The new fitness fad? A yoga mat that floats!
The sky is grey, it’s drizzling and the waters of the Serpentine in London’s hyde Park are a murky-brown. yet i’m about to take part in my first water workout. yes, dressed in gym gear, i will plunge into the icy waters of the Serpentine Lido, a cordoned-off area of the lake. then i’ll swim out to my inflatable exercise mat — or aquabase, to give it its official name — climb aboard and do a half-hour high-intensity workout.
high intensity interval training (hiit) is the scientifically proven way to burn hundreds of calories in minimal time, by exercising in short bursts. i’ve signed up for the latest, and possibly maddest, hiit trend of all: the aquaphysical workout on a floating, inflatable board.
My squats, burpees and push-ups will be punctuated by yoga stretches, lunges and shrieks of discomfort. But one wrong move and i’m in the suspiciously brown lake.
Leila Francis Coleman is the woman behind aquaphysical. the 27-yearold entrepreneur quit her job as a business analyst to become a fitness trainer just over a year ago.
She came up with the idea of a floating exercise mat after spending her youth sailing. ‘i used to ache all over after a day out on the water,’ she says. ‘My muscles would go into overdrive trying to give me enough stability not to get tipped off the dingy.’
Leila launched the workout in swimming pools across the capital at the start of this year. the company also sells the high-tech boards through its website for use at home — from the local pool to your garden pond.
She says: ‘So many celebrities do highintensity and core muscle routines, making exercise fun and wacky. Beyoncé does core workouts with hula hoops, and Madonna exercises at the ballet barre.’
exercising on a board works your core and raises your heart rate. as your base is unstable, your muscles have to work much harder to maintain balance, Leila adds.
Kori Lyndsay, a fitness consultant at Fitness First in Baker Street, where aquaphysical has held classes, explains that the muscles used in these exercises (the abdomen and hips) are areas some other workouts tend to ignore.
‘trying to maintain balance works muscles at a deeper level than a pure aerobic workout that targets superficial muscles, such as biceps. if you exercise your core, your entire body benefits because you’re building internal strength,’ he says.
Lugging the boards into the Serpentine, Leila does look impressively toned. She doesn’t even flinch as her midriff hits the water. Neither does our 29year-old trainer, Berti holmes, as he wades into the lake. the rest of us (nine women in their 30s and 40s) are not so brave. it’s cold. Very cold. a small knot of people has gathered at the side of the Lido to watch. One chap takes out his phone and films as we haul ourselves onto our boards. he isn’t being weird: he just finds this hilarious. and it gets funnier — for those on the sidelines, that is. Once we’ve managed to stand up, soaking-wet and swaying like drunks on our boards, Berti launches into the exercises.
to start, we do some gentle twisting from the waist. this is too much for hannah, on the board next to me. With a shriek, she plunges into the lake.
Feeling smug at having stayed upright, i twist vigorously. My comeuppance is swift. i lose my balance and follow her into the murky depths. it’s a shock. With a mouthful of water, i try not to think about the geese who use this lake as their lavatory.
Clambering back on to my board, i vow not to fall in again. Next, Berti tells us to jump on our boards for the ‘mountain climber’ move, a tricky-looking exercise in press-up position while moving your legs in step motions to mimic climbing.
it’s a relief when we move on to stomach crunches — something i never thought i’d say. at least lying down, there’s no danger i’ll fall in. in the same vein, i positively embrace push-ups.
AND, in fact, i’m so focused on trying not to fall that, as we stretch and lunge, i don’t feel the burn. Perhaps because the setting is so peculiar and we’re all (no matter how fit) struggling to stay aboard, there’s a camaraderie about this class. i even start to enjoy myself.
i must have worked a good few muscles because, the next morning, i’m hobbling around like, well, someone who’s spent half-an-hour exercising every muscle in her body.
So it’s worth shivering away in your Lycra — even if you do have to spend some time picking green things out of your bra afterwards.