When it comes to exercise, I’m a fan of the spectator sport…or the slow lane. My brain hasn’t matured beyond school games lessons, where some poor teacher had to persuade a gaggle of resistant 14-year olds into competitive movement. Yes therapists, I’m psychologically stuck in a cold January field circa 1985, wondering what caused those educators such anger they wanted us to run cross-country, in zero degree Winter, wearing what could only be described as big pants.
Walking – now that doesn’t feel like exercise. Choose your own soundtrack, and your own landscape = win. Last year’s I Love West Leeds Festival held a brilliant space-hopper exercise class. Hard work, but disguised as fun. I would cheerfully do that every week.
In other words, this lazy lass needs to be tricked into believing that physical exertion is about more than the unarguable health benefits or reducing the land-mass of my buttocks. If there was an exercise class at Leeds Art Gallery, where you could jog about in front of Bridget Riley’s stripes, while the instructor distracted us with cheerful anecdotes about her work – I’d be in! Jumping about with no other goal than the pursuit of a body that refuses to wobble seems dull and pointless. Ideally, exercise would also involve eating cake or absorbing a nice pint. Darts maybe?
Am I alone? Are the rest of you skipping out of bed at 5am to run 10 miles, and scaling Bridgewater Place in your lunch-break?
In an attempt to adopt more regular exercise beyond lifting a fork to my mouth, I’m back from a session sweating publicly in the steam room at Bramley Baths, and a free swim (style=fly in glass of water).
Bramley Baths is without doubt one of Leeds’ hidden gems. Swimming there is a little like watching a film at Hyde Park Picture House – you soak up the history and the architecture as much as the film. Bramley’s Edwardian bath-house is easy to find, the huge chimney on Broad Lane gives it away. Built in 1904, it houses a 25 metre pool, gym and plenty of original features. The oak ticket office with leaded glass windows needs to be seen to be believed, and it’s reported that an American collector tried to buy it from the building some years back. The poolside is surrounded by wooden changing cubicles. Think – colourful tiles, lots of ornate steel and wood, a spectators’ balcony, a huge glass roof and masses of natural light.
The Russian Steam Room at Bramley is straightforward and utilitarian in contrast. The idea’s pretty simple. You steam up, sweat, cool down in the shower or jump in the pool, and then go back for more. According to the experts, you generally sweat for about 10 minutes at a time, cool down, and continue the cycle about 5 times. I’m now convinced that ten sedentary minutes in that room produces more sweat than 30 minutes on a rowing machine (am I missing the point…?)
The custom of visiting a Russian bathhouse, or bania makes for more palatable reading than a detailed account of me sweating in a contained space, so look away here instead. It sounds like banias were all the rage until Peter the Great introduced a tax to try and moderate the behaviour, sex and drinking that was prevalent at many private household banias. Killjoy! He failed, the hedonists ruled. But don’t panic, the only impurities seeping out of Bramley’s bania are skin-deep.
It’s a really pleasant experience – the building, the pool, the sweating…. And for the active-averse like me, keep this piece of excellent advice in mind from Russian-bath.com: ‘The steam room is not the best place for vigorous exercises.’
….And relax.
Bramley Baths is at Broad Lane, Leeds, LS13 3DF Tel: 0113 214 6000
Open for swimming 8am-9.15pm Mon-Fri. 8.30am-3.45pm Sat. 10am-8pm Sun.
Steam Room open daily, for times visit www.leeds.gov.uk
£3.90 for adult swim.
Steam Room £6.40 including swim.
Under 16 and over 60s can Swim4Free. See website for details.
Thankyou had no idea they had a steamroom. My partner recently repaired the leaded lights in the ticket office and took heaps of photos of the windows. There is THE most amazing deco style design on the main leaded window of the baths. Now I’ve heard about this steam room I’m def making time for a visit 🙂
Morley used to have a similar style public bathhouse that was sadly pulled down, I believe bramley is the only remaining example of it’s time remaining in Leeds.