The Underdog Gym

This one is for the guys!

Our next deadlift party will be to raise vital funds for a men’s Mental Health charity.

12.5% of men in England experience mental health issues. Pressures to remain stoic or “tough” cause many men to hide their distress. Sadly men are 3 times more likely to die by su***de in England than women. We want to do our little bit to help.

Our deadlift party format is simple, we lift one max rep and take in turns until we bow out at a weight we feel hits our current max. There will be alcohol-free beer, good music and a great supportive vibe where we can cheer each other on and get stronger together. You don’t have to know how to deadlift as we will do a mini workshop to ensure good form and that no one gets injured.

It’s £30 for two hours on Sept 22nd 7pm. We are opening this up to any guys that want to come. You don’t have to be an Underdog client.

Let’s lift some heavy s**t chaps! Who is coming? DM to secure your spot 💪🏽

We’ve had quite a few new followers on our socials. So here’s a hello and a warm welcome to Underdog 👋🏽

We might be s**t at content creation, but we’re great at helping people discover the joys of moving their bodies. From newbies becoming stronger, to helping runners becoming faster. We help people build confidence so that they unapologetically take up space in conventional gyms.

At underdog, empathy is our big thing. I was once disabled, and so, I have an affinity of what it’s like to start from rock bottom. As a Personal Trainer who came to fitness with a broken body following multiple spinal surgeries, my priority is to ensure we prevent injury during training. The focus is on good form and earning the right to go heavier.

We offer one-to-one personalised coaching as well as small group shared PT. We also have our inclusive functional fitness classes and our popular 90 minute weekend Hybrid sessions that combine power with engine.

Our own little fun run club truly is for all paces because our ethos is everyone starts somewhere and walking pace is sexy pace. Conversely, as a Hyrox affiliated performance coach, we have fielded over a dozen athletes to Hyrox races, who’ve gone on to achieve personal bests.

If your goal is weight-loss, our inhouse NHS clinical
Dietitian can help. We are a GLP-1 welcoming space with experience of training clients that have ongoing side effects from the medication. We also specialise in cancer rehab PT so that you can rebuild your life, celebrate your next exciting chapter and becoming more resilient than ever.

Our setting is like no other. Facing the Walthamstow wetlands under the big sky, we train in a courtyard garden surrounded by nature and wildlife. Our goal was to be as far away from the triggers of unwelcoming gyms. Here you won’t find loud obnoxious music, the mirror-obsessed or egotistical-lifters.

Our little community cheerleads each other because when one of us wins, we all win 🏆

Last night we held our second Deadlift party and this time we raised funds for an lgbtqia charity. Congrats to Dee who is our new deadlift champion. Mama Jo passed her Strongest Woman trophy to a new legend 🏆

Thank you all who came and smashed their PBs. Lovely to see new faces too and we hope you found our community welcoming 🙌🏽 At Underdog our ethos is that everyone is supportive because we are here to lift each other up 🫶🏽

Our next Deadlift party will be to raise funds for a men’s Mental Health charity. Watch this space for more info!

From metal screws to metal medals.

I’m 50 this year and proof it’s never too late to reclaim your health.

When your broken body makes the mountain to climb ahead impossible, know that all we have to be is just 1% better today than yesterday.

The gift we have is knowing what real pain is. This becomes a super power no one else has.

Our 90 min Hyrox sessions this weekend was fire! 🔥

At Underdog, we are the only official Hyrox “Performance Coach” qualified in East London that’s been accredited by the affiliated Hyrox 365 Academy to coach clients for Hyrox races 🏁

If you’re curious and have never tried a Hyrox session, our Saturday morning 1030am has a couple of spots up for grabs. You don’t have to be able to run, we start where you are. You don’t have to feel you can’t keep up, the sessions are time-based so you can manage your own pace 🏃🏻🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏾‍♂️💨

All the exercises in these sessions are “functional fitness” based: push, pull, hinge, lunge, squat, throw, run, jump… these are all the things our bodies were designed to do 🙌🏽

Don’t believe the algorithms that show you only super fit athletes doing Hyrox! At the heart of us, this is a super-inclusive community where movements are scaled up or down based on your current ability, limitations, and disabilities 🫶🏽

This is the story of a diverse group of women coming together to lift each other up…

Yesterday was the 98th anniversary of women winning their equal right to vote in 1928. Almost a century later, now more than ever, female bodily autonomy is coming under threat. From termination to transition to tackling income inequality and policing how women should look and behave, it feels like the pendulum of equality has swung back.

Last night we threw our first women’s deadlift party to remind ourselves of how much strength and resilience women carry. 💪🏽

Whatever barbell weight they pulled, collectively they deadlifted over 760kg. Talk about girl power! 🙌🏽

Congrats to mama Jo who took home the Strong Woman of the Year trophy 🏆 with Clare snatching the Most Improved Lifter medal! 🥈

After, when all the Prosecco glasses were put away, the music switched off and I tidied up the yard, it dawned on me how damn lucky I am to do this incredible job. As a trainer and coach, observing people transforming from reserved and insecure, to empowered and kickass, with the courage to take up space. Apart from being a panda cub babysitter, I’m not sure there’s any other job out there that hits the sweet spot of community, growth and joy.

Thank you all of those who took part last night. What seemed like a crazy idea turned into something utterly powerful.

Messages are already coming in that we need to do another one for those who missed out… so here we go… our next Underdog Deadlift Party will be in celebration of Pride month.

All LGBTQ newbies and allies are most welcome.
Together we will slay the house down. 🌈