Glide: the hardcore training technique sweeping the capital’s fitness scene

As your diary gets busier, every workout must count. Fitting in your normal exercise routine is hopeless, so when you do find time for the gym, you really want to work up a sweat.

To get more from your workout you need to feel the burn straight away, and the capital’s top trainers have just the tool.

It’s called the glider, and for Londoners in the know it’s the smartest way to up the intensity this autumn: a sliding, plate-sized disc for your hands or feet that turns the gym floor into an unstable surface, engaging your core. Trainers say it’ll boost your heart rate, get deeper into your glutes and make your adductors scream.

“It makes you work a lot harder,” says celebrity trainer Ashley Verma as I sweat through her new Glide class at the Define London studio in Fitzrovia. It’s the UK’s first concept class using gliders and it has me dripping within minutes.

The 45-minute workout takes typical barre movements — underhand grip, inclined chair and seatwork — but incorporates gliders called Core Flights to take them up a level, or three. Mountain climbers immediately speed up, lunges burn and the plank has me sprawling around the studio like Bambi on ice.

Halfway through press-ups I have to give my wrists a break and Verma says this is the point: to work your “stabilisers” (ankles and wrists). “They’re things you don’t think about but they hold you up, so we need to strengthen them and work our arches.” She says it helps with circulation, too.

Glide launches in January and it’s geared towards the “advanced” barre fanatic, says Verma, who started using gliders in PT sessions with model Jourdan Dunn before deciding to work them into a class.

It’s a full-body workout and I haven’t even picked up a weight. “That’s the important message to spread about this type of workout: you only lifted your own body,” Verma continues — try any bodyweight move and the glider will take it up a notch. Plus the options are endless: you can use them on your hands or feet and all you need is yourself. No extra equipment required.

Which is why they’re the perfect home workout tool. Celebrity trainer and founder of Twenty Two Training, Dalton Wong, uses gliders with his PT clients, and this month he’s also launching an at-home glider kit for Londoners to use at home or while they’re travelling.

The set includes a copy of his 15-minute workout book The Feel Good Plan and two gliders with a fleece lining so they can be used on a hardwood floor as well as carpets. “They work by adding resistance from the glider and the floor,” says Wong. This trains the core, works the upper and lower body and targets “troubled” areas like the arms and glutes – you feel the burn immediately.