Gym No#11: Holmes Place

Location: Zurich, SWITZERLAND.

Today was a good day. There are plenty of reasons for this. The buffet breakfast provided by my hostel didn’t involve cornflakes but loads of muesli, yoghurt and a selection of cold meats and cheeses to name but one.

I chalked up another gym on the board too, which is another.

I arrived at Gym No#11: Holmes Place here in Zurich at about midday. My training day began with a 50 minute spin class. Whoever came up with the idea to make a bike that didn’t go anywhere I have no idea but aren’t we all glad he or she did.

Now I don’t have much experience with spin classes, actually I don’t have any experience with spin classes. I’ve heard people talk about, seen some people participating in them and I have ridden a bike before. That’s about it. So naturally I felt very prepared.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t adjust the seat, the handlebars or the pedal straps properly either. you would think that I would seize the opportunity to ask, being a spin class virgin. I guess like most virgins I just didn’t want to embarrass myself by asking technical questions like what goes where. Do I need to push this or pull this? Do I have to twist this left or twist it right? Although one would hope that most virgins don’t find themselves in a room with 12 other people and mirrors on all the walls.

This time round at least I can say that my first time was awesome. Oh sure I ended up a sweaty mess that couldn’t walk straight but that’s kind of the point right?

The instructor taking the class did so in english, at first I was so shocked to hear words I understood that I almost flew over my handlebars. Instructions I can understand, what a treat.

In spin classes, you are in absolute control of the intensity of your workout. Which is goo d if you are a beginner because you can moderate the session and gradually bring yourself up to speed. It’s bad if you’re lazy. It’s your hand on the dial. The instructor will tell you to turn it up a few gears but there is no way she can actually tell if you’re doing it. So if you are one of those people who needs someone on your back constantly to ensure you push hard, the larger classes and perhaps spin classes in general will be ineffective.

Once again it all comes down to you, your motivation and your commitment. The group setting helps with the motivation, nobody wants to look bad and there is that classic sense of companionship in a shared trial. Plus there was some pretty rad top 40 beats beating out.

In most ways Holmes Place is a traditional gym and it is a very successful franchise as such. There is a great range of equipment, Technogym weight machines, free weights, and a small army of cardio machine to cater for the eager crowd. The Zurich facility in particular tends to feed its local client base of business people, lunch periods are often their busiest. The gym having everything you would need to turn up smart and sharp, workout and leave exactly the same way, well a little healthier of course.

However there are 3 things that make Holmes Place Zurich unique. The outdoor terrace, the moving roof and the flagship Holmes Place Spa. 

The roof is a very cool idea. Pretty much the whole thing can be retracted during the summer months, like the roof of a stadium it slides away and lets the world in. It is great way to bridge the gap between outdoor and indoor exercise. I have seen and trained at plenty of gyms that are stuffy and crowded, flooded with harsh light where you feel like an animal caught in the headlights of some garish SUV or a dead butterfly pinned to a board.

Even with the roof closed this is place is different. Windows looking out over the city skyline and distant mountains provide an abundance of natural light if not natural air. There are plenty of machines of all kinds but enough room to move between them.

The terrace is a large space, completely open to the elements, rain hale or shine. Cardio machines, bikes, rowers, cross trainers can me moved outside as well as mats for floor work.

The new Holmes Place Spa is the first of its kind. Now during the course of my adventures I have had the luxury of getting to know a few different spas (Gym No#3: The CityPoint Club, Gym No#4: Sturebadet), so I am getting pretty comfortable hanging out in a soft cushy bathrobe. Maybe too comfortable.

After washing off the workout and changing into a fresh robe I entered the first lounge area of the spa and refreshed myself with some chilled lemon water while browsing some magazines written in German (I like to break a mental sweat too).

Then I decided to start with the heated waterbed relaxation room, yes that’s right waterbeds. Turns out they’re not always rotating and circular. The mood was well set by sort neon blue lights that highlighted the white lengths of silver birch that lined one wall. I shut my eyes and let my body sink into the comforting embrace.

Next I had my feet massaged with water by a machine that looked like a toilet, well not exactly like I toilet but it’s a good starting point for my description. Maybe it looked more like a really small bath, oval in shape, one half a comfortable seat the other a troff  for your footsies. You press a button and water whooshes out, and air jets turn on. The water changed color depending on the type of massage selected. Blue, Green, Red it was very cool and exactly what my feet needed after being battered on the mats during my MMA training last week.

The steam room was all black tiles, chairs were embedded along the curve or each wall and a white marble dish full of smooth white pebbles housed a little fountain of steaming water. Less in your face than a sauna, there was heat but it was not all consuming. It was very relaxing, after a while I stood and stretched. Every now and then drops of water fell from the ceiling to smack joyfully onto my back or head, as if reminding me to stay awake.

A couple of paces away was the aroma room, each wall had an alcove lined with a wooden bench to sit on.  The scent was subtle, the light soft. Periodically a spotlight would appear and more herbs and spices and whatnot would slide steaming down a steal channel and a fresh dose of aromas would greet your brain.

The traditional sauna, lined with timber and build up in big steps like an amphitheater, was definitely hotter than the steam room. The deep tissue work. I lay back using a fresh towel to soften the timber head rest, let the heat consume me and the sweat run away from me.

The ice fountain was something I has read about before and was looking forward to. Normally when I see a bowl of ice I am grabbing handfuls of the stuff and dropping it into a glass with lots of fresh lime and mint leaves…this time I was picking up handfuls of the shavings and rubbing it over my still steaming body, I couldn’t help but think of Bear Grylls drying himself off with snow in Siberia. Though I think I’ll stick with spas.

It was extremely refreshing, the theory behind it is that it stimulates circulation and boosts the immune system. I for one felt stimulated.

Finally you walk down a passageway and a light cool almost mist like spray turns on automatically to douse you down. I re-robe and enter a little place I like to call ‘The Pod Room’. Why? Because it is full of pod chairs.

The Pod Room is cool the way Studio 54 was cool, minus the drugs, loud music and wild sex. The carpet is thick and lush, you know the kind you can curl your toes into. It felt amazing on the soles of my recently revitalised feet.

Several pod chairs skirt the room facing these water features or bubble features, clear glass columns brimming with water that are lit from lights beneath. Bubbles dance their way to the surface in varying intensity and numbers. Each of the three columns are a different size and are always a different colour.

The pod chairs are comfortable and extremely comforting, they are a protective cocoon of calm. Although what they need to protect you from inside a spa at the top of a building in Zurich I’m not entirely sure…maybe just the reality of the world itself. I sipped hot tea, orange and something, and stared silently at the strange water things and thought deep thoughts. Or at least what felt like deep thoughts. 

How important is comfort to wellness and health? Do we need more, like the luxuries I was currently enjoying or less, like the bareness of yoga ashrams in India (which I plan to visit by the way) or the scarce minimalism of Kieser Training facilities (Gym No#8) Do men like health spas? I didn’t see any. I know men like saunas so sitting around in towels isn’t the problem, maybe it’s the ice fountain? What time is my flight tomorrow?