Partner-Pistol-Squat

I travel a lot, for both work and play, and last December, I couldn't resist a sweet offer to attend a chocolate festival in London with some friends. As is advisable when one centers an entire trip around decadence, I also took the opportunity to arrange several workouts over the long weekend. "What are the best gyms in London?" I posted on Facebook, looking for ideas. I have a large network of fitness-oriented friends, and I was depending on them for solid suggestions. Over and over, the name of one gym came up: "The Commando Temple, best gym in London, bar none." Their operations manager, Sumayyah Shalchi (who is also a champion strongman competitor), reached out to me, extending an invitation to their partner-oriented conditioning class: "I must warn you: It's the toughest class we do. You'll come out the other side feeling incredible, though." She was right on both counts. Afterward, I was satisfyingly spent, but the built-in mobility drills and the relatively light loads allowed me to bounce back quickly.

The Commando Temple shines in a number of strength disciplines, from strongman to powerlifting to kettlebell training to military fitness, but it's almost impossible to believe how tough and effective their calisthenics classes are, and those require bodyweight alone. Within minutes of arriving, I was hurling myself to the matted floor and getting back up according to increasingly elaborate instructions (you'll see what I mean soon enough) and straight-up wrestling with complete strangers of both genders. At one point, gym founder and head instructor Rob Blair looked at me and said, "Do you have…gum in your mouth?" You learn the rules of the house quickly, and it's not a stretch to imagine that part of the reason for the establishment's reputation is this rigor and attention to every detail.

Blair designed the partner bodyweight workout in the following article I wrote for Experience Life Magazine, and it's very much like the first part the one I did during my visit (so you're in for it in the best possible way).

Head thataway for the full workout: