Hands up if you’ve been obsessed with this year’s Olympic Games. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve spent way too many hours glued to the coverage, screaming expletives at my TV and becoming a regular armchair expert in sports I previously had no clue about. Like many TikTok users, I’ve also adopted the #delulu mindset of thinking I could probably do that as I lie horizontal on my sofa, eating crisps while watching athletes like Simone Biles and Bryony Page perform at the top of their game.

So, when I got invited to try a breaking (more commonly known as breakdancing) class to mark the sport’s debut at the Paris Games, I had no excuse not to get involved. How hard could it be?

While breakdancing might look like a breeze to the untrained eye, don’t be fooled by the nonchalant flair of the pro B-girls (the term for women who breakdance) competing in Paris. As I soon found out, those gravity-defying moves and slick spins take a serious amount of strength and stamina.  

With its roots in hip hop culture, breaking is a dynamic dance-battle discipline that’s known for its creative footwork and artistic acrobatics. First originating in The Bronx during the late 60s and early 70s, it’s since grown into a mainstream lifestyle movement and athletic discipline in its own right. You only need to glance at the kinds of routines that first-time Olympians India Sardjoe and Roxy Milliner are able to perform to see just how physically demanding this sport can be.

As with all the sports on show in Paris, we’re watching the finest athletes perform the hardest and most impressive routines and tricks. But everyday breakdancing classes vary in format and intensity, depending on whether you opt to learn directly from a local crew or at a fitness studio. 

I headed to Gymbox in Victoria to try out its new beginner’s breaking class, which combines elements of the sport with a fitness slant and is designed to help you learn the basic movements while building rock-solid cardio endurance and full-body muscle tone. 

My instructor Amber Williams – aka B-girl Ambush – is a full-time breakdancer who has been competing in the sport since the age of 13. After a quick warm-up stretch, she runs us through some breakdancing terminology and demonstrates a couple of basic steps. Practically all breaking routines begin on your feet with a move called the top rock, which involves rapidly crossing one foot in front of the other. The hard part comes when you try to make the move look fluid, swinging your arms and hips to add your own unique flair to the dance.

The class format is fairly straightforward: we learn each movement at a slowed-down pace, walking through the foot placement to build our confidence. Next, we speed everything up to hip hop music, repetitively drilling through each bit of choreography for 45 seconds with a 30-second breather in between. 

As well as simple movements like the salsa step, we also attempt a couple of get downs (movements that involve hitting the floor) and the torturously difficult three-step, a sequence involving rapid-fire kick-throughs between holding a spicy plank on all-fours. 

Breaking isn’t just about looking stylish; all those holds, freezes, windmills and footwork movements create a full-body workout that engages all the major muscle groups, including the legs, glutes, core, arms and shoulders.

Physically, Williams says you can expect to build excellent cardio endurance, hone better flexibility and pack on lean muscle across the entire body. “By taking our weight through our arms, breakers rely on good upper-body muscular strength, but [breaking is] a full-body effort with a focus on explosive plyometric training that uses bodyweight as resistance,” she explains.

She adds that it’s a great way to test (and humble) your mental and physical fitness. “Many people work out by going to the gym and lifting weights, but breaking challenges your mental agility as well as your physical strength and endurance.”

As someone with two left feet, I can attest to this. The complex footwork involved in even the most basic of breakdancing routines take serious concentration and brain power; it’s not just about getting the steps right but trying to out-manoeuvre your opponent. For this reason, it’s a very mindful practice. “It’s a sport, but it’s also an art form, so it scratches that itch of creativity within music and movement, which can be a really powerful thing for people who don’t have a creative outlet elsewhere,” says Williams. 

Entering the ‘cypher’ – the competitive breaking circle – can be an intimidating experience for newbies, but it can ultimately benefit other areas of your life. “Confidence, self-discipline, knowing how to hold yourself in a room, reading a room… there are so many skills you can learn from breaking,” says Williams. “In battles, you’re going to win and you’re going to lose, so you quickly get comfortable with the idea of failure too.” 

I won’t sugarcoat it: breaking is seriously tough stuff. Aside from the mental challenge of remembering the complicated footwork, the toughest element is keeping up with the tempo as you puff through non-stop dance drills. Think of it like calisthenics on steroids.

One of the hardest sections of the class involves practising high-speed ‘spin downs’, a move that requires pistol squatting your entire body weight on one leg while effortlessly sliding the other in front of you and then springing back to your feet again from a squat position. Try doing that for three rounds of 45 seconds and you’ll understand why I struggled to walk for days after this class.

All that being said, it’s exhilarating. The great thing about breaking is that it’s a very welcoming space and Williams is a patient teacher who meets everyone at their level. Even when I could only hit one out of every four steps, I never felt discouraged. Instead, those rare moments when I could stay on the beat felt all the more satisfying. 

Despite looking a bit like David Brent, I had an absolute blast. The 45-minute class flew by and the cardio element was sweaty enough to rival even the toughest boutique HIIT classes.

If you’re keen to get involved, Gymbox runs beginner classes across London, while the website UK Breakin has a directory where you can search for local sessions across the UK. Or, if you’d prefer one-on-one lessons, the freelance tutor platform Superprof is a handy resource for finding qualified teachers.

“Breaking can be pretty intimidating as an outsider, so I’d recommend signing up with a friend if you need an extra bit of assurance,” says Williams. “It’s not one of those fitness skills that you can learn overnight and it’s totally normal to train for months to learn certain moves. But if you can sit in that discomfort and learn to enjoy being a beginner, you’ll start to make progress before you even know it.” 

Images: author’s own