Blogger & Influencer Heather Gardner Opens Up Her Own Studio – Tribe Fitness

Tribe Fitness opens up in downtown Toronto

You know one of the co-founders behind Tribe Fitness. Heather Gardner – along with Mark Gardner – opened the fitness space at the end of 2017. If you are into fitness in the Toronto area, you just might recognize her as the blogger who was behind runsoulcycle.com (she was the Grand Prize Winner in the Best Health Blogger Awards in 2013), as a New Balance ambassador, and the leader from the pop-up running and yoga workouts as Tribe Fitness. And now with a spacious studio (actually it’s more like studios, as Tribe offers both a spinning studio and yoga studio), those outdoor classes now have a home.

What not to expect

• A big gym mentality. Despite being larger than a typical yoga studio in the city, you still get that intimate experience. Right when you walk in, you can share your #goals on a Tribe Fitness postcard
• A women’s-only experience. From the gender-neutral change rooms and washrooms to the two out of the 11 instructors being male, the Tribe Fitness experience is about the training and treating body, not being too trendy or frilly. Although that said, there is not a corner of the space that is not Instagram-worthy.
• A small offering of classes. Open seven days a week, with a solid list of classes, Tribe Fitness offers a 360-degree offering to fitness. There are six types of yoga classes, four types of cycling classes, and two running groups (5K and a 10K, the latter is followed by brunch). And that’s not it. There are also two workshops: Learn To Run 10 Week Series and a Baby And Me 5 Week Series.

Did you know that what you eat can affect how much you feel like working out? Heather offers her tips here.

What to expect

• Classes for all levels. Despite a trend in Toronto for overly intense workouts that aren’t beginner friendly, Tribe Fitness takes us back to when solid instruction mattered. Heather is the most clear instructor I’ve ever trained with. At the CycleCore class, Heather outlined the entire workout before we even started spinning the wheels, and prepped us two moves beforehand. It was easy to follow along, and the exertion level you need to be training at was defined multiple times throughout the class. Instruction is frank and easily understood. I never once had to look around to see what anyone else was doing.
• A good, hard workout. Heather and her staff are trained professionals and they’re not into gimmicks. And you can tell when you take class. No dancing in your spin class. (Although the bikes had enough space – unlike the other squishy studios that do do the stand-up crunches and side leans.) And with the long reps, my abs were screaming in the core portion of the class. You can also get your cycling stats emailed to you.
• A studio environment. You still get that intimacy and that one-on-one approach that you would get at most studios. Heather is so passionate about running, yoga and cycling that she turned a blog into a full fitness facility and wellness space.

You can register for any of the running, yoga and cycling classes at tribefitness.ca. If you take a class at Tribe Fitness, or any other new fitness class, let us know what you think on our besthealthmag.ca Facebook page.

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