Fitness Review: Hypoxi at The Urbane Body, Subiaco.

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The Urbane Body clinic is housed in a beautiful converted cottage on Hay St. I met Nirav, who looked after me for my first visit and gave me some forms to fill in (medical history, disclaimers). He asked what I knew of HYPOXI (embarrassingly little) and explained it in simple terms: HYPOXI works by directing vacuum pressure at certain areas of the body, stimulating better circulation and shifting weight from that area.

To do that, HYPOXI consists of a collection of machines, each one designed to “shut off” a portion of the body and create a vacuum around it as you exercise. In my case, because my problem area is my thighs, I was using a machine that encased my body below the waist. And that first session was a little unnerving – the vacuum works in cycles, and thus will ”deflate” and then begin to build again. My later sessions were more comfortable since I knew what to expect.

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Very little was required of me during the session – there is a cycle setup inside the machine, and I was asked to pedal for 30 minutes. I was very dubious about my ability to do so in the first session, but the screen is clearly visible whilst doing your treatment and the idea is not to go all-out into cardio mode (in this case defined as a BPM above 125) but to stay in the 120-125 mode, which while not being lazy, isn’t a gym-workout speed either. I was surprised at how easily you can control your own heart rate – when I was too high I found a single long exhalation of breath was enough to slow it down drastically (I’m rather comforted by this). Also since I was lying down I didn’t find it anywhere near as challenging as I find cycling in general and the pressure vacuum inside the chamber really helps – your legs feel heavy when the pressure empties out.

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I was advised to eat a full meal an hour beforehand, because you cannot eat for 4 hours afterwards. Nirav also recommended eliminating caffeine, since the HYPOXI treats it as a toxin. You should also continue your normal exercise routine alongside the treatments, and considering you must do three HYPOXI sessions a week for the effects to work, I did have trouble fitting this upsurge of exercise in.
You are measured once a week and my results initially were modest. As the month rolled on though they improved, and I ended up losing 22cm (in diameter) combined from my thighs, bum and hips – from twelve sessions, a months worth.

I went to my gym for a fresh assessment afterwards (unrelated – I just needed to get a new one done) and when I was measured there the results were the same. Which is not to cast doubt over The Urbane Body, but to stress that I was also measured by a neutral party. I didn’t really lose any weight over the period – but I’d also had to skip gym sessions to fit all the HYPOXI in. Which is the only issue for me – it’s speedy and effective, but to get the most out of it you need to be additionally exercising regularly, and for anyone working full-time (or even part time) it’s a challenge.

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Ultimately it was an effective process and a pleasant exercise supplement – in beautiful surrounds and attentive staff. I would advise some serious time management if you decided to undertake it, however. I would also consider it an expensive process – but having seen how advanced the machines are, how much space they take up and how much staff monitoring is required – it made sense.

You can look a little closer at the process at The Urbane Body, or the HYPOXI website itself.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the comments section! Any questions?

Review by Suzanne @ Don’t They Know Who I Am?

Be well,

xoxo