Fitness trends

There’s no dearth of diets, workouts and ways to enhance your wellness. We’ve compiled a list of health trends spanning nutrition, weight loss, keeping fit, anti-ageing, etc. Some of them have been there for a while, yet their popularity soars. Read on to know more...

Ketogenic Diet

The Ketogenic Diet (also known as Keto Diet) has been around for the past few years but it has picked up steam since last year. Not only people are getting more aware of it but also health and nutrition companies are providing tailor-made Keto meals for customers. Pallavi Srivastava, fitness nutritionist, and proprietor — Q-Slim Fitness Studio explains, “A Keto Diet is a low-carb, high fat and a medium protein diet, which forces the body to get into a state of ketosis, which means that your body starts utilising the ketone bodies produced from the fat as the main source of energy instead of the glucose/glycogen which drops due to low carbohydrate levels. This phenomena allows your body to utilise the fat stored and give you a feeling of fullness and you end up consuming less as compared to the number of calories spent, thus lose weight.”

Going Low-carb and Zero-carb diet

Nutritionist Karishma Chawla of Eat Rite 24x7 says that though it has been there for a while, this trend of going Low-carb and/or a Zero-carb diet continues since carbohydrates have earned a bad reputation.

Aqua Circuit Training 

Aqua specialist Deepali Jain conducts Aqua Yoga, Aqualates, Aqua Kickboxing, Aqua Strength Training classes in the city. She says that Aqua Circuit Training is the most popular workout. That’s because people like doing three to eight different workouts with different equipments in an hour-long class. “It’s fun, it’s challenging and very goal-oriented, and mainly a high-calorie burner to aid weight loss,” she says.

Aqua Bungee

Yes, you heard that right. Earlier this summer, Jain introduced Aqua Bungee in Mumbai, and so far has taught it to around a hundred people between the age group of 20 to 55, comprising mostly of women. Aqua Bungee is done with a thick circular fitness band, which is looped against the bar of the swimming pool and then exercises are performed against the wall. “We push off against the wall to gain momentum like plyometrics and then perform the exercises that challenge the core and encourage neuromuscular co-ordination. The surprise and flavour of the season is Aqua Bungee,” says Jain, adding that it’s not ideal for newbies and one needs to have some experience in Aqua Fitness. In her Aqua Bunjee class, there are three levels — beginner, intermediate and advanced.

Women overdoing cardio

Chawla has come across many women who are afraid of doing weights, fearing they will bulk up and as a result, they overdo cardio. This is a misconception that women will bulk up of they do weights. Women have low amount of testosterone and hence, will not become bulky after doing weights.

Aerial Trapeze, Aerial Ring 

Former dance choreographer Shruti Jasani conducts classes in Aerial Ring, Aerial Hammock, Trapeze, Aerial Silks and Strength and flexibility as well. She trains around 400 students across classes, above the age of five. “People have recently started showing great interest in Aerial Trapeze and Aerial Ring. A lot of people do Aerial Yoga in the name of Aerial Hammock. But we do the Aerial Hammock, the way its supposed to be done at a height,” she says.

Intermittent Fasting

This is not a diet but a restrictive pattern of eating with many variations. There’s much written about this weight loss strategy and its numerous health benefits like metabolism, lowering risk of type 2 diabetes, increase longevity, to name some. It’s variations include: The 16/8 Method, The 5:2 Diet, Eat Stop Eat, Alternate Day Fasting, The Warrior Diet and Spontaneous Meal Skipping. Pallavi Srivastava explains that Intermittent Fasting is basically a change in eating pattern, it is a cycle which involves eating and fasting in pattern.

Juicing and cold-pressed juices are still going strong

Chawla says that juicing to lose weight and detox still continues to grow in popularity. She says, “Juicing with vegetable juices can help in weight loss as green vegetables and leafy greens possess thermoegenic properties. What many people do is that they have a comibnation of veggies and fruit juices, with fruits like pineapple, mango, stawberries that are high in sugar. This is healthy in comparison to junk food. However, they should opt for fruits that are high in fibre and low in sugar.” She says that if one wants to detox, then juicing for a day is sufficient. Juicing for a week for weight loss won’t wise as it will result in loss of muscle, and when you resume your normal diet after juicing for a week, you will gain back the weight loss.

Powerbocking

Those with an adventurous streak should try Powerbocking. Here, one has to balance his/her body on arc-shaped metal frames called ‘stilts’ and walk, jump, sprint, etc. Rahul Singh, founder of Ultimate Striderz, underwent advanced training in using stilts abroad, has imported these for use in his Powerbocking classes. Rahul explains that one is at a height of 18 inches above the ground, and you can jump in the air at a height of six feet and above and run at the speed of 40 km/hour. Each stilt weighs around 3.5 kg and you can’t stand still on them, you have to keep moving — walking, running, jumping. Doing so improves agility, using your leg muscles, strengthens the core, and utilises around 90 per cent of the body muscles in activity.

Cryotherapy

For those who are looking for something truly unique to enhance their wellness, and shelling out dough is not an issue, they can try Cryotherapy. In a session of whole-body Cryotherapy, the body is exposed to temperatures ranging between -130°C and -150°C with cold air for one to three minutes in a cryochamber. When the body is cooled at such a rapid rate, it goes into ‘survival mode,’ causing the blood to flow to the most vital organs in order to relay more oxygen and nutrients. After the session, enriched and less-toxic blood is flushed back into the rest of the body. Cryotherapy’s beauty benefits include reduction of acne and scars, and skin toning as cryofacial serves as a natural way to build collagen in the body.

Yoga

Doing yoga is always trending and will always be in vogue. Today, people are spoilt for choices with fun variations of yoga to entice those who think yoga is not their cup of tea and are intimidated by it. Nonetheless, it’s yoga in it’s traditional form that finds most takers. Purists scoff at the idea of the fun variation in yoga.

Clean eating

The past few years have witnessed the rise of ‘clean eating’ and it has become a buzz word on social media. The web is flooded with images of delicious healthy, low-cal, protein-rich, organic foods and articles praising its numerous health benefits. Also, recipes on how to prepare these Instagram worthy foods. Clean eating is about eating fresh, organic, unprocessed or minimally processed foods, like the concept of eating from farm to the table. Today, the market is flooded with unhealthy foods laden with pesticides. Pollution and lifestyle diseases are plaguing this age, obesity and diabetes have reached alarming levels, all these factors call for clean eating.