Exercise trends are constantly evolving, and every month there is a new fitness class or piece of equipment unveiled. The key to finding a new workout that is right for you is to look for exercises that are fun, innovative and new to the scene, while maintaining safety standards. Another way to find new ideas to spice up your workout is to venture outside of your gym. Many local dance studios, community centers and martial arts studios offer unique fitness classes.
Exergaming
If you prefer to work out in the comfort of your own home, you are not alone. The American Council on Exercise has noticed a new exergaming trend emerging. With the introduction of fitness-based video games, such as the Wii Fit and Dance-Dance Revolution, it is now possible to create your own unique workout. The Wii, X-Box 360, Playstation and even personal computers now offer a wide variety of fitness based games from yoga to running. Find a few different games and blend them together in different sequences every week to keep your exercise fresh and fun.
Laughing Yoga
A new trend in the yoga studio is laugh therapy, or laughing yoga. This style of yoga is always done in a group atmosphere with participants progressing from one type of laughter to another together, according to the "Yoga Journal" article "What's So Funny?" This kind of yoga class combines different styles of laughing, such as early laughter, greeting laughter, open-mouth laughter, humming laughter, lion laughter and swinging laughter with yoga poses held for 45 seconds. Every laughter pose is followed with a deep-breathing stretch.
Fight Club
Recent history has seen its share of martial arts classes, from kickboxing to tae bo. The new trend in this area is unlike any of its early predecessors. Mixed martial arts conditioning, often called "fight club," combines elements of karate, Muay Thai and traditional kickboxing, Brazilian jujitsu, wrestling, boxing, judo, kung fu, tae kwon do and other disciplines. The resulting fitness classes are fun and practical, providing participants with martial arts awareness and skills.
The benefits of fight-club style fitness include the broad spectrum of movement required and the need to keep the muscles responding faster, according to Michol Dalcourt in an article in the "Idea Fitness Journal." Many gyms, as well as martial arts studios, are now offering fight-club fitness classes.
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