Workout Rut Busters!
   by KaronKarter

There are some new moves in town and hard bodies beware, for they just might muscle you in. Moves so hot that they’ll spice up the blandest of regimes. And now that swimsuit season is upon us, we thought it would be the perfect time to introduce these unique workouts to transform your body and soul.

Let’s face it: You can’t wish yourself thin! But you can get off the couch for these real-fun workouts. Even if you worship spin class, hunger to pump iron, or stretch with the best of them, your workout might scream autopilot. A little extra “joie de vivre” keeps you and your muscles from getting bored. This muscle boredom propels your body into a plateau state–meaning no new definition.

By changing your routine from time to time, your muscles will respond with a new you. Of course, we’re not suggesting that you trash your daily exercise routine, but try these new workouts for a little variety. After all, would you eat at the same restaurant night after night?

The Ballet Workout
Why should Ballet dancers be the only ones with beautiful legs–just muscles, tendons, and not an ounce of fat? You, too, can have such legs on or off the stage. If you haven’t done a plie, releve, and passé since grade school, then here’s your chance.

You’ll sashay through classic ballerina positions: ballet stretches to warm up the body, an abdominal series to strengthen the core (all those muscles that make up your posture), a ballet barre routine to help improve your coordination and balance, a dancer’s regimen to sculpt, strengthen and lengthen your legs, and finally arabesque your way through choreography to get your heart pumping all flowing together to the beat of Tschaikovsky.

The result: that “long look” and poised posture of a dancer. Sure, you might feel like Daffy Duck (no offense, ducks) rather than swan-like during the makeover process; but, dare we suggest, check your ego at the door.

Even if you’re zigging when everyone else is zagging, you get to move like a dancer – pretend you’re Baryshnikov. Or put another way, it’s a new way to squat and lunge. So, savor the calorie burn, take pride in your bottom lift and show off those to die for legs.

The Belly Dancer’s Workout
From the streets of Cairo to the hardwoods of Dallas, arrives Belly dancing, formally called “Oriental dancing.” No, you won’t charm a snake out of a basket, but intensely tone your abs and shimmy your butt away.

So, call off the search for the perfect class. With the exception of Pilates, here it is. We have heard a lot about the benefits of core conditioning, lately: that it improves posture, flattens the mid-section and reduces common backaches. However, tightening your tummy is not a new concept. Belly dancers have been shaking their bellies since ancient times. Contrary to popular belief, belly dancing was not invented by concubines to seduce the Sultan; it originated as an ancient folk dance to celebrate joyous occasions and the beginning of life.

In this class, you’ll celebrate your body as you shimmy your hips and gyrate your belly while learning mesmerizing movements of Middle Eastern belly dance. Just think, every tissue in your body can shake like a bowl of Jell-O, and it’s okay! Don’t leave home without a sarong and finger cymbals.

Gyrotonics
Gyro’s promise, “you’ll go beyond narcissistic repetition and find the unexplored parts of the body,” says its founder Juliu Horvath.

His philosophy: move your limbs in circular movements in a slow controlled manner to expand your range of motion, increase flexibility, loosen joints, and build strength. Gyrotonics has been described as yoga in motion.

Simply put, it’s you, an instructor and a machine; an apparatus that looks like a NASA-invented bench press chair donning weight plates, leather straps, and pulleys. In any given session, your teacher will guide you through a non-impact total body workout that glides the spine in all directions while strengthening your limbs.

For example, you’ll stretch out on the seat and wrap the straps around your feet. After stabilizing your spine to the bench, you’ll then move your legs in smooth arcs to complete the leg circle series. If lucky, you’ll score some hands-on stretching that feels oh-so-good.

Although Gyrotonics is completely safe for all ages and fitness levels, the circular patterns are foreign movements. You may feel a little uncoordinated, at first.

Don’t throw in the towel, Gyrotonics can be a powerful and precise yet gentle and fluid workout. The hour may run $55 to $65 per hour.

The Inner Body Workout
Maybe you’re dreaming of wearing your favorite pair of jeans, touching your toes, or improving your posture. Whether you want to get better or feel better, the Inner Body Workout gives you knowledge and power you weren’t aware you had.

The moves are slow, thoughtful and deliberate. They target deep muscles, those that are often neglected in traditional fitness classes, like your core muscles. About a century ago, Amy Cochran, a doctor of gynecology and obstetrics, set out to develop an exercise regime to strengthen the muscles of the spine and pelvis. She eventually expanded her work to include strengthening the body’s weaker muscles to enhance body alignment and acquire a deeper understanding of you.

For example: where do you hold stress in your body; why is one shoulder higher than the other; or why is the right side stiffer than the left. These questions can be answered during class as you begin to explore daily habits that affect your overall health. That’s fulfilling your potential, reaching mind, body and soul intelligence.

No, you won’t break a sweat, pound the pavement or swing from the rafters, but those hidden muscles will talk to you the next day.

The Krav Maga Workout
Krav Maga teaches you to go from passive to aggressive in a heartbeat. It instructs you to survive, fight to win. It prepares you physically and emotionally for street survival: chokes, tackles, kicks, punches, grabs, and headlocks.

Krav Maga gives you “to-die-for-definition,” yet one day may save your life. The story is that Imi Lichtenfeld developed these fighting skills to save his life from threats of Anti-Semitism in his homeland of Bratislava, Czechoslovakia and brought them to the battlefields of the Middle East to fight for the formation of Israeli.

Today, these same fighting techniques have evolved into the official hand-to-hand combat system for the Israeli military, known as Krav Maga, which means “Contact Combat.”

What if: you’re unexpectedly grabbed? Tackled to the ground? Dragged to a dark alley? In a typical Krav Maga class, you’ll learn techniques that have been tested in real, life threatening situations such as these.

You’ll fight your way into fitness by punching and kicking to prepare you to defend against a physical attack. Then you’ll practice a series of self-defense drills that will hone your natural instincts and teach you to control stress and overcome fatigue.

By that time, you’re whipped and want to go home, but that’s when the teacher demands the most out of you. For the remainder of class, you’ll rehearse, over and over again, self-defense tactics. (Chokeholds, for example; I can still feel my classmate’s hands around my neck.)

This class is worth the bloody knuckles, given the perilous world we now live in.

NIA Class
How about a new approach to cardio? A cardio workout that is based on rejuvenation, enlightenment, and gives you a strong body while reacquainting you with your spirit. A cardio class that liberates your toes and relieves your knees from high impact moves. You can leave your sneakers behind.

NIA or Neuromuscular Integrated Action, evolved out of the Jane Fonda workout scene; remember wearing silly leg warmers and heaps of skin-tight spandex. Nia, though, is about fulfilling your potential. You won’t sweat it out to get the supposedly “perfect body” thin, thinner, thinnest.

Rather Nia is a holistic approach to fitness that goes beyond the physical realm. In 1982, Nia’s creators Debbie and Carlos Rosas, set out to develop an expressive movement class that gets you sweating yet embraces your own creativity and self-empowerment. During any given class, you’ll boogie the hour away with a variety of moves such as Latin infusion, African tribal, Cuban samba, jazz, hip-hop, and aerobics. Even if you’re not light on your feet, it’s about surrendering to the music, dancing to your health.

Yoga Wall Ropes
There’s a new “toon” in town, which might rope you in. Imagine hanging from the rafters, back bending off a wall and airlifting your down dog; yoga has gone high flying.

Even though you’re transcending through space, the “union” between mind, body, and soul, which is the Sanskrit meaning of yoga, is still honored. If you’re new to yoga, you may not recognize the name Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, but he influenced most of the yoga practiced today worldwide: Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Viniyoga.

The legend is that he, too, invented the yoga wall rope series drawing on wrestling moves. In our time, the yoga wall ropes have three purposes: help correctly align your asana (yoga poses); attain a deeper state of relaxation to tie the mind to the asana; and heal and stretch the body from tip to toe. The ropes may be part of a traditional yoga class.

You’ll chant a few “Oms”to clear your mind, twist through various asanas on the mat, and then wind down on the ropes to reap the restorative benefits of yoga. Or, you can enroll in a wall rope class. A workout designed to suspend you through a series of asanas, so you can experience the poses more deeply.