David Lloyd Leisure Launches Olympics-inspired Volleybody

LONDON, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

David Lloyd Leisure, Europe's premier health, sports and leisure group, is the first major UK health and fitness operator to bring Volleybody to its members, a new high-intensity fitness programme inspired by the regimes of the world's best volleyball players.

Founded on the scientific training principles of professional beach volleyball athletes, Volleybody was conceived following the London Games in 2012 and inspired by both the energy of the sport and the athletes' incredible physiques.

Aimed at people with good levels of fitness, the programme has been devised by the British Beach Volleyball strength and conditioning coach, Kate Eddy, and the London 2012 Olympic team themselves - Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin.

Volleybody founder and managing director, Katie Taylor, commented: "We realised there must be a way of taking the top volleyball players' training programme and creating a version for the average woman and Volleybody does just that.

"We are thrilled to be launching Volleybody exclusively to David Lloyd Leisure members. This is a completely unique class which will help everybody achieve a volley body in time for summer."

In an exclusive partnership with David Lloyd Leisure, Volleybody classes will soon be available to members at David Lloyd Leisure clubs in Kensington, Farnham, Milton Keynes, Raynes Park, Fulham and Chigwell, with a wider roll-out planned later in 2013.

Rob Beale, David Lloyd Leisure's head of sports, health and fitness, commented: "We are always looking for new innovative classes for our members and I am delighted to launch Volleybody. It's a fun, enjoyable way to up your fitness and tone up in time for the revealing summer months."

Volleybody is designed for women and men who already exercise but are looking for a new advanced fitness challenge.

It is an hour-long, sports-based fitness class which takes inspiration from three core moves during a beach volleyball game - defending, hitting and blocking a ball. Performed to music, the class uses a number of pieces of simple equipment, such as medicine balls and resistance tubes that are used with a partner throughout the class. 

The class starts with a functional warm-up featuring skipping and sprinting drills, followed by three 'blocks' which use common exercises such as squats, lunges and pop-ups to replicate the moves within beach volleyball. The class ends with a high-intensity finisher where all the moves are put together in one high-energy super-set and concludes with a cool-down and stretches.

About David Lloyd Leisure Group

The David Lloyd Leisure Group operates 81 clubs in the UK and a further 10 clubs across Europe. It has over 440,000 members and employs 6,000 people. This includes an expert health and fitness team of over 1,800, while it contracts the services of more than 400 tennis professionals. Across all clubs, David Lloyd Leisure has over 150 swimming pools (of which half are indoor) and offers over 10,000 exercise classes per week. Every week 20,000 children learn to swim at David Lloyd Leisure and 14,000 learn to play tennis. Its racquets facilities are unparalleled with 700 racquets as well as 180 badminton courts and 140 squash courts. Additional facilities include health and beauty spas, club lounges with free Internet access, crèches, nurseries and specialist sports shops.

Note to editors: For further information about this press release and to try out Volleybody at one of the selected launch David Lloyd clubs, contact the David Lloyd Leisure press office on +44(0)1707-289833/4 or email press@davidlloyd.co.uk.