Stay fit with vertical marathons, crosstrain and candle-light yoga.
Climbing 10 floors of a building 10 times in 30 minutes. Sounds scary? Well, it certainly didn't deter a bunch of fitness enthusiasts who recently conducted a mini vertical marathon. Also, in a bid to break away from routine, groups of people have added a twist to their yoga sessions by trying out candle-light yoga, and to beat mental stress, some have even tried to perfect their hand at fire poi. Here's a look at some of these fun workouts that have caught the fancy of fitness freaks:
CrossTrain workouts
This workout is about functional movement wherein you perform actions of running, jumping, squatting, throwing, pushing, etc at a high intensity. This workout is literally like a boot camp. Even in the pouring rain, you see people working out thrice a week. "Come cold, heat or rain, we carry on. It's fun, inspiring, it builds your stamina and makes you fitter," says Pawan Jani, a personal trainer. "It's about high intensity functional movement. You will rarely do the same workout twice. By doing something different every time, you keep the body guessing and eliminate plateaus and boredom common in traditional programmes. Certain benchmark workouts, however, are repeated every 2-3 months to measure performance improvements," adds Pawan.
Vertical Run
A vertical marathon is an alternative to the road marathons wherein participants climb stairs.
Candle-light yoga
As the name suggests, participants do yoga in candle-light. The focus is to be calmer and more relaxed as you go through various yoga asanas. A group of women, who attend yoga classes together, decided to try out something new. "Yoga is also a form of meditation and lighting a candle adds to the experience. I heard about candle-light yoga from a friend living in the UK so we thought of trying it out," says homemaker Kavita Shashidhar. "Post 7.30 pm, we laid our mats out in my garden and lit candles. It was a beautiful experience. We included meditation as well as power yoga and worked out for an hour in the open," she adds.
Fire Poi
It's a performance art aimed at bettering your eye, hand and body coordination. One twirls a poi, which can be made with various materials. It is a good muscle toner and more of a stress buster. As you twirl the fire baton, you need coordination of the eyes, a focussed mind and body movement. Pastry chef Namrataa Kripallani, who undertook a workshop in Poi recently, says, "It's more fun than a routine workout. It betters your coordination and tones your arms.".
