Working out is meant to be fun and enjoyable. Here’s how to spice up your fitness regime and keep you motivated.
Most contemporary exercise trends are a combination of different activities. Fusion is perhaps a guiding principle of modern fitness. This creative bug has made the average workout a lot more interesting.
The recipe is easy: take one exercise and add… almost anything! Think other exercise forms, sports, equipment, fashion and even attitudes.
The classic form is cross training, using different types of exercise to affect the body. Riding a bike and then doing weights is, in essence, cross training. ‘Hybrid’ movements combining multiple movement patterns into one congruent action are the current preferred gym style of trainers. Lunging is great, but lunging while doing a bicep curl is even better!
The CrossFit fitness methodology claims to create ‘the quintessential athlete, equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter, and sprinter’ by using heavy weightlifting, a range of tools such as kettlebells, gymnastics rings, pull-up bars and calisthenics. Participants run, row, climb ropes, jump up on boxes, flip giant tires and carry odd objects.
Aerobics has been mixed with weight training, dance, boxing, just about anything! The latin dance aerobics, Zumba, shows how these crazy combos began. Creator Beto Perez forgot to bring aerobics music to his class in Colombia and was forced to improvise using his favourite salsa and merengue tapes. The ‘Zumba Fitness Party’ was born. Aye carumba!
Kickboxing and martial arts have always been easily varied. Years ago in New York, I watched a Vinyasa Brasil class, which combined athletic yoga with fluid movements of the martial art, Capoeira. It remains the coolest fitness class I’ve ever seen.
Pilates and yoga have also been spiced with new flavours, and even each other (Yogalates). Watch pilates and notice the influence of skills its founder explored – gymnastics, boxing, circus performing, diving, yoga, zen, even skiing.
Physical and mental aspects of these were synthesised to design pilates.
The list of combos is forever expanding: Cardio Striptease, Disco Yoga, Forza Samurai Sword workout, Cycle Karaoke. Mind-body is the new frontier. Budokon, for example, integrates yoga, martial arts and meditation into one holistic mind-body-spirit system. Technology will no doubt dominate soon. Will we be plugging in to the grid, merging our minds with virtual reality for our exercise? If it was good enough for Keanu, it’s good enough for me.
Pros & Cons
Fusion allows multiple benefits to be addressed in the one package. Strength, flexibility, cardio and movement skills can be improved, though the effectiveness is spread out.
By pulling in aspects of culture, it can make fitness appealing to those who wouldn’t usually indulge. Punk rockers and Indie kids aren’t always gym lovers, but give them a ‘Never Mind Aerobics, Here’s Punk Rope’ or ‘Pilates for Indie Rockers’ DVD and watch them go!
Above all, it allows fitness to keep reinventing itself, and the rich variety keeps us motivated.
On the flipside, where solid exercise science principles and integrity are behind some of the better fusions, there are those unscrupulous individuals who seek only to cash in on consumers’ lack of knowledge and create laughable wastes of time. Check out the ‘iGallop’ combo of horse riding with core and abs exercise.
My favourite aspect of mix-up fitness is how the mindset and attitude behind different activities unify to create an entirely new feel or approach to the exercise. Fusion workouts allow you to give almost any type of training your personal style, and this can only enhance a healthy lifestyle.
