A new UAE homegrown studio brings movement, family and community together in Al Raha, Abu Dhabi.
InnerG has opened its first studio at Space42 Arena in Al Raha, and it does not behave like a typical gym. Walk in, and there is a Reformer class working through a slow sequence in one room, a dance class finding its rhythm in another, and the muffled thud of gloves on pads down the hall. That mix is the whole idea, and it is what sets InnerG apart from most fitness studios in Abu Dhabi.
A Homegrown UAE studio built on “Energy in Motion”
InnerG is a UAE homegrown fitness studio, co-founded by Rafif Tarek Alhassen. The team keeps coming back to one phrase to describe what they are after: Energy in Motion. In practice, that means bringing many disciplines under one roof and letting people choose what suits them, instead of pushing everyone toward the same workout.
“With InnerG, we wanted to create a community where there is something for everyone—where people can come together and experience movement in a way that feels personal to them,” says Alhassen. “It isn’t about defining one way to move; it’s about giving people different ways to move, connect and grow, all within one community.”
InnerG Opening during the UAE’s Year of Family
The studio opens during the UAE’s Year of Family, and that timing shaped a lot of the thinking. Most fitness routines quietly assume you can carve out a solo hour and disappear. Parents know how rarely that works. InnerG’s answer is to run adult and children’s programming side by side, so a parent and child can both move at the same time, each doing their own thing, without one having to sit and wait for the other.
Four pillars: Groove, Glow, Grit and Growth
There is a genuinely long menu of ways to move here: Reformer Pilates, yoga, mat Pilates, dance, HIIT, boxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, mobility work, stretching, breathwork and sound healing, and strength training, each led by instructors who specialise in it.
To keep it from feeling like a random list, the studio groups it into four pillars. Groove is the dance and creative side. Glow covers the calmer, more mindful end, the classes you would book when you want to slow down. Grit is the combat work, where the emphasis is on discipline and staying in it when it gets hard. Growth is built around Reformer Pilates. Different doors into the same idea, basically.
Designing the experience, down to the details
Isabella Brandstotter, Head of Operations, makes sure that philosophy lands in the room. For her, the experience lives in the details most people never think about.
“From the studio environment and class experience to the smallest operational details, our goal has been to create a space where people feel genuinely welcomed and supported,” she says. “We want every visit to reflect the sense of community that defines InnerG.”
More than a workout: Omni coffee, matcha and a reason to linger
Not everything at InnerG involves breaking a sweat. The studio also has Omni, a specialty coffee brand Alhassen founded separately, and it takes the coffee as seriously as the training. The selection of beans and roasters rotates, chosen from different parts of the world for their particular flavour profiles, and the focus is on getting quality and consistency right from sourcing through to the cup. If coffee is not your thing, there is ceremonial matcha and a line of functional smoothies made with clean ingredients. It is the kind of spot you can settle into before a class or linger in afterward, which is part of the appeal. A studio you want to hang around in tends to become one you keep coming back to.
The bottom line
That, in the end, is what InnerG is betting on. Not a single signature class or a hero machine, but a place where a teenager can train Muay Thai while a parent takes a Reformer session, where someone drops in for breathwork and stays for a coffee, and where the point is less about the specific workout than about who is around you while you do it. For Abu Dhabi, it is a fresh take on what a studio can be.
InnerG’s first studio is now open at Space42 Arena in Abu Dhabi. For more information, visit innerg.ae or follow @innerg_uae on Instagram. For enquiries, email info@innerg.ae or call +971 50 174 1433.
Images: Supplied
Also Read: Qasr Al Watan: Inside Abu Dhabi’s Spectacular Presidential Palace
