How Virgin Red and Virgin Active kicked 2022 into high gear

When the dawn of a new year looms the pressure to do that thing you’ve always wanted grows. But even as people step away from restrictive resolutions often destined to fail and instead choose to improve themselves all year round, a YouGov poll showed that exercise and improving fitness is something many people - 49% of men and 51% of women - are always striving to do, and we at Virgin Red, the new rewards club from Virgin, are here to help. 

Did you know that while your precious Virgin Points can be spent on anything from sweet treats and luxurious trips you can also nab a Virgin Active membership? For 13,500 Virgin Points you get a Virgin Active Online+ annual membership, accessible via a handy app where you can jump into on-demand workout wherever you are, tailor your workout with My Plan, and choose an Activist to workout with.

As if that wasn’t enough, with an Online+ membership you can visit any club in the UK (except Chiswick Riverside) up to four times throughout the year and check out some of the most popular classes including yoga, grid training, pilates, boxing, and cycle.

But in order to show our members how it all works, we got together with our friends at Virgin Active and organised a takeover to give you the tools with which to take that tentative first step to improved fitness and feeling good. 

Virgin Active

First up we chatted to Nick Parkes, a grid training Activist who let us know that even small changes can make a big difference. 

​​“Everyone's life is different,” he says. “Parents of young children, for example, might only be able to work out for half an hour at a time. Maybe you only have 10 minutes and that’s OK, too – it’s just about trying to move. Find what time you can for fitness to begin with, then you'll naturally make room for it more and more – as it becomes a bigger part of your life.”

You can find out more from Nick here.

After receiving tips on how to find motivation and change the attitude towards working out, it was time to hear from another Virgin Activist. Tom McClelland is the UK Head of Athletic Training and took some time to chat to our followers over on Instagram. 

He discussed the Online+ membership; how to access it (on the app), why it’s easy to find something (hundreds of on-demand classes from dance and bodyweight to yoga and weights), and very importantly, why people tend to give up before the month is out. “Go and start small. It doesn’t have to be all-out. That’s a big, key thing for January; a lot of people get into January and go really hard and then they start to go down before the end. I always say you want to find something you can maintain and keep progressing.”

But the main thing to remember? “Find something that you enjoy. If you’re not enjoying the workout you’re doing, then find something different. You should never dread a workout.” You can find Tom’s IG Q&A over on our Instagram feed and follow Virgin Active UK here.

After all the tips and info on how to get your Virgin Active Online+ membership, it was only right to give you a taste of what an online class is like. We enlisted the help of Virgin Activists SJ and Kyle to give us a 30 minute WFH (workout from home). The pulsating class started with easy steps which linked together to become a fun routine perfect to get your blood-pumping in the middle of a work day. 

If you enjoyed that class and want to try more, grab yourself an annual membership for 13,500 Virgin Points and enjoy the hundreds of new workouts added to the app each week.  Find out more about Virgin Red, the new rewards club from Virgin, right here.