Fresh start to fitness in the new year
Cape Town-140115- Outdoor Gyms have a national vision of collaborating with the private and public sector in addressing health and fitness issues in South Africa. The recent addition of an outdoor gym to the Sea Point promenade has seen scores more individuals flocking to its doorstep. Photo: Ross Jansen
Cape Town. 090114. Virgin Active’s mission is to bring positive change to people’s lives, because life’s more fun when you move. Virgin Active Health Clubs help thousands of members to get moving and feel great. Picture Leon Lestrade. Story Rebecca Jackman
Cape Town - January is generally the time for fresh starts, and top among the resolutions of the new year must surely be more exercise – either a new approach to fitness, or just to try for some fitness at all.
Les Aupiais, head of strategic communications for Virgin Active in South Africa, agrees that January is the key month during which people set health and fitness goals for the year ahead.
And the good it’ll do them goes way beyond a better physique.
Virgin Active conducted a survey of 22 000 members last year, and found that being active also made people happier, and boosted their self-esteem.
But starting is one thing, and continuing throughout the year quite another.
At Virgin Active the choices include everything from 24-minute classes for people with time constraints, to Zumba, spinning, swimming or Nova, a combination of Pilates and yoga where you use your body to get stronger and more flexible. If Nova’s not for you, Yogazone, the original hot yoga studio in Cape Town, might be more your thing.
Owner and yogi of 14 years Fulvio Grandin established the studio 12 years ago.
He says he always sees a spike in customers in January, when many who have dropped out make a return, while others start for the first time.
“People see yoga as key, not only for health and fitness, but also for stress relief and mental health.”
Grandin encourages people to stay on for at least a couple of months before expecting to see major results.
These range from sleeping better to better mental health, and changes in the body. In winter hot yoga becomes even more appealing, when people are less interested in exercising outdoors.
Grandin says they have hundreds of people through the door each month wanting to try something new, and the studio tries to make exercise as appealing and affordable as possible to keep them coming.
But if it’s too hot in the studio, what could be more cool (in all senses) and outdoorsy than surfing.
Gary Kleynhans, owner of Gary’s Surf School in Muizenberg, recommends surfing as a form of medicine, which, he says, cures a range of ailments, from old hip or back injuries to grumpiness.
“If I’m grumpy, my wife tells me to go for a surf, because I come back another man.
“Surfing is a brilliant fitness tool and a form of medicine. It’s the best medicine one can get. Our passion here is just turning grumpy people into happy people. If we can’t put a smile on your dial then no one can.”
Kleynhans, 50, has been surfing his whole life, and has been teaching for 25 years. He teaches children of all ages – the youngest so far being four and the oldest 71, because “it’s never too late to start surfing”.
The school promises that if you don’t get up on the board in your first lesson, you can get your money back. But Kleynhans says you just need to be taught properly once to want to surf for the rest of your life.
In a city like Cape Town the opportunities are endless, with an abundance of outdoor activities (don’t forget the free gym circuit on the Sea Point Promenade) and studios teaching just about anything, from boxing and martial arts to Pilates and pole dancing.
Just keep moving, Cape Town. - Weekend Argus