.

It’s been nine months now since you launched your Fortis partnership with Everyone Active, can you give us some insight as to how things are going?
We launched our partnership back in January 2020, opening Fortis Powered By Speedflex studios at three locations; Chichester, Hemel Hempstead and London. All three have exceeded expectations, with sessions at full capacity and with regular waiting lists. Then of course COVID-19 hit, so whilst it has been a bit of a bump in the road, things are now starting to look up again.

Speedflex is one of the safest group exercise concepts on the market right now; we’ve reconfigured our studios to allow for social distancing, so instead of 16 people in a session, our studios will now only hold between six and eight people. Prior to COVID-19, participants would move around the studio in a circuit, now each member remains on their own machine throughout the session. They also have their own assigned set of auxiliary equipment to use.

What are the future plans for Fortis Powered By Speedflex?
We’re excited to roll out the concept with Everyone Active further. In January 2021, we will be launching another two locations, with several more scheduled for later in the year.

We heard Speedflex has launched a new programme specifically aimed at helping fight the battle against obesity during COVID-19. We’d love to know more
Speedflex already lends itself perfectly to an overweight demographic and so we’ve created a subsidised six-week programme for anyone with a BMI of 30 or over.

The programme starts and finishes with an InBody assessment which allows us to measure, track and record progress. We’re offering this at our flagship Newcastle studio and have created a blueprint for our partners to follow.

Why is Speedflex such an effective workout for overweight and obese individuals?
Speedflex allows participants to work out at a high intensity while keeping the impact low. An obese participant can safely join a standard session and burn more calories than anyone else in the room.

Deconditioned individuals often begin with high levels of motivation but are quickly derailed by aches, pains and injury. Speedflex only uses concentric movements, completely eliminating the DOMS which can be so off-putting for beginners. It enables overweight individuals to receive all the proven benefits of HIIT without any comeback on the joints.

In just two Speedflex sessions we enable deconditioned individuals to achieve the same workout intensity that would take six weeks to reach with other forms of exercise.

What does the future hold for Speedflex?
We look forward to creating new partnerships with health and fitness operators to install Speedflex studios either as standalone operations or as club-in-club facilities, as we’ve done with Everyone Active as part of our roll-out of the Fortis Powered By Speedflex brand.

As our work and home life becomes more blurred and the way people want to work out has changed forever, we also have a really exciting project in the pipeline, which we look forward to announcing in the coming months. Watch this space!

Find out more: www.speedflex.com