Fitness is fun
Fitness-conscious celebs are on the lookout for exciting forms of exercising like aerial silk fitness, cycling, surfing, boxing and more
By : devika gowri
Update: 2015-09-19 23:47 GMT
A little more than a year ago, Bollywood star Sushmita Sen made waves when she admitted how a lesser known, and obscure form of exercise changed her life — aerial silk fitness. This acrobatic exercise quickly became popular in Mumbai and even inspired the dance sequence in the song Malang in Dhoom 3, where professional dancers from the Cirque du Soleil were hired to train Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif, which only furthered aerial silk’s status.
Closer home, starlet Akshara Gowda has been regularly travelling to Mumbai for lessons in aerial silk fitness under trainer Aditi Deshpande. “I practise yoga, dance, and zumba. But I get bored with that routine. Aerial silk fitness is something new. And after I took a couple of trial classes, I was hooked! The trainers make it a lot more fun by mixing gymnastics, dance and yoga. I like the challenge, since you can’t predict what will happen at each session,” she says excitedly.
Trying out different forms of exercises is a trend in Chennai. Just like aerial fitness combines different forms, celebrities have begun mixing different exercises into their training — from cycling and kickboxing to yoga and weight-lifting. Arya made news recently with his passion for cycling, participating in long-distance races and was recently spotted surfing as well. More than fitness, the challenge behind taking up such activaties is to keep boredom away! Samantha and Rana Daggubati are other Kolly stars seen experimenting with workout styles.
Says actor Allu Sirish, “Boredom is one of the major challenges I face when it comes to exercise. Repetition bores me and I lose interest easily. Also, when you travel, space and time constraints mean exercise goes for a toss. While I self-train, I make sure to mix-and-match my training. I love jogging, which will remain my all-time favourite. I also do yoga and weightlifting. I even tried kick-boxing, cross-fit training and Bikram yoga for sometime,” adding that taking up such exercises is a means for him to improve himself.
Bharath Raj, a physical trainer based out of Chennai, has worked with celebs like Vikram, Sarathkumar, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar and Vikram Prabhu among others. Customised workouts, he says, includes a variety of different forms — even boxing! “While I am not a trained boxer, I learnt its techniques and use it as a key tool in my method of training. Everyone who started with us is into the different forms of exercising,” he concludes.