Class Review: Monkey Feet

7th May

You’d be forgiven for thinking Monkey Feet is all about primal movement or dance, but this new class offering is a lower body workout that promises to help you build the booty of your dreams with the help of some unique equipment.

Intrigued and up for a challenge, I arrived at Victoria Gymbox open-minded and excited to try something new.

Our instructor explained that the class is based around EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) workouts, with each EMOM a mixture of barbell, dumbbell and ‘Monkey Feet’ exercises.

So on to the Monkey Feet. What exactly are they?

At first glance, I struggled to see how the hell I would get this contraption on my foot. Reminiscent of Iron Man, these clip-on shoes go on top of your trainers like some kind of armor. With a clip on the back, you can attach a dumbbell or small plate so that your foot becomes weighed down, making any movement you do infinitely harder.

Thankfully, the shoe wasn’t as confusing as it first looked. After a demonstration, I was able to strap myself in and get the hang of it.

Our first EMOM was barbell sumo deadlifts, followed by Monkey Feet kickbacks and banded fire hydrants. It was nice to do a mixture of both barbell lifts and other accessory movements, especially with the Monkey Feet adding some weight to the kickbacks. Though for me personally, I found that the Monkey Feet wobbled around a bit on my ankles, which made the exercise a lot more difficult. I think this was partly to do with my choice of shoe as I was wearing Metcons with a slight platform in the back.

The good news is that no one is forcing you to wear the Monkey Feet, so if you want to do a different version of the exercise without it, you can easily take them off and do that.

For our next EMOM we moved on to dumbbell lunges, Monkey Feet standing knee raises and dumbbell hip thrusts. At this point, I was feeling a nice burn which the dumbbell lunges made infinitely worse.

Having clipped my Monkey Feet back on, we moved onto the standing knee raises. The Monkey Feet worked well for this move, especially when moving at a slow pace. I’d attached a 5kg weight to mine and after a while I could really feel it in my glutes.

We finished off with our dumbbell hip thrusts and at this point my bum was truly on fire. I was glad to lie back on the astro turf and take a well deserved rest.

I really like that this class is structured around EMOM workouts and has such a diverse range of exercises. While I found the Monkey Feet a bit awkward for kickbacks, they worked well for the knee raises and would be good for other standing exercises.

Overall, Monkey Feet is a solid lower body workout and one you should definitely try out if you’re looking for a fun, new way to spice up your gym routine.

Monkey Feet runs until the end of June. Book via the Gymbox App.