Booty camp
The fitness biz has bold new ways to trim your butt (and build muscles)
It's that time again, when millions of Americans armed only with a spare tire and a bottle of water go grudgingly ahead into uncharted (or at least unfamiliar) territory: the gym.
And what they find may surprise them.
Never have there been so many new and different ways to sweat, stretch, and build strength. To entice an ever more sedentary nation, the fitness industry is mixing the tough with the transcendent in combo classes like Yoga Booty Ballet, dusting off high school gym moves, conducting military-style boot camps, and introducing every conceivable entertainment element from live drummers to giant video screens. With so many options, making excuses not to exercise may soon become an aerobic activity.
Hybrids. One part stretch, one part strength, and one part sweat can add up to a lot of exercise. That's the thinking behind a slew of new combination workouts. In Yoga Booty Ballet, for instance, the downward dog meets the arabesque and the butt crunch in a 90-minute workout that includes high-velocity aerobics, ballet for strength and toning, and yoga for flexibility and inner peace. (The class, created at Swerve in Los Angeles, will be coming to gyms across the country over the next few months. For now there is a $20 video at YogaBootyBallet.com). Yogilates, another yoga fusion favorite, mixes the stretching and aerobic payoff of Power Yoga with the hard-core strength training of Pilates (an exercise regimen embraced by dancers). Crunch Fitness's Buff Girl Workout combines Pilates, ballet, boot camp, and high-impact aerobics. "These classes satisfy people's need to feel they're getting it all even when they don't have much time," says Karen Voight, a Los Angeles fitness expert. They're also ideal for aging baby boomers whose joints can only take so much. But a little of everything doesn't add up to much if the segments are too short to exhaust muscles (under 20 minutes) or if the instructor isn't an expert in all the disciplines, particularly yoga and Pilates, which can do more harm than good if not practiced correctly. Some gyms bring in separate instructors to lead those portions of the class. Be sure to ask the instructor about his or her experience in those areas.
Boot camp. The military-style workouts are led by instructors skilled in the art of berating you into better shape. The regimen is heavy on chin-ups, push-ups, squat thrusts, and rapid-fire drills. For the merely masochistic, boot camp workouts are available as gym classes or in ongoing programs. For the truly hard core, only a week at a boot camp spa (they're popping up everywhere) or in the wilds of nature will do (at the crack of dawn, of course). "People know they're not going to get away with slacking off," says retired Air Force Master Sgt. Ron Holland, who runs the S.W.A.T. Boot Camp in Tucson, Ariz. "When we say 20 push-ups, it's 20, not 2."
Retro chic. Old is the new new. As if it were not humiliating enough the first time, high school gym class is back in the form of workouts that feature jumping jacks, four square, dodge ball, rope climbing, and laps. (Showering en masse is not required.) And early fitness's campiest phrase, "go for the burn," can again be heard in Jane Fonda-style classes of vintage aerobics (formerly known as knee lifts and lunges). Can Jazzercize be far behind?
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