Here comes the sun
The call of summer is driving Tasmanians out from their winter hibernation and into their fitness campaigns
The days are getting longer. The weather is (mostly) warmer. And Tasmanians are hauling themselves off the couch and out of winter hibernation. Local gyms and fitness organisations are reporting a steady influx of new and returning members as people gear up for summer. It seems outdoor fitness classes, group training sessions, fun run preparation and high-intensity 30-minute workouts that slot easily into busy schedules are high on our fitness wishlists.
All Aerobics owner Guy Franklin says now is traditionally the time of year when Tasmanians start thinking about how they want to look and feel as summer approaches and the added daylight coupled with warm weather prompts them to take action.
“Tasmanians almost go into a bit of a depression over winter,’’ he explains. “Of course there are a lot of people who work out right throughout the year. But this is very much the time of year when people start getting out and about and are wanting to do things, they’re starting to come out of their caves.’’
His business has been running for 29 years and Franklin says there has been a big shift in recent times in the way people exercise. Standard exercise classes once ran for an hour but increasingly classes are “short and powerful” enabling busy people to more easily squeeze exercise in their schedule. Half-hour classes allow people to get in and out quickly, while others stack two 30-minute classes together maximising the types of activities they can fit into an hour with spin/bar, spin/box and step/bar classes among the most popular one-hour combos.
Franklin says there’s plenty of evidence showing short, sharp efforts working with your heart rate up in the training zone could be just as effective as slogging away in the gym for hours.
Lunchtime and after work remain popular to exercise but Tasmanians are turning to early mornings for their daily fitness hit, ensuring they can tick exercise off their to-do lists early.
“When we first started back in the 1990s, afternoons were the busiest times,’’ Franklin recalls.
“Now there’s been a really big shift towards the early mornings ... people are busy with jobs and kids and things like that, so it sets them up for the day. They’re in at 6am and done by 7am.”
He says people look to incorporate fun, friendship, variety and accountability into their fitness regimes.
“The biggest challenge today is that people are always busy – people are getting busier and busier,’’ says Franklin whose gym recently moved to Melville St and now offers 70+ group exercise
classes a week, plus another 20+ small group personal training classes. “So exercise has got to be fun and it has got to be engaging. Working out in a group situation just seems to work. People are more keen to stick at it.”
A popular offering is All Aerobics’s weekly evening group running class which people use to prepare themselves for fun runs and events like this month’s Point to Pinnacle. Tasmania’s fun run season kicked off this week with the Burnie 10, with many runs scheduled across the state until May. Run the Bridge, Cadbury Marathon and City to Casino are among the most popular, with interest fuelled partly by the rise in park runs.
Parkrun is a collection of 5km running events taking place every Saturday morning at over 1400 locations in 22 countries. There were just three parkrun events in Tasmania two years ago but that has since exploded to 15 and continues to grow. Regional ambassador for parkrun in Tasmania, Christine Timms, says about 1300 people participate in Tasmanian parkrun events every week. Ms Timms, a Launceston pharmacist, says people are attracted to the social benefits and non-competitive nature of the event, which attracts everyone from competitive runners through to chatty walkers.
“It’s very much about community and social engagement as much as physical recreation,’’ Timms says. Part of the appeal seems to be the fact parkrun is free and “fluid” in terms of regular attendance. Being outdoors is also a drawcard. Which is why Clarence City Council’s free Fitness in the Park program has been so successful. The program began almost 10 years ago but has continued to grow, attracting consistently strong crowds year-round at locations including Bellerive Beach Park and Lindisfarne’s Simmons Park.
The summer program recently kicked off with six classes a week running until April, when the smaller winter program begins. The sessions, which include everything from core, boxing and circuit training to low-impact fitness and beach yoga, attract everyone from uni students and mums with babies to seasoned gym-goers and the elderly. Participants don’t need to book, they can just turn up, and sessions go ahead in all weather, unless organisers deem it unsafe.
“It’s been life-changing for a lot of people,” says Clarence council health and wellbeing committee chairwoman Alderman Heather Chong.
“It’s their social outlet as well, it gets them out of the house. For a lot of people it has not only helped their physical health but their mental health as well. We do try and keep it outdoors, even through winter, because there’s a therapeutic element to being outside in nature. Because it’s an open space people are more chatty and there’s laughter. It’s very friendly. There’s no one growling at you if you’re not paying attention.”
Similar programs run in Hobart. There are free weekly yoga classes in St David’s Park at noon on Fridays run by Live Life Get Active. There’s also a string of free activities in Hobart parks and reserves as part of the Healthy Hobart program, which started this week and runs until March 20. Sessions include yoga, sailing, hip hop dancing, mountain bike riding, healthy kids dance sessions and tai chi.
Summer is the perfect time to attend free events like Om the Vineyard yoga at Frogmore Creek at Cambridge from November to February. Dogs can join the action at free monthly Doga sessions at Cascade Brewhouse gardens, which run from November to March. Doga is an emerging trend that combines yoga and dogs and is a fun, social way to exercise with your pooch.
“There are 168 hours in a week and people really only need three or four of those to go to the gym,” Franklin says. “If you’re going to exercise you might as well make it fun. It’s all about getting people into sustainable exercise that can suit their lifestyle.’’