Cover Story Fitness zeitgeist

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Cover Story Fitness zeitgeist

Fitness is no longer just about dumbbells and push-ups: there’s a new world of wild and wonderful exercise options. Wellbeing has become a worldwide obsession, shaping our bodies, minds and lifestyles

Body BeautiFul

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Cover Story Fitness zeitgeist

Cover Story Fitness zeitgeist

A SmAll group of women hAng from the Ceiling,stretching their bodies angularly into the air. With feet raised vertically and legs outstretched, they curl into a backward bend known as “the swan”. They look serene and beautiful, dangling from the rafters.

These women are practicing AntiGravity® Aerial Yoga. It’s a new form of yoga where silk cloth is hung from the ceiling so that asanas [yoga positions] can be performed mid-air, supporting the body against gravity.

Christopher Harrison, the originator of AntiGravity® Aerial Yoga and other suspension fitness and aerial yoga genres, pioneered this unique form of fitness as a gymnast in the 1990s when he started experimenting with the ceiling silks used by acrobatic performers.

“We weren’t aerialists, and we didn’t know which fabric to buy. So we bought the wrong one. We tried climbing it and we were awful!” laughs Harrison. “I thought, what if we just looped the top and made it into a hammock? That was the moment that the silk hammock apparatus was born as the key to an aerial art form.”

Now Harrison is heading a movement. He teaches people to perform not only yoga, but Pilates, restorative yoga and fitness exercises while hanging from the hammock. It’s a development in the area of aerial fitness, tightly tied to the acrobatic arts, that has seen a boom in popularity.

Primal programmes, kangaroo jump shoes, fencing, salsa, trampolines and pole dancing; the ways people try to get fit range from astounding to ridiculous. But if there is one common theme, it’s that people see fitness as crucial to their everyday lives. Blame an image-obsessed culture or a competitive edge – whatever the cause, fitness is here to stay.

According to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, total commercial health club revenue in the US increased by 8.1 percent to US$157.3 million in 2012. This doesn’t include the huge sums of money the fitness equipment industry generates. “The industry is growing,” says Adam Fox-McGregor, the founder of Regime Fitness, a UAE-based fitness training company. “Awareness about the need to be active to avoid health issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle is growing. About forty percent of our enquiries are for weight loss and about thirty percent from people who just want a healthier, more active lifestyle.”

holiStiC wellneSS, whiCh involveS not only mAking your body stronger and leaner, but your mind too, is one of the greatest growth points in the fitness industry. “Yoga continues to grow in popularity as people from all sorts

Trends develop quickly, so keeping trainers ahead of the curve is crucial to maintaining clients. “It’s a really competitive market, so you have to be at the top of your game,” Fox-McGregor says. “My trainers attend regular workshops on the latest training methods to stay up to date. They then incorporate these into the most suitable programmes for the clients. All our clients get bespoke programmes built for them to achieve their goals in the most safe and efficient manner possible, while remaining fun.”

“Fun” is the operative word. Fitness enthusiasts getting in shape don’t just want perfect bodies – they want to enjoy the workout. Variety seems to be the key to sustaining motivation. AntiGravity® Fitness has the enjoyment component. “People stay with us because it’s just so much fun,” Harrison says. “AntiGravity has two meanings: one is to fight the laws of physics; the second is to stay light-hearted against graveness. You get a rush from moving upside down in all directions

of sporting backgrounds realise the benefits of incorporating it into their training schedule,” Fox-McGregor says. “People are exploring the mind-body connection and the importance of stress management to a healthy lifestyle.”

AntiGravity® Fitness speaks to those looking for holistic wellbeing. It has proved truly beneficial for healing physical problems. “The number one reason people find us is they want to

cure their back pain,” Harrison says. “As a former champion gymnast, acrobat and Broadway dancer, my body was beat up. Even yoga would bother my wrists and my cervical spine; so much of it is about building up the strength to hold an inversion pose. AntiGravity® yoga exercises offer zero-compression inversions.”

In the soft cradle of a suspended cloth, many people find relief from pains that gravity makes too difficult or painful to overcome. “In the hammock, everybody can do inversions, for a longer period of time and there’s zero compression on your spine,” Harrison says. “By just relaxing in the hammock, your spine elongates; we’re actually creating space in your body, and space in your mind.”

AntiGravity® exercises train the brain to function better. “Within the Harrison AntiGravity® hammock, you’re allowing your body to move freely, in all directions,” says Harrison. “You train the proprioceptors, which are the sensory receptors in the body that tell you where you are in time and space, by swinging back and forth, by spinning, by balancing in positions off the floor. It increases your synaptic connections and your neural pathways, increasing your ability to learn. You’re guaranteed to be more open in your body and mind when you leave the class.”

While holistic wellness is popular, there is a backlash from some who are eager to see results, propelling them towards traditional, proven exercises. CrossFit is one such activity

combining conventional methods with a modern approach. It brings together aerobics, weights, gymnastics and Olympic weight lifting — think lots of lunges and squats — a hefty order. Workouts tend to be limited to thirty extremely intense minutes and enthusiasts love its go-getter attitude.

CrossFit’s take-up has spread like wildfire, including the UAE. “CrossFit is definitely the booming sector of the fitness industry in the UAE at the moment,” says Fox-McGregor. At Regime Fitness, diverse fitness tastes are catered for by personal trainers. This hands-on, one-on-one way of working out caters for those looking for personalised workouts. “Trainers are definitely increasing in popularity,” Fox-McGregor says. “Go into any of the communal gyms in residential buildings and you will see most gym users are there with trainers. It’s not as expensive as you’d think, especially with small group personal training sessions. Split between two to four people, it costs about the same as attending a small group session class.”

In the vein of this personal approach to fitness, a slew of boutique gyms and studios are springing up, offering alternatives to big-box gyms. In the US, boutique gyms like SoulCycle, which offers spinning classes with mood lighting, or Physique 57, a ballet-Pilates fusion, aim to meet specific needs. Other companies like FITiST offer a new type of gym membership with a handpicked selection of gyms. Or there’s Hard Candy Fitness, Madonna’s venture, which gives you a star workout. This includes tweaked versions of gym classes, such as jawbreaker classes, which imitate Madonna’s strengthening regime, or body design classes, which incorporate weightlifting.

PRIMAl PROGRAMMES, kANGAROO jUMP SHOES, FENCING, SAlSA, TRAMPOlINES ANd POlE dANCING; THE WAYS PEOPlE TRY TO GET FIT RANGE FROM ASTOUNdING TO RIdICUlOUS

ANTIGRAVITY® AERIAl YOGA IS A NEW FORM OF YOGA WHERE SIlk ClOTH IS HUNG FROM THE CEIlING SO THAT asanas CAN BE PERFORMEd MId-AIR, SUPPORTING THE BOdY AGAINST GRAVITY

previouS pAge: Antigravity® Aerial yoga’s Christopher harrison dangles in the air.

CloCkwiSe from top left: the silk cloths used in Antigravity® Aerial yoga support the body against gravity; pole dancing is an alternative method to keep fit; Christopher harrison.

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Cover Story Fitness zeitgeist

Cover Story Fitness zeitgeist

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in open space. It releases endorphins, neurotransmitters and happy hormones. It’s very easy to get addicted. We do a lot of laughing and playing in class and you don’t even know how hard you’re working out until you’re really sore the next day!”

AntiGravity® Fitness takes inspiration from yoga and Pilates, and, like these forms of exercise, the intense fitness work sneaks up on you. “People from a fitness background may want to try an AntiGravity® suspension fitness class,” says Harrison. “In these you’re doing push-ups with your feet in the air, you’re doing inverted chin-ups and you’re doing one-legged balances. It’s a hardcore workout; it’s killer. But every class increases mobility in your joints, and gives you cardio strength and flexibility.”

there iS no Doubt CorporAte lifeStyleS hAve increased the demand for fast, convenient ways to get fit. It’s not unheard of to see someone in an office perched on a brightly coloured ball as they type away. Fitness balls are just one of the ways of actively using muscles while chained to a desk. Some offices have gone so far as to include workout routines as part of the daily schedule.

The UAE is particularly vulnerable to work-induced unfitness. The busy corporate environment combined with extreme temperatures outside means many struggle to find ways to work out. “People work really long hours and travel a lot, so we have to be really flexible and work around their schedules,” Fox-McGregor says. “We do a lot on the corporate wellness Im

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everyone seems to be interested. Our growth has been substantial, especially in the past few years.”

Convenience is the obvious benefit of online fitness instruction. “You get access to great teachers when and where you want them,” Trantina says. “It can be hard to fit in the time to exercise, and an on-demand platform with classes of different lengths and levels makes it so much easier to get it done. By making the programmes available at the user’s schedule, rather than the schedule of the studio or gym, we can ensure consistency in our practice. It’s all about making healing, strengthening practices available on demand, and taking the barriers away from creating a strong, consistent practice that will give benefits for both body and mind.”

There are a few inherent limitations to the online medium, such as the ability to receive immediate feedback. Over the years My Yoga Online has built up a reliable stable of instructors, crucial to ensuring the online formula works.

“As people practicing with video don’t have a teacher there watching them, we focus on very qualified teachers who can speak to different experience levels and conditions, as well as offering classes of various levels and yoga styles,” Trantina says. “We can also be much more particular with our instructor roster as we have the whole world to draw from. Some online videos are presented from one camera angle far away from the teacher, making it hard to see things like alignment, mudras [hand or limb gestures], or pranayama [breathing]. We invest time and money in multiple camera angles and close-ups to ensure users know what is happening and where they

need to be.”Yoga is not the only form of fitness

suited to the online vehicle, but it is one of the most popular. Other forms of technology-based fitness, such as the Nintendo Wii Fit, demonstrate how people are looking for customisable ways to get fit. “Online fitness will continue to become more popular in the future,” Trantina says. “Everything is moving online right now.”

Still, online fitness might not be for everyone. “For some people online programmes work very well,” says Fox-McGregor. “However, you need to be

disciplined in order for them to work, and confident that you are performing the prescribed exercises in the correct form.”

Whether it’s dumbbells or silk swings, fitness balls or online yoga, there are a multitude of alternatives for staying healthy in both mind and body. Sign up to the gym, or pick up the Wii, but whatever the method, commitment is key.

“AWARENESS ABOUT THE NEEd TO BE ACTIVE TO AVOId HEAlTH ISSUES ASSOCIATEd WITH A SEdENTARY lIFESTYlE IS GROWING.”

side. Companies and organisations are recognising the need to continue bringing fitness and wellness resources to the workplace so that employees have the ability to maintain productivity and a healthy lifestyle.”

Fitness trends these days tend to cross the world, with global take-up occurring at a fast pace. “Some places have really embraced AntiGravity® Fitness,” Harrison says. “Asia has: we built a huge training centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand, just to keep up with demand. We’re very successful in Europe. We’re in Virgin Active in Italy, and Hard Candy Fitness in Russia. Russians go crazy for it. It’s proliferating fast there.”

One of the most extraordinary developments in fitness is that many programmes aren’t restricted by location. Online fitness allows people to get fit anytime, anywhere. My Yoga Online was one of the pioneers in this field. This online yoga platform based in Vancouver, Canada focuses on yoga, but also includes Pilates, dance and supportive programmes exploring diet and meditation, offering over 1,000 different classes. “We launched our site before YouTube even existed,” explains Michelle Trantina, one of its co-founders. “It took people time before they understood why we were doing it – some thought we were completely crazy. But now almost

CloCkwiSe from left: An increasing number of people are realising the important benefits yoga offers; pilates is an all-round intensive workout; yoga speaks to the mind-body connection that many are exploring in an attempt to manage stress, as well as to keep fit; from fencing to salsa, there are a host of ways to get fit.