What an amazing journey!
Since I can remember I have always been very into keeping in moderate shape, luckily for me, and I had to think about how to word that, I have to do physiotherapy for an injury so I am forced to go to gyms or do home workouts. But I have always chosen pretty high intensity fitness, Boxercise was my passion back home in Sweden and I would go 3 times a week minimum. Then I moved here to the UK and have kind of just stuck to the closest gym available to maintain a level of fitness that I feel ok in.
I am not skinny anymore, I have hips and I have that annoying belly flubber that I luckily know how to hide with good styling. However I don’t believe I would ever allow myself to “let myself go” but I have been a little lazy lately, I’m not going to lie.
So here came an opportunity to try Hypoxi, a targeted body shaping method founded in 1990 by the Sports Scientist DR Norbert Egger in Austria, and while researching Hypoxi I noticed it has even reached Scandinavia amongst all the 40 countries it now resides in.
I have always been told that you can’t target burn anything on a body, but Hypoxi aims to reduce fat in problem areas that we all know all too well, like the stomach, hips, butt and thighs, and all this with a technique containing vacuum and compression with a dash of exercise.
It’s long been said this is impossible so I said challenge accepted!
But in order to get the best results I had to overhaul my close to non existing diet. I am a very bad eater, and those who know me also know I’m not known for being a good cook. So initially this worried me a bit as I would have to really focus on making this happen. Breakfast has never been my thing; I like to sleep as late as possible before throwing a well chosen outfit on and perfecting my winged eyeliner. So this was the hardest part I think. It didn’t have to be big so I had Natural Yoghurt with a touch of fibre as a standard. But then I learned I had to have a snack to, I work in a busy retail environment so this was a tough one. Lunch was the time where some carbs could sneak in as my metabolism would be at it’s peak this time of day. Dinner, oh dinner. I normally would have something quite heavy here as it was my primary meal everyday, but due to it usually being quite late my body wouldn’t be able to work this off. So this is where the salad I have now come to long for came into place.
Ok so here I was in the heart of Knightsbridge not really sure what to expect, I meet Dajana and she started by talking me through the process and I can honestly say I was skeptic. I was asked to step on to this body stat machine that literally scanned my entire body and broke everything down into a chart. To see how much fat my body was carrying was probably the hardest but also something that then made me determined to change that. It showed everything from muscle mass to water retention and if it weren’t for Dajana explaining all of this to me it would’ve made no sense.
It was then time to let the first Hypoxi session begin! I was shown into this room with three stations and I start by being put into something I can only explain looks like a wetsuit with tubes coming out of it but I have now come to love this and really allow myself to find my moment of inner peace while using it. This wonderful thing is actually the Dermology suit, you are helped into this suit and strapped in tight. I was then asked if I’m slightly claustrophobic as you might feel slightly restricted.
You then lay down and the machine slowly extracts all the air and the suit tightens around your body. Then the magic starts, this suit is fitted with about 400 tiny chambers located around the stomach, hips, butt and thighs and it almost feels like bubble wrap popping giving you a perfect massage. This is done for 20 minutes but oh how I could’ve been there for longer. It always passed too quickly! The cozy atmosphere of the studio as well as the soothing music made it very easy to just close your eyes and zone out.
With the 20 minutes over you are put in to one of two cycling machines, alternation as you go along. Having a very unhappy knee I was intrigued to see what these machines would feel like. You are fitted with a skirt looking thing that is attached to the bicycle. It sounds weird but it makes sense, I’ll come to that. A heart monitor is also fitted to keep track of your heart rate. Then you pick the machine. I liked the sitting one the best but heard on the grapevine that this was not everyone’s favourite. I found it good because I would cycle faster on it and I could read my fashion magazines while cycling, so much better!
The skirt is then attached to the bicycle and you are strapped in from your stomach down. You start cycling and the machine works with positive and negative vacuum while you cycle along for 30 minutes, this targets fat and help reduce cellulite. As I mentioned I preferred this machine but if you have back, shoulder or neck problems the one where you lie down is very good for you. I tried both to alternate the workout.
Then the day came to measure me for the first time, this was half way into my regime. I was Nervous. What if it doesn’t show anything? Will she be able to see I had a treat one of the days?
I had at this time lost 10.5cm across my body, I was so surprised and now I wanted more! The second measurement in to the course told me I’d lost 18cm and the third measurement wasn’t a planned one as I had escaped for a holiday, and funnily enough during this one I hadn’t lost anything! So leaving that steady diet and not doing Hypoxi actually halted my progress.
So when the last day of measurements came I was very nervous, because we had set a goal that we really wanted me to hit and Dajana sees all when it comes to this so you have to be good!
Our goal was for me to loose 25cm across my body and to obviously improve my body stats, I had actually lost 24cm across! We did it! Well by one cm but still, what an amazing result.
Not only do I recommend this because it works magic but I recommend it because I felt comfortable and very supported by Dajana and her team. You don’t feel judged like you can in a gym and it doesn’t put strain on painful joints and back. Plus it helps you find a healthy lifestyle and the body you dream of, and when you’ve met Dajana you will always hear her wonderful voice in your head supporting you with your diet saying “Have you been good?”
I am a convert. Truly amazing.
For more information on HYPOXI Knightsbridge visit their website or email [email protected]
