Abu Dhabi’s MProve Fitness packs style and substance

A warehouse workout space, MProve Fitness covers 15,000 square feet and will soon include a cafe and barber’s shop. Christopher Pike / The National

In travelling the world as an Etihad Airways pilot, Mohammed Al Tamimi has been able to see exactly what he wants in a workout space. He took the best of all those international sweat sessions and put them into his two-year labour of love, the newly opened 15,000-square-foot MProve Fitness. Abu Dhabi’s first warehouse fitness space offers CrossFit, jiu-jitsu, boxing, muay thai boxing, yoga, Pilates, gymnastics, call­isthenics, personal training and all the amenities of a regular gym. The 32-year-old had three partners when he opened Abu Dhabi’s first CrossFit “box” in 2013, but is going at it alone on this one, having recently closed Code M CrossFit to make way for MProve. “It’s my dream,” he says. Here are a few highlights:

The staff

So far he has hired 12 people from 12 countries to staff MProve – all of them suitably ripped for the job. In case there was any doubt, at Tuesday’s launch, Jonathan Laxon, MProve’s operations manager, CrossFit trainer and coach from the United States, spent almost a minute walking on his hands down the centre of the gym.

The location

It took a lot of searching to find a warehouse that Al Tamimi liked; Abu Dhabi doesn’t have a lot of those spaces. And it took imagination, too – there was a boat sitting in the vacant spot, located behind the Princess Cars showroom, when he was first shown it. “When I saw it yesterday and people saw it, it was a blast,” says Al Tamimi. “For me it’s the best location, it’s between the old Abu Dhabi and the new Abu Dhabi.”

The attitude

Al Tamimi, who first got into CrossFit five years ago and is a Level 1 and Level 2 CrossFit trainer with 14 speciality CrossFit courses under his belt, loves inspirational quotes. His favourite is “no excuses”. One set of stairs plots out exactly the fraction of calories burnt by climbing each step; the other spells out “there is no elevator to success … you have to take the stairs”. At Tuesday’s launch, the new Mussaffah-­based healthy delivery and catering company Basiligo served delicious, themed appetisers, including Soba CrossFit Ropes, Sushi Tires and Quinoa Medicine Balls.

The aesthetic

Since an international flight schedule means Al Tamimi can’t be around his business as much as he’d like, he had a 3-D image of himself painted on the floor at the entrance, courtesy of his pal Saleh Al Hamri’s company next door, iDesign. Gritty, graffiti-style portraits of brawny characters, muscles, fists and weights adorn the walls, including a massive portrait of the Hulk, just outside the upper- level cardio room and women’s gym. A childcare area just off the main desk, looking out onto the gym, sits under a massive mural of the fierce-yet-friendly-looking trio of Batgirl, Wonder Woman and Supergirl. The shower and changing rooms are another bonus: centrally located, bright, roomy and well-stocked.

The Steroid Cafe

Located to the left of the gym doors as you walk in, and due to open in two months time, Al Tamimi loves the play on a name he calls “the best ever”. There isn’t another Steroid Cafe in the world (he checked). And when he opens the space with partner Fatema Almheiri, it will serve the kind of healthy food he loves – quinoa, berries and yogurt for breakfast is a favourite – five days a week. On Fridays and Saturdays, in keeping with the CrossFit “cheat day” ethos, it will serve fun treats, the likes of which he won’t yet reveal. Also, he promises there will be great coffee.

The extras

Soon-to-open to the right of the main doors is Oxygen, a franchise protein shop Al Tamimi sourced from Kuwait. It will sell nutritional supplements, shakes, powders and bars. Al Tamimi knows he has to stretch – even though “I suck at it,” he says, laughing – and other people do, too, which is why he included a bright, second-floor yoga and Pilates room, complete with four reformer machines, overlooking the more brutish-seeming main gym. And behind the main space, soon to open, is CrossCut, a new barber concept from fellow Emirati Etihad pilot, Khalid Al Ali, 31. In the coming weeks, MProve will also start offering massages and tanning.

• MProve Fitness is now open and is located in Al Maqta area, behind Princess Cars showroom. Walk-in fitness classes are Dh100; one-month class packages start at Dh750; annual memberships start at Dh6,000 for the basic gym. For class schedules and pricing packages, visit www.mprovefitness.com. For more information, call 02 555 1146 or email [e-mail]