‘Discobarre’ on your doorstep? Join one of London's neighbourhood gyms

Exercise is unpleasant, therefore it cannot be inconvenient. If your gym, class or pitch is not next to your office or home, or somewhere between the two, you will not go. Instead you will pay for your gym, class or pitch and feel furious: you are profligate, as well as lazy, You’re also a bit fat.

Cut yourself a little slack — it’s January and those pounds will drop off if you just commit to your promise to consume only liquids for three days. Additionally, find a neighbourhood studio so that when you’re puffing back from the shop with a grab-bag of salt-and-vinegar Walkers and a packet of Jaffa Cakes (liquid diet failed), you’ll spot it and remember that you’re profligate, lazy and a bit fat, and should remedy that with a boxfit class in the morning.

There are rich pickings in east London. London Fields Fitness Studio (379 Mentmore Terrace, E8, londonfieldsfitness.com) runs drop-in and pay-as-you-go sessions, including circuit training, boxing classes, martial arts, boot camps and yoga classes. It has a spin studio and in-house personal trainers — the first session is free. A £20 class pass grants access to 80 sessions in a month. It’s beside London Fields; once you’ve thrashed across an exercise studio, you can shuffle to Broadway Market for a pint like a normal person.

Nearby there’s The Refinery (14 Collent Street, E9, therefinerye9.com), which runs yoga, Pilates and exuberant cardio classes. The studio takes one of those holistic approaches that are so trendy: it hosts regular workshops — those upcoming include a “free your spine workshop” (“delivering accessible movement sequences which will wake up the body’s innate way of moving”) and “gong bath meditation session” (to help one burn up their emotional history and karmic blockages).

Last, there’s Blok, which is opening in a disused Victorian tram depot in Clapton on February 1 (The Tram Depot, 38-40 Upper Clapton Road, E5, bloklondon.com). Founders Ed Stanbury and Max Oppenheim were astonished by the size of the space; as well as a gym there will be a gallery, lighting installation and café. It’s peak Hackney — thus you will love it, and the exposed brick walls, high concrete ceilings and tramlines (again, PEAK HACKNEY) will look marvellous on Instagram.

Blok will offer boxing, strength and conditioning classes, HIIT, yoga, barre and Pilates. The team is devising “workshops and retreats” and the on-site café will offer bone broth, Square Mile Coffee and juices.

There are also options outside east London (don’t tell the millennials). Pop Brixton runs “discobarre”, Pilates and the martial art capoeira from its fitness studio inside one the shipping containers that comprise the pop-up (49 Brixton Station Road, SW9, popbrixton.org). Classes tend to take place on Mondays, though they are expanding the programme. And out west in Acton there’s Yoga West, which opened recently and is the first studio by the team at YogaAt (Yoga West, 33-34 Westpoint, Warple Way, W3, yogaat.com). Drop in and attend a class; there are beginners’ options available.

There goes the neighbourhood — sprinting to the gym. All the more Walkers for you.

Follow Phoebe on Twitter: @phoebeluckhurst