Meet The Queen Of HIIT & 612 Fitness
Heidi Baker is the queen of the HIIT workout and 612 Fitness. She can do more with a half hour class than most instructors can do with an hour.
There are times when you are silently cursing her in your head when you’re in the midst of the class. (The classes featuring the track Flowers by Moby specifically come to mind.) But the second the class is over, you have this amazing buzz. A sense of accomplishment that makes you want to do it all over again.
My Experience With 612 Fitness
I first started attending Heidi’s classes back in 2016 at Gresham’s Fitness and Leisure. I have been through spin classes, HIIT classes and the occasional outdoor boot camp class. In mid-2020, she set up her fitness studio, 612 Fitness, found on the beautiful grounds of the Country Park at Cretingham (just a few miles outside of Framlingham).
Over a short period, the offerings from the studio have increased. You can take a Spin class, work out some frustration in Boxercise, chill out with Pilates, or push yourself in a shorter period with HIIT.
Along with the classes, personal training is offered, as well as sports massage treatments. For the parents out there, it is worth taking a look at 612 Mumma Fitness & Wellbeing. This means you can try out a class that the kids can come along to and get the benefit of pre and post-natal fitness and wellbeing advice and support.
Heidi On Being A Business Owner
Heidi was kind enough to answer some questions about being a business owner. She has also offered some fitness advice. Making this a must-read if you’re looking to level up your fitness this post-lockdown summer.
Before founding 612 Fitness, you were teaching classes for other fitness institutions. Was it always your long-term goal to run your studio?
My long-term goal was always to set up my own “studio” or base to personal train and run the classes that I love teaching from. However, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to do it so soon and at such a tricky time (Thanks COVID!). Nevertheless, I am still very much in the community training clients and offering sports massage in their own homes.
How did you adapt your business during lockdown?
As best I could along with the changing guidelines, from going online with personal training and fitness classes to working with small groups as and when this was allowed. I also offered online nutritional support and kept trying to motivate and inspire clients with monthly challenges. For me, online classes filled a void when we couldn’t train in person. But I was so glad to get back to face to face classes. It’s my happy place.
What is your favourite thing about being a business owner?
For me as a business owner, my favourite thing is seeing how my ideas, knowledge and hard work positively benefit, motivate, support and inspire my clients. And being a small business, I get to directly see that.
Fitness & Wellbeing For Mummas With 612 Fitness
Tell us a bit more about 612 Mumma Fitness & Wellbeing and where the inspiration for that arm of the business came from.
612 Mumma Fitness is a special one for me. I have always been an incredibly active person and I continued this through my pregnancy. (I was meant to PT a client the day I had my daughter, Eliza). Having an emergency C-section completely floored my fitness and having to spend 6 weeks quite reliant on others (as you’re not mean to pick up anything heavier than your baby) was a whole new experience for me. Not to mention not being able to do any form of higher intensity exercise for 3 months, I found myself fighting off the urge to go to quite a dark place. (Mental health concerns that I have been lucky enough to never experience up until then.) But going through this opened up a whole new perspective to health, fitness & wellbeing that I hadn’t previously considered.
And although as a new mum you may be surrounded by visitors, it can be an incredibly isolating place to be, and the mental health implications of this are huge. So, I wanted to do something about this. I wanted to encourage a safe, healthy and active pregnancy (as the benefits are endless).
I wanted to create a safe place where postnatal women could come together and feel supported by other mums, while safely rebuilding their fitness & wellbeing. It’s something I became incredibly passionate and protective of and so 612 Mumma Fitness and Well-being was born.
You teach a variety of different classes. What is your favourite type of class to teach?
Anything high energy where you can have fun, make people smile and bring out a bit of personality.
Heidi Says Keep It Moving
If you had to recommend just one exercise move that gives you the most bang for your buck, what exercise should we all be attempting to include in our lives?
Hmm, I don’t know about a single exercise but one piece of exercise advice I would give is to MOVE. How you want to do that is completely up to you, even if it’s just to get off your bum every hour to do a lap of the room. By simply making a conscious effort to move more you will be amazed by the physical and mental benefits.
What advice would give to anyone who wants to start their fitness journey, but isn’t sure on how to take those first steps?
Reach out to your local fitness instructor or personal trainer. Be open about what you want to achieve from your fitness journey and any barriers that are currently stopping you from doing this. The most common barrier I hear from clients that are new to fitness classes is that they are nervous about exercising in a group setting. I get it, it can be daunting. It’s comforting to know that every single client that has said this to me finishes their first class smiling and full of confidence. Find a supportive class setting – you will make friends for life.
Milestones Are More Meaningful After Motherhood
And finally, what is one personal fitness goal you have achieved that you’re proud of?
I’m proud of myself every time I finish a half-marathon with a smile on my face. Running long distance again after having a c-section was HARD. I struggled mentally and physically having the naive expectation of just being about the spring back into a 13-mile distance. I think after experiencing this struggle, completing each long-distance run means just that little bit more. The Barcelona half-marathon just before COVID was particularly special.
Book A Class
If you’re interested in trying out a class for yourself, check out the 612 Fitness class schedule here.
Want to do more in Suffolk? Check out our other recommendations.