I'd never used a personal trainer, thinking I knew enough about exercise to go it alone. But just half an hour with Kyla at Studio Six helped me understand my strengths, my weakness and my injuries, and set me up with a toolkit of exercises that create twice the burn in half the time.
Kyla and Ryan Bonniface are a husband-and-wife team running Studio Six Private Training and group exercise classes out of their bespoke studio in Burwood. It's a vibrant space with all the essential gym machines and a good amount of floor space – Kyla, I found out, loves body-weight exercises done mostly on a mat. She's is a long-time yogi, and runs 'fitness inspired' yoga classes and small group fitness classes, as well as personal training.
I arrive, ready for my half hour personal training session, and we're straight into it. After a short warm up on the spin bike, she takes me to the mats, where we do the rest of our session. Her method is simple: A few very precise exercises, done slowly and perfectly – and it works. Exercises that look easy when she demonstrates them burn by the third repetition. She keeps everything perfectly aligned, telling me gently to "move that foot back over, honey" when I think I've found sneaky ways to slack off.
Incredibly, I've never been able to do lunges without pain after I built up an injury during some persistent long-distance running. She has an exercise for that – she puts me into a perfectly-constructed lunge position which takes all the weight off my knees, and suddenly I can lunge freely, without pain, for the first time in years. "I'm hyper flexible, so I get injuries all the time," Kyla tells me. Because of that, she's worked through a lot of the injuries her clients come in with and knows how to adapt her exercises to accomodate them, and even help people recover.
I return the next day, hamstrings and glutes burning, for a half-hour private yoga class. Kyla calls her yoga "fitness inspired", which means it's powerful and will build strength, rather than being relaxing. It still features a range of great stretches, but I came away with some serious quad burn. She emphasises core conditioning to prevent back and hip pain as well as whole-body toning. It's a great option for anyone who loves the flowy mindfullness of yoga, but also wants to build strength and come away sweating.
Kyla's group classes are small, maxing out at five or six in her studio, with more attending on Monday nights at St Francis of Assisi School. The fitness classes combine interval training, circuits and boxing sessions, and they're different every time. Her regular clients are a friendly bunch, so it's a great place to go if you want to make some workout buddies while you're there. Kyla offers a live zoom option for all of her classes and for her private yoga sessions. Her private sessions are incredibly affordable: $35 for half an hour, and if you want to come with a friend, she can train both of you for the same price. While it might sound short, my aching glutes, hamstrings are core are a testament to the fact that when your trainer knows what she's doing, half an hour is more than enough.