Drumboxing, turkey tail mushrooms and the high street gut shot everyone will be talking about. Here’s your guide to getting fit this year……….
Finding the treadmill a bit of a, well, treadmill? Luckily there are a host of new ways to get fit — and stay fit — this year. Strength training seems to be bigger than ever. According to the workout booking app Mindbody, more than 60 per cent of its customers now include weight or strength training in their exercise routines. In 2024, say, experts, isometric training, a form of strength building with minimal movements, such as planks and wall sits, is drawing all the hype. Think it sounds easy? Think again. “Isometric exercises feel challenging after several seconds or minutes because there’s constant tension on the muscles,” the fitness expert Louisa Drake says. “This training can be really useful for improving muscular endurance and posture by strengthening and stabilising the muscles.” Don’t replace your usual workout for a 45-minute plank, though. Drake advises adding one to the end of each of your sets and increasing the duration each time. Try training for over 30 minutes at 60-75 per cent of your maximum heart rate No, we’re not talking about the London Underground, rather the second of five heart-rate zones that are reached according to the intensity of movement. Zone two exercises are more intense than zone one activities, such as Pilates and yoga, but less intense than the sweatier zone three options, including HIIT. Think running, cycling, rowing, swimming and elliptical training. How do you know when you’ve reached zone two? “You should be working over 30 minutes at 60-75 per cent of your maximum heart rate,” the performance coach Lewis Prosser says. “This usually means moving at a pace at which you can just about hold a conversation.” It shouldn’t feel too easy, but slow and steady does win the race here — holding a sustainable pace is the goal. Prosser recommends training this way once a week for a minimum of 30-60 minutes. You could add it to the end of a strength session, for example, by jumping on the bike for 30 minutes, or going for a long, well-paced run when you have more time on your hands. The creator of Drumboxing describes it as a “brain fitness” exercise Where else to look for the very freshest fitness trends than Los Angeles? The latest class craze to take the city by storm is Drumboxing and, yes, it is exactly what you think: drumming and boxing. Described as a “brain fitness” exercise by its creator, the percussionist John Wakefield, it combines Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms with boxing moves to challenge your brain and body. Wakefield has been teaching the technique to boxers and athletes for more than a decade, and now that he has opened a studio in Malibu with his business partner, Christina Hinds, celebrities want in on the action. Cindy Crawford and LeAnn Rimes are said to be regulars. Watch this space. Think a holiday means a break from the gym? Not any more! This year, fitness-focused retreats are the places to be.
For bouji bench presses
Trips to Daios Cove, Crete, with the luxury boxing gym BXR combine the refreshing qualities of a beach holiday with challenging workouts. Sign up for a week in May or October and expect a mix of strength and conditioning training, boxing skills, yoga and Pilates. The highlight? Being competitive with your new retreat friends in the famous BXR Games.
From £3,300, bxrlondon.com
For skogis (ski-loving yogis)
Lycra up for snowga and off-piste mindfulness on the Our Retreat trip to Chamonix later this month. The week of skiing, yoga and meditation is made all the more soothing by the accommodation: a luxury catered chalet in the glittering Alps.
From £1,550 per person, ourretreat.co.uk
For wellness warriors
Healing, but make it a cruise. This year the spiritual teacher and author Deepak Chopra (guru to the Duchess of Sussex and Oprah) is teaming up with Swan Hellenic to offer six Explore & Restore cruises to locations from Greece to the Bahamas. Expect Ayurvedic meals, meditation and yoga.
From £3,500 per person for six days, swanhellenic.com The hashtag #WallPilates has had more than 20 million views on TikTok and, according to the PureGym UK Fitness Report 2023-24, interest in the exercise has increased 4,461 per cent year on year. It is what it sounds: Pilates with the support of a wall to add resistance to the movements. Its benefits are said to include improved flexibility and mobility and relief from back pain. Don’t ditch the reformer, though. “Wall Pilates can never replace the benefits of using apparatus and the hands-on support of a teacher in a studio,” Gaby Noble, founder of Exhale Pilates, says. If you’re not sure where to begin, try this wall-assisted shoulder roll-down at home for a fail-safe start:
Step one
Lie on your back with your feet on the wall and your knees bent. Your calves should be parallel to the floor.
Step two
Inhale as you press into the wall with your feet and lift your hips into a bridge position.
Step three
Keep your abs and glutes connected as you hold for three to five seconds, then exhale as you melt the spine and hips back down. Repeat three to five times Last year was the year of the Pilates reformer, so it’s no surprise that 2024’s fitness brag is to have your own at home. Enter the Reform RX — think Peloton but for Pilates. It launched in America last year and since then, everyone who’s anyone has cleared a corner of the living room to display theirs. It offers more than 100 on-screen workouts led by the instructors of A-listers such as Jennifer Aniston and Kate Hudson. And all for a cool £6,895 (plus shipping). In the age of longevity, everyone’s out to get fitter — especially boomers (sorry, Mum). More than half of adults aged 59-77 say that they prioritise wellness now more than they ever have before, according to a report by the workout booking app Mindbody, while in excess of a third view strength training as more important than other wellness activities. But they are also less likely to attend group classes than younger people and only 5 per cent visit boutique studios such as Barry’s Bootcamp and 1Rebel. Grab your dumbbells! A rise in classes tailored to mature groups is predicted in 2024 to bridge the gap. Some have arrived already: in London, the YMCA Club has a programme for over-sixties, and the Aquarius Centre in Manchester offers group workouts for over-50s followed by cups of tea. Step away from the Diet Coke! Waitrose reports that sales of magnesium supplements are up 33 per cent and searches for sparkling magnesium water have risen 1,067 per cent this year. Why the hype? The mineral plays a key role in healthy muscle function, heart rhythm, blood pressure and blood sugar levels and helps to support the immune system. Make ours a pint.
The PT power couple
Sammy McNess @sammymcness
Yaz Garcia @yazmariagarcia
Follow ex-Team GB boxer Sammy and his master-trainer fiancé, Yaz, for boxing combos, heavy lifting and #couplegoals.
The no-nonsense coach
Kirk Miller @kirkmiller_
If you need some motivation and aren’t scared of honesty, follow Kirk. He breaks through the wellness jargon and takes it back to straight talking and supersets.
The feelgood fitspo
Danni Berg @i_am_danni_b
Whether you’re into squats or the splits, Danni’s grid is full of great workouts for women, with tips for cardio, strength training and flexibility.
The running realist
Cory Wharton-Malcolm @bitbeefy
The Apple Fitness+ trainer Cory’s approach to fitness is refreshing, with a mantra of “one run at a time”. He compiles great playlists too. His book, All You Need Is Rhythm and Grit, is released on Thursday.