What’s the latest in non-conventional fitness and fun?

Early morning pounding of footpaths is about to kick off as we soak up more hours of light and the promise of warmer temperatures. Running, walking, cycling and swimming are great for fitness, but what about some fun!

Here are some of the latest fitness trends to bring a healthy dose of fun into your workout. We’ve selected fun, less conventional fitness programs that are also age-friendly. Mind, many of these trademarked fitness trends are so entertainingly non-conventional, they’ve slipped into mainstream fitness.

If you’re keen to try one or all of these, do some research online to locate local fitness instructors or clubs that run these classes. And if you can’t find any, maybe you’ve just found yourself a new business venture!

Play the drums on your way to fitness: Pound®

A Pound class uses lightly weighted drumsticks called ‘Ripstix’. Each session combines full body cardio workout moves while you’re constantly drumming your Ripstix to sculpt muscle.

Check out the promotional video – Pound rockout workout: calling all fitness rebels! This truly has a high fun factor. But beware. Those challenged with co-ordination, your ability will be highlighted visually and audibly!

This sounds (pun intended) like the perfect workout for those with stress or anger management challenges. And the claimed cardio benefits are high, with an estimated 900 calories burnt in a 45 minute session.

Get pounding.

Whack a massive rope for fitness: Heavy rope training

Have you ever tried whacking a massive, heavy rope on the ground? It is hard work and gets your heart pumping. Moving a heavy rope calls on arm and shoulder strength and rippling core strength.

Heavy rope training has been brought into most boot camp style training programs. For professional trainers it is a relatively injury minimising activity in that it is low impact.

Flinging a heavy rope to the floor in a variety of moves is designed to increase strength, power and endurance. These moves include waves, slams, throws and whips of the heavy rope.

The fun factor of this one is perhaps more in the concept than the doing. It sounds like hard – but effective – work.

Nothing like shocking your body with new ways of working out!

Cycle up a sweat in a nightclub for fitness: Nightclub spin classes

Spin classes have been around since the late 1980s. For the uninitiated, spinning is strapping your feet in and hopping on to a stationary bike. A persuasive, microphone loving instructor leads and challenges everyone through heart rate pounding sprints and hill climbs.

Nightclub spin takes the stationary bikes into the strobing lights and doof doof music of a nightclub, literally. What a great way for night clubs to earn some money in daylight hours.

The cardio benefits are high, with an estimated 400 to 600 calories burnt in a 40 minute session. And the fun factor – is up to you.

Grab a friend or two and go spinning and clubbing!

Dance your way to fitness: Zumba® or Jungle Dancing®

The more co-ordinated of us, might find dancing for fitness very appealing. Zumba has been around for a while now and is still as addictive for Zumba devotees as ever. It is fun and the energy created is infectious.

Zumba is a cardio work out that mixes low-intensity and high-intensity dance influenced moves. It is also designed to help improve flexibility, muscle conditioning and balance. Tribal rhythms set the pace and feed the energy.

Jungle dancing is also a high-intensity fitness class that takes the Zumba concept of tribal inspired dance for fitness and adds martial arts, boxing, stretching and weight training too.

The cardio benefits are advertised as being an estimated 700 calories burn in a 40 minute session.

Grab a friend or two and try going tribal!

Dance and kick your way to fitness:  Bokwa®

Inspired by South African traditional dance, a Bokwa® class will see you lifting your pulse rate through a fusion of step aerobics, hip-hop and kick boxing moves.

Again, this is a high-intensity workout. Bokwa enthusiasts claim that for those that usually flail around in the back row when it comes to dance moves, Bokwa is easier to learn than choreographed Zumba moves. It even uses letters of the alphabet and numbers to help guide dance moves – think drawing the number 3 with your body!

The cardio benefits are advertised as being up to 1,200 calories in one workout. Naturally, this depends on how intensely you draw the number 3 with your booty!

Anti gravity your way to fitness: Aerial yoga

Suspend your judgement (pun definitely intended) until you try it. The founder of AntiGravity Fitness®, including AntiGravity Yoga, stems from the entertainment industry and has influenced aerial yoga classes around the world.

An aerial yoga class will see you stretching and flexing your way supported by slings suspended from the ceiling.

The benefits promised include spine lengthening, improved strength, musculoskeletal realignment and improvement of your neural functioning.

Best of all, it looks graceful and very non-conventional!

What’s your favourite fitness program?

Try one of these, we dare you. Encourage some friends and have fun!

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