Cossie season is around the corner, which means you better start shaping up if you want to strut it with sass on the beach. But if the gym or those Pilates DVDs just aren’t doing it for you anymore, try one–or all–of these new fitness trends sweeping across Australia.
Power yoga
Not all forms of yoga are the pretzel-bendy, New Age-style sort. Power yoga will kick your arse: it works flexibility and strength more than breathing and harnessing your chi. It’s more in line with the Ashtanga style of yoga practice, which shies away from focusing on set poses, and the intensity can help you tone up and slim down. There’s also hot power yoga, in which studio rooms are warmed up to as high as 30 degrees Celsius to promote joint mobility and flexibility.
The Australian Sports Commission reports yoga participation in Australia has grown to the 13th most popular physical activity, beating out dancing, fishing and martial arts, making it one of the new fitness trends. A yoga survey by researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne shows yoga practitioners placed highest emphasis on improving health and fitness and gaining flexibility and muscle strength in addition to easing stress.
Pole dancing
While pole dancing has sleazy connotations, it’s actual a great total body workout, making it one of the fun new ways to exercise. In mixes dance, yoga and gymnastics and targets core strength and strengthens the tummy, shoulders and arms. Students typically work on pole routines, tricks, spins, acrobatic moves, flexibility and strength conditioning. Let’s not forget the main thing: pole dancing can bring out your inner sex kitten, making you feel confident and fit.
Time-crunch workouts
Who has time to spend an hour at the gym these days? Enter time-crunch workouts, which involve shorter, more intense routines incorporating cardio and strength training. These exercises can involve circuit training or interval training lasting a maximum of 30 minutes. You can find this setup in gyms, and there are also facilities solely dedicated to this type of workout, such as CrossFit, a core and conditioning program combining sprinting, gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting and combat to produce, short, intense workouts, making it one of the surefire new fitness trends.
Group personal training
A money- and time-saver, this group setup involves one personal trainer working with several exercisers and falls among the new trends in workout gyms across Oz. Sessions usually emphasize strength, flexibility and fitness moves and can be as quick as 30 minutes. Instruction relates slightly to the time crunch workout method in that the trainer generally varies the workouts and keeps the group moving quickly. Most local gyms offer this option to members.
More health and fitness
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More workout fun – swing set fitness!
Swing set fitness is a form of resistance training that is perfect for weight loss or strength training. Watch this video for examples of swing set exercises for the legs, chest, shoulders, arms, butt, core, and other muscles.
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