Nike Zoom

I love a good NTC session. Last week I was invited over to a beautiful studio in Marylebone by Nike Women to take part in a special NTC session with Barry’s Bootcamp babe Anya Lahiri. We were there to test out the new Nike Zoom shoe, as well as the new drills pack in the NTC app.

When we arrived we were kindly kitted out in Nike training kit and a shiny new pair of Nike Zooms in the king of all Nike colours - volt. Some lovely Ekins chatted to us about the design of Nike Women’s latest training shoe - the sole contains strategically positioned hexagonal pockets of air for cushioning in the sole (not all over, you’d wobble all the way to the gym) as well as a firm ‘wedge’ in the inside of each heel to provide added support during explosive workouts (ski jumps, I am looking at you).

The individual air pockets allow the shoe to flex in multiple directions, which a solid air pocket wouldn’t be able to do. The Nike Zoom also has a ‘sock’ built in to the shoe so that your feet don’t rub on the material of the outer shoe, which is quite structured. It’s all, as you’d expect, very well thought through! You can read all about the full range of features over on the Nike website.

After the chat with the Ekins, we got down to business.

Having been through a Barry’s Bootcamp class under Anya’s command before, I knew what we were in for. After an explosive workout we went through several rounds of body weight exercises, super setting different body parts and working with partners to really push ourselves. I think the toughest moment was a round (I think it was a minute) where your partner held your legs in the wheelbarrow position; you’d do a push-up and they’d do a squat. Then you’d swap. PHEW I was glad when that bad boy was over.

I linked up with the beautiful Faya from Fitness on Toast, and totally felt like I was squashing her when I did tricep dips on her knees while she held a wall squat.

The NTC drills routine was awesome and pretty hard work. The workout is based on explosive movements such as ski jumps and mountain climbers (classic NTC favourite) and is pretty relentless. I believe the NTC workouts come in bitesize 15 minute chunks, which is pretty manageable, so I reckon they’re a great way to improve your fitness dramatically over a short period of time. If you don’t have the NTC (Nike Training Club!) app… where have you been?!

The shoes felt quite comfortable for working out in and I definitely felt the benefit of the added air cushions - they felt very soft and cloud like! During the class I felt the sock slipping off the back of my heels slightly and thought it might be that I didn’t have them done up tight enough, but the main material of the shoes is quite stiff and when I next came to use them I found it difficult to tie them up much tighter. Due to the stiff material they also rubbed a bit on my toes as I have quite wide feet - I guess time will tell whether they loosen up a bit! I shouldn’t think this will be a problem if you don’t have wide feet though (mine are pretty much square, I swear).

Thanks so much to Nike for having me, putting on such a lovely class and for the beautiful kit! All opinions are, as always, my own.