By JT Nisay
Rustic Victorian garden lamps, with its golden lights bouncing off red brick walls and crisp hardwood, may give off a random English street vibe, but at the second floor of Serendra in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, it’s the setting of a fitness studio.
The look and feel of Saddle Row was patterned after Savile Row, a street in Central London that has long been the bastion of gentleman style, home of unimpeachable bespoke tailoring for the upper class for more than two centuries. The appropriation, however, goes beyond aesthetics.
“We pulled out a lot of Savile Row’s tenets and applied them to fitness: A bespoke workout that is tailor-fit to you.” Saddle Row Program Director Chris Allison said in a recent interview. “Also, like that culture of suits, our sustainable workouts have lasted generations.”
The 55-square-meter studio opened last November and offers stationary cycling and rowing classes. “Simple” and “elegant,” both disciplines have low impact on the joints and are highly efficient, whether practiced individually or as a pair, said Allison, who’s a former professional cyclist and the current coach of the Philippine National Cycling Team.
“It’s a bicycle and a pair of oars and a boat,” he added. “But in that, you get an incredibly good total body workout—you’re building muscle, strengthening and, at the same time, doing cardio. When you go back and forth between cycling and rowing, you basically train every muscle group of your body. It’s holistic.”
The programs debunk the misconception that exercise has to be extreme to be effective, Allison said. “If you just get in maybe three times, even twice a week, one spin and one row, you’ve already met your fitness component for the whole week.”
The studio is equipped with high-class Scwhinn AC indoor bikes and there are three 45-minute classes to choose from, namely, “The Underground,” a light-spinning session where guests basically dance to a beat; “The Resistance,” which utilizes resistance bands for strengthening and conditioning; and “The Exchange,” the highest-intensity variant ideal for triathletes and other high-level athletes.
The diverse offerings enable Sadle Row to cater to every type of fitness profile. “Whether you’re a beginner or someone’s who’s highly experienced, we’ll find a way to make it fit for you,” Allison said. “The instructors are always looking to help you in your workout, no matter your fitness ability.”
A testament to Saddle Row’s more than hospitable program is theater multihyphenate Topper Fabregas, who said that, prior to Saddle Row, he had little involvement with fitness outside yoga.
Nonetheless, he was invited by his friend to try out as an instructor for the studio’s cycling workout. “The owners wanted people from theater who know how to talk in front of people, para medyo may theatricality, so to speak. I was afraid to do it because I wasn’t really into cardio. When I go to the gym, I use the treadmill, but the bike…not my thing.”
Fabregas ultimately decided to give it a spin and met with Allison. “I went and then I died. I said it’s not for me but they said, ‘Just come back, see how it feels.’ Two weeks later, I was hooked. I found myself returning, and before I knew it, I was teaching.”
It took him about two classes before he found his rhythm and when he did, Fabregas found the benefits almost immediate. “In the first two weeks pa lang, I felt more fit.”
More important, he said the gains of his new fitness regimen have translated to his work in theater. “My lungs got stronger. My lung power has improved so much, and my singing improved after biking. My stamina’s off the charts.”
Fabregas added that now, cycling has definitely become part of his system. “There was one time I came to the studio and I was so tired. I wasn’t supposed to teach but my body really wanted to get on a bike.” And so, Topper did. Asked until when he would do spinning, Topper Fabregas’s answer was as terse as his tone was definitive: “As long as I can.”
Image credits: Roy Domingo