This Les Mills GRIT review starts with the truth: for the longest time, GRIT was the class I walked past. I would see the timetable, see those four letters, and quietly decide today was not the day. Everyone in my gym seemed to know something about it that I did not, and what they knew did not look fun. It looked like punishment with a soundtrack.

So this is not a review written from the safety of a press release. This is a real student review, written by a woman over 40 who finally stopped avoiding the class and went in. I want to tell you what GRIT actually feels like, how intense it really is, what the different formats are, and whether it makes any sense once you are past the age where you bounce back from everything by morning.

Quick Verdict

Les Mills GRIT is short, brutal and oddly satisfying. It is 30 minutes of high-intensity work that leaves you breathless and a little proud of yourself. It is one of the harder things on the Les Mills timetable, but the short format makes it mentally doable, and the options mean you can scale it without pretending it is easy. If you already have some training base and you like being challenged, it is fantastic. If you are brand new to group fitness, I would build a bit of confidence elsewhere first and come to GRIT when you are ready to enjoy the suffering.

What Les Mills GRIT Is

GRIT is a 30-minute high-intensity interval training workout. That is the whole premise. Short bursts of very hard effort, short recoveries, repeat until the clock runs out.

It is built to push your cardio fitness, your strength, your speed, your stamina and your athletic conditioning, depending on which version you do. There is no warm-up jog into a gentle build. It starts, it goes hard, and 30 minutes later it is over. That compression is the entire point.

Why I Wanted to Try Les Mills GRIT

Honestly, I wanted to try it because I was scared of it, and I do not love being scared of things in my own gym.

There is a particular feeling when a class has a reputation. People talk about GRIT the way they talk about something they survived. I would finish a calmer class and watch the GRIT crowd come out afterwards, red-faced and grinning in that slightly unhinged way, and a part of me wanted to know what that grin was about. I respected the class too much to just wander in, which is a polite way of saying I avoided it for months.

In the end, I did not talk myself into it. André Godinho did. He was the instructor I started my whole group fitness life with, back when a full studio intimidated me and I would hide at the back getting every step wrong, turning left when the room turned right. He was patient with my endless questions about whether I should add this class or that one, and he kept nudging me towards things I was sure I could not do, GRIT among them. At some point his encouragement outweighed my fear. So I stopped finding reasons not to, booked the class, and showed up.

The Three Types of Les Mills GRIT

One thing that confused me at first is that GRIT is not a single class. There are three formats, and they are genuinely different experiences. It helps to know which one you are walking into.

GRIT Strength

This is weighted HIIT. You work with a barbell, plates or weights, and you move through loaded strength patterns under cardio pressure. Think squats, lunges, clean and press, rows, the big honest movements, except done at a pace that does not let your heart rate settle. It is strength training that refuses to give you a rest between sets, which is exactly as charming as it sounds. If you want to track your loads over time, my Barbell Class Progress Tracker was built for precisely this kind of class.

GRIT Cardio

This one is bodyweight, and it is the lungs version of GRIT. Burpees, mountain climbers, high knees, jumping work, speed and stamina and a lot of moments where you genuinely cannot speak. There are no weights to hide behind here. It is just you, gravity and your own breathing, and it is humbling in a way that weighted work never quite is.

GRIT Athletic

GRIT Athletic is sports conditioning. Agility, power, explosive movements, sometimes using a step. It borrows the feeling of athletic drills, the kind of thing you would do if a coach were trying to make you faster and more powerful rather than just tired. When I have done it, it has meant the step, the bar, plates, knee push-ups, partner work and transitions fast enough that you stop trying to keep score. It has a different flavour to the other two, more bounce and reaction, less grind, and it is the one most likely to leave you flat on the floor at the end.

What a Les Mills GRIT Class Feels Like

From the student side, GRIT feels like being picked up by the scruff of the neck and put down again 30 minutes later.

There is no time to overthink, which I have come to see as a gift. In longer classes my brain has space to negotiate with me, to wonder whether I really need that last round. In GRIT there is no negotiation. The transitions are fast, the instructor energy is loud and relentless, and you are too busy surviving the current interval to dread the next one. You sweat in a way that feels almost theatrical. You hit moments where you are convinced you are done, and then the track changes and somehow you are not done.

And then it ends. That is the part nobody warns you about. One minute you are questioning your life choices, the next you are standing there dripping, heart hammering, with that ridiculous “I survived this” feeling spreading across your face. It is a very cheap and very effective mood shift.

I should also introduce you to the GRIT lady. She is the recorded voice that counts down the final seconds of each block, the one every GRIT regular knows whether they admit it or not. In theory she is there to push you through the last few reps. In practice, I have reached the point where the second she starts counting, I stop. I know, I know. Tactical pause, self-care, call it what you like. She says the numbers, I say no thank you, and we have reached a quiet understanding about it.

My Personal Experience With Les Mills GRIT

One of the classes that stayed with me, in the body and in the head, was GRIT Strength with Cláudia Estrela at Solinca Light Estoril. Cláudia is the kind of instructor who pushes you hard and somehow still makes you feel safe and seen while she does it, which is a rare combination. The music started, the room woke up, and 30 minutes later I was a sweaty, grinning mess who could not stop thinking about when to go back.

GRIT Strength with Rita Calaz taught me a different lesson, the one about ego and weights, except in reverse. I reached for the 5 kg plates and she was the one who nudged me higher, so I swapped to two 10 kg plates and spent the rest of the class regretting nothing except the clean-press-squats, which find a way to make you regret being born. That is the thing about a good instructor. Sometimes they can see what you can actually move before you can, and they are usually right.

Then there is GRIT Cardio, and this is where the circle closes, because my very first GRIT of all was Cardio with André Godinho himself. I was a wreck before it started, properly nervous and a bit frightened, and no amount of him trying to calm me down was going to fix that. The class is intense, there is no pretending otherwise, but he made it so funny that the fear had nowhere to sit. By the end I was exhausted and completely scrambled, like a hurricane had passed through me. I walked out of the studio without my water bottle and only realised much later. But I walked out happy. Properly, ridiculously happy.

I have done GRIT Cardio more than once since, and the lesson holds. Take the weights away and it is just you, gravity and your own engine, and mine always has opinions. The burpees find me out every single time. I have done GRIT Athletic too, the step and bar and plates version with knee push-ups and partner work and transitions so fast you stop trying to keep score. After one of those I ended up flat on the floor afterwards, which I have decided to read as a five-star review.

What actually changed everything was doing GRIT alongside the other intense formats instead of treating it as a scary one-off. I have paired it with RPM on a ladies training day with Maria João Lopes, where I arrived with my energy completely in the red and somehow walked out proud. Maria has a way of building energy that makes you forget how tired you were before the class started, and she basically did the whole GRIT Strength alongside us, which was just amazing. She also gave me a line I have kept ever since: whenever you do not feel like going to the gym, remember the strength it took to show up.

Then there was the RPM and GRIT Cardio day with Pedro Pereiros, which I had to rename Gents Training Day in his honour. It started badly, with soaked washing on the line and a missed Pilates booking, and turned into one of the most memorable sessions I have had. Pedro‘s classes are rich in training and in information, the kind where you leave having learned something, and his GRIT Cardio still genuinely frightens me, which I say with full respect and zero exaggeration. He made the whole morning work.

And I have paired GRIT with Sprint back to back after weeks away from the gym, an “okay, here we go” kind of day, equal parts excitement and fear, because these two do not ease you back in gently. The combinations are where GRIT stopped being a class I feared and became part of how I train.

What it improved for me is easy to list, because I felt each one arrive. My stamina got noticeably better. My confidence with intense training went up, the kind where you stop flinching at the hard classes on the timetable. My legs and core got stronger. My tolerance for discomfort grew, and that one leaked out into the rest of my life in a good way. I walk out sharper than I walk in. And mostly, I came away with more respect for what my body can still do, which after 40 is not a small thing to be handed twice a week.

How Hard Is Les Mills GRIT?

It is one of the hardest formats Les Mills makes. I am not going to soften that, because the soft version would be a lie and you would find out in track two anyway.

But here is the part that saved me. The 30-minute structure makes it mentally manageable in a way longer hard classes are not. You are never more than half an hour from the end, and your brain can hold onto that. The intensity is real, but it is finite and visible.

The other thing that matters is options. Every move has a version you can scale, and using them is not failure, it is intelligence. You can take the impact down, lighten the load, shorten your range, and still get a genuine workout. GRIT is hard. It does not have to be reckless.

Who Les Mills GRIT Is Good For

GRIT is brilliant for people who like short, intense workouts and do not want to spend an hour getting there. If you want cardio and strength packed into less time, this is one of the most efficient things on the timetable. It suits people who enjoy being challenged and who already have some kind of training base to stand on.

For women over 40 specifically, I think it is excellent, and I say that as one. It builds cardio fitness, strength, stamina and a particular kind of confidence that comes from doing hard things on purpose. Whether it works well for you depends on honest variables: your current fitness level, how well you recover, how your joints feel, and whether you are willing to use options without your ego getting involved. That last one is the real gatekeeper, not your age.

On the beginner question, I will be straight with you. It is possible to do GRIT as a relative beginner with good options and a switched-on instructor, but it is not the class I would choose to start your group fitness life with. If you are new, you will probably enjoy GRIT far more after building a base in something like Body Pump, Les Mills Core or Body Balance first. Come to GRIT when you want it, not to prove something.

Is Les Mills GRIT Good for Weight Loss?

GRIT can support weight loss, but I want to be careful with that word “support”, because it is doing real work in that sentence.

The class is intense and it builds fitness, strength and stamina, and that combination is genuinely useful if losing weight is one of your goals. What it will not do is override everything else. Results come from consistency over weeks, from recovering properly, from sleep and food and the unglamorous rest of your life. GRIT can be a strong, regular part of that picture. It is not a shortcut, and anyone selling it as one is selling you something.

Equipment Used in Les Mills GRIT

You do not need much, which is part of the appeal. A water bottle, because you will want it. A towel, because you will need it. Supportive shoes, which matter more in the jumping formats than people expect. A mat if your gym uses them for floor work.

For GRIT Strength you will also use a barbell, plates or weights, set up before the class starts so you are not scrambling. Some GRIT Athletic formats use a step. Everything else is just you.

My Best Tips for Your First Les Mills GRIT Class

Start with options. There is no prize for going full intensity on day one, and plenty of regret available if you do. Use lighter weights than you think you need, especially in Strength, because the pace does the rest. Focus on form over speed, since sloppy fast reps are how people get hurt.

Do not compare yourself to the person next to you. They have probably been doing this for two years and they were also dying quietly on their first day. Expect to be breathless, properly breathless, and let that be normal rather than alarming. And come back a second time before you judge the class. Your first GRIT is mostly shock. The second one is when you actually meet it.

My Final Thoughts

GRIT is intense, short, demanding and strangely satisfying, and I went from avoiding it to defending it to people who give me the same nervous look I used to give the timetable.

It is not the class I reach for on a calm, slow day when I want to feel soothed. It asks too much for that. But when I want to walk out feeling strong, capable and a little bit proud of myself in only 30 minutes, very little beats it. I avoided it for months over nothing. The only thing on the other side of that fear was a really good workout and a grin I did not expect.

So, are you still walking past GRIT on the timetable, or is this the week you finally book the class?

Explore More Fitness Modalities

If you are exploring GRIT because you want to understand where it fits inside the Les Mills world, the best next step is to compare it with real class experiences, not just descriptions.

For a calmer contrast, you can read my Body Balance review or my Les Mills Core review. If you want something more athletic and high-energy, my BodyAttack review gives a very different kind of cardio experience. And if you are curious about short, intense training days, my Sprint with Pedro Pereiros review is a good one to read next.

You can also browse the Fitness Modalities hub as I continue building this section, and if you want to keep track of your own classes, my free Group Fitness Class Tracker can help you see your progress instead of guessing from memory.