RockFit: “The music gets them in, but the people make them stay”
RockFit joined Festpod at Download Festival 2026 to talk fitness, inclusion and finding your community through heavy music.
RockFit might look like a fitness class set to rock and metal, but spend a few minutes with the people behind it and it becomes clear that the movement is only half the story.
Speaking to Festpod at Download Festival 2026, founder Hannah Hawkey and members of the RockFit instructor team explained how an idea born from bad fitness-class music and the need to pay the rent grew into a nationwide community built on loud songs, accessibility and a shared sense of belonging.
“RockFit is an amalgamation of rock music, dance fitness and body sculpting, set to a rock and metal playlist,” Hannah explained.
The body sculpting, it turns out, involves plenty of lunges and squats - potentially as many as 500 during one session.
“People don’t notice because they’re having such a good time waving their arms,” she laughed.
From paying the rent to classes across the country
Hannah created RockFit after leaving teaching and looking for a way to combine the things she already loved - dancing, choreography, fitness and rock and metal.
Her friends had been reluctant to attend the other fitness classes she taught because they disliked the music. Hannah agreed with them.
“I thought, ‘I don’t like the music either, so let’s try something a bit different,’” she said.
The response was immediate, with around 40 people attending early on. RockFit has since expanded into classes across the UK, alongside online sessions for those who do not have an instructor nearby.
The team now has more than 400 choreographed songs to choose from, with routines covering different abilities, tastes and levels of intensity. Individual instructors can also build playlists around their own musical preferences, meaning no two classes have to feel exactly the same.
Some prefer the more dance-led tracks, while others lean into punching, kicking and strength work.
“If you want your legs destroyed, you go and see Hannah,” one member of the team joked.
Making the class fit the person
That flexibility goes beyond choosing between dancing and having your thighs comprehensively ruined.
RockFit’s instructors adapt routines for beginners, experienced participants and people exercising while seated. The team described working with people of different ages and with a range of mobility, sight, hearing and neurodivergent needs.
In Plymouth, RockFit’s oldest participant was 92 and attended alongside four generations of her family. At Download, the instructors adjusted movements for wheelchair users and others taking part from seats around the Doghouse tent.
“Each routine has its own choreography, but we adapt it to whatever we need to do for the participants who turn up,” Hannah said.
That approach is central to the community the team has created.
“It doesn’t matter if you are less able or if you are part of the LGBTQIA community,” instructor Carli said. “Everybody’s absolutely welcome. Everybody’s completely different, and we just welcome you as you are.”
The instructors also recognise that entering a group fitness class for the first time can be daunting, particularly for someone who has never felt comfortable in a traditional gym environment.
“We always let them know that the hardest part is walking through the door, and you’ll only do that once,” Hannah said. “Then you will fall in love with it completely.”
New arrivals are not left standing awkwardly at the back. The team said established members regularly introduce themselves, welcome people into the group and help them settle in before the music starts.
“The music gets them in,” Hannah added. “It’s the people that make them stay.”
Finding your people through RockFit
For many involved, RockFit has become as much a social community as an exercise class.
Instructors who live in different parts of the country now speak every day and describe each other as lifelong friends. The same connections have developed among those attending classes, with members finding gig buddies, partners and groups of friends to travel with.
There is even what the team jokingly calls “RockFit tourism”, with people visiting classes in other parts of the country and travelling long distances for special events.
“It’s finding your tribe of people,” Kylie said. “We’ve all grown up listening to alternative music and being part of that alternative lifestyle. It’s finding a group of people that feel the same.”
That also explains why RockFit feels at home at festivals such as Download. The team is less interested in appearing at conventional fitness events than it is in setting up in a festival field or tent among people who already share its love of heavy music.
“We love doing festivals,” Hannah said. “Festivals are where our people are.”
RockFit began as one woman’s answer to fitness classes playing the wrong music. What has grown around it feels much closer to the social side of a festival crowd - people brought together by the songs, encouraged to join in at their own level and welcomed without being expected to change who they are.
The workout might be what gets people through the door, but it is clear why so many of them keep coming back.
Find local and online RockFit classes at rockfit.org.uk.
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