8 Fitness Classes You’ll Love Even If You Don’t Love Working Out
Getting a great workout used to involve nothing more than going to the gym. But even that can get boring day after day after day. Even if you don’t like working out, you need something that challenges you and keeps you engaged so that you look forward to your workouts from week to week.
So what are the hottest fitness trends this year? More and more people are turning to these workouts to get their exercise in while still having fun. These workouts are also great at helping you lose weight and build muscle so that you can get into tip-top shape and meet your resolution for the year.
Boutique Boxing
Boxing is becoming more and more popular for people because it’s a great way to get rid of stress. You get to hit a punching bag as much as you want while still giving your body a great workout.
In boxing, your putting your entire body through a workout while engaging in strength training too. And since the majority of boxing studios offer the experience and advice of a true boxer, then you also get performance benefits at the same time. Before you know it, you’ll be ripped in no time and still have fun.
Functional Training
Functional training itself is not new, but there has been a greater focus on enhancing strength over anything else. It mostly involves activities you’d do in a normal, boring routine, such as pushing, pulling, and twisting. However, this kind of workout opens the gateway for you to engage in more intense workouts. Would be great to obtain a personal training diploma.
Barbells and weights have become more popular in functional training as well, along with medicine balls and resistance bands. They help you to develop muscles while also promoting flexibility so that you’re not jeopardizing one over the other. You can find out more at www.ClubFitness.us.
Changing Temperatures
You’ve probably heard the term hot yoga, but this isn’t what we’re talking about. After engaging in exercise, the body needs time to rest and recuperate. But that means having downtime that you’re not exercising and that can reduce how much workout time you can get each week.
But more workout places are starting to look at faster ways of getting the body prepped for more exercise by adding hot saunas or cryotherapy. Cryotherapy is the use of sub-freezing temperatures to reduce inflammation in the muscles and increase blood flow. Hot saunas can provide alleviation to tired and sore muscles so that you’re not feeling pain all over the next day. Either option is worth a try when looking for new workout classes to try.
Revved-Up Recovery
CrossFit has definitely gained traction as being one of the most popular high-intensity workouts out there. But studies have shown that engaging in an activity like CrossFit seven days a week can put stress on your body and increase the chances for injury.
Instead, there are workout regimens that encourage recovery, which involves taking short breaks between workout sessions to give your body a chance to recuperate. It’s more than just a 30-minute break to get some water. It’s active rest that your body needs to recharge and heal properly.
Three-Dimensional Exercising
Simple yoga classes aren’t getting people excited about exercising anymore. More workout classes are becoming more immersive in the experiences they provide to their patrons. For example, some yoga studios are now adding sound baths and virtual reality to their classes to make them more interesting to be in. Another example is a cycling class that has projected scenery on a wall or screen that reacts to how fast or slow you’re pedaling. It can really change the dynamic of what kind of workout you’re getting.
Engaging in Breath Work
As great as it is to get your body in peak physical condition, your mind needs some exercise and rest as well. Engaging in meditation can promote better health and even help you sleep better at night. This gives you more energy to start the next day with a workout by helping you to maintain a positive attitude.
Meditation and any class that focuses on breathing also help to keep your blood more oxygenated, which then promotes faster healing of your muscles. It’s advised that you add a meditation class to your weekly workout regimen to increase your overall benefits.
Mindful Movement
Along with meditation, there is a new exercise movement making the circuits called mindful movement. It’s mostly used as part of strength training and is supposed to improve cognitive functions as well as mental acuity.
To make a long story short, it involves a workout routine with five-minute meditation sessions. It can help to channel your energies and focus into getting the workout completed. For some people, these small meditation sessions may be the only quiet time they have for the day.
Aerial Fitness
If you’ve never heard of aerial fitness, then you’re in for a load of fun. Fabric hammocks are suspended from the ceiling and you learn pilates-based core moves to workout. It develops strength training, improves balance and posture, and can show you just how flexible your body really is.
It allows you to move in three dimensions, which you wouldn’t be able to get just standing on the ground. This gives you more space to improve posture as well as provide inversion so that you can better align and remove the stress from your spine.
When it comes to getting a fulfilling workout, it pays to look around and search for activities outside the box of the normal realm of exercising. You may be surprised to find a workout class that fits exactly what you’ve been looking for that is also rewarding in the process.
Be sure to ask instructors questions before signing up for classes so that you know what you’re getting into. You don’t want to end up in a class that’s above your skill level or engages in activities that you’re not capable of handling.
