Five ways on how not to fall off exercise wagon this year
VARIETY IS THE KEY: Keeping fit needn’t take a lot of time, but mix it up to stay interested and stimulated. WE KNOW, we know – sticking to those exercise and fitness resolutions is hard.
We are well into the second month of the year, and many who had resolved that health and fitness would be their goal may already have fallen off the wagon.
But the trick to staying on track just may be in trying a new exercise routine.
Ceri Hannan, Virgin Active’s national product development manager, cherrypicked her top fitness trends for 2017, and one of them could help you.
Wearable fitness technology items – activity trackers, smart watches, heart rate monitors, GPS tracking devices – are already big but will get even bigger, especially as incentive programmes up their use of them as a way to earn rewards. Virgin Active SA has launched the new TRACK feature which allows members to link a variety of devices including FitBit, Garmin & STRAVA to their myvirginactive account, from where they can monitor all their fitness and activity data. Body weight training programmes, involving minimal equipment, are on the rise. Use your own weight for resistance in pushes, pulls, squats, lunges, bends and twists.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a top trend. It involves bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by a short period of rest or recovery and takes less than 30 minutes, which makes it popular for time-stressed people.
Cycling is the new golf. Whether you are in the mountains, on the road or in the cycle class, more cyclists are likely to be joining you. And the technology is getting more and more sophisticated. Virgin Active has introduced the revolutionary Wattbikes which read the way you ride with output, technique and heart rate measured with every turn of the pedal.
Studies show that attending a structured class remains the best motivator and the way to get the most work out of the workout. But variety and innovation are essential to keep participants stimulated. A trend is to blend different activities. A good example is the Barre180 class at Virgin Active, which combines ballet, yoga and Pilates in a 55-minute session.
Hannan says: “Busy consumers are looking for maximum bang for their buck, and body-weight training and HIIT are consistently ranked in the top three in the past few years. Proprietary programmes such as TwentyFour (24 moves in 24 minutes) and The Grid not only feed into the group exercise culture but contribute significantly to keeping members focused on their fitness goals.”
One class that’s popular with men and women is the ballet-based workout Barre180. Suspension yoga is another class that’s in high demand, but it’s available exclusively at the five Virgin Active Collection clubs.
Regular club and gym users are seeing the benefits of stronger bodies, higher energy levels and more confidence in their bodies. The key is keeping members engaged in fitness, and this is driven largely by variety. New group exercise classes are introduced every year.