Dubai: If you are like me, feeling a bit restless about not reaching your fitness goals despite all efforts, then it could be that your weight has reached a plateau.
What does this mean?
One of the first lessons any fitness guru will tell you about losing weight, is how closely it is connected to your metabolism. Your Basal Metabolic Rate is how many calories your body burns without you doing any movement.
The more weight you lose, the more your metabolism declines, causing you to burn fewer calories than you did when you were heavier. It is a sad truth.
At some point the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, so you reach a state that is called a plateau. In order to lose more weight, you need to up your game or make a drastic change.
What this means is that you need to increase your physical activity and the level of fitness, or decrease your calorie intake.
From my personal experience of weight loss – another way to shock your body is to try different fitness routines. It helps and it works.
Timing could not be better
With the Dubai Fitness Challenge back in action and fitness lovers in the city going all out to show us what they've got, there's a massive list of activites available for anyone to try for free. It is pretty much like shopping an entire list of new and exciting fitness workouts.
So on Friday (October 25) I decided to try a new class myself.
During this month long fitness fiesta, my plan is to try at least two new fitness workouts that I haven't tried before, just so I can get out of my comfort zone and push my limits. Again the idea is to shock the body so we can get those numbers on the scale sliding down. So here I am, doing my part of the Dubai Fittness Challenge.
What did I do?
I tried out a new exercise called Pound. And boy was it fun - not to mention exhausting - what with the sun coming down pretty harsh on all those gathered at the Fitness Village at Kite Beach. There were many curious eyes wondeering what the green sticks were all about. More on that later.
What is Pound?
It is a combination of cardio and strength training and includes Pilates and yoga inspired movements. “It is a full-body workout that usually lasts 45 minutes,” says Ezran Consul, a Pound PRO, Group Exercise Instructor and Personal Trainer.
“It involves alternate squatting and standing, which directly works on core and back muscles, not to mention inner and outer thighs.”
But as Consul adds, this exercise is a full body workout. “Key is to maintain the right posture to get the full benefit of the exercise.”
These colorful sticks – what are they?
They are light-weight (1/4-lb) drumsticks and are referred to as ripstix. They add a fun element to the whole workout routine. From my personal experience with this workout, the sticks help to pick up on the beat and when there is a number like Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' playing on – you definitely want to pound and drum the choreography away.
What can I say? This is pretty addictive.
“The ripstix are light weight, but they can help tone forearms, upper arms, chest, and shoulders,” adds Consul.
How many calories did I burn?
“At least 500 during the 45-minute high-intensity session. Combining a cardio workout with interval and strength training is a great way to burn calories during a workout as well as build muscle that helps you burn calories when you are at rest,” says Consul.
Each 2-4 minute song is calibrated with interval peaks, fat burning sequences. At the end of a 45-minute session one would have completed 15,000 reps with several techniques.
Why am I drawn to this?
For me personally, it is the music which completely exhilarated me. The mood is very positive with people pounding their ripstix and making some noise.
What next?
The challenge is on and so is my motivation. I will be trying two more workouts before the month-long fitness challenge ends. They are not new workouts per se, as Pound has been around for almost ten years, but only gained popularity two years ago.
However, it is a new workout for me. I haven’t tried it before and I wanted to push my limits, get out of my comfort zone and go hard on myself. I already feel a change in my weight (for the better). Now, all that is needed is zip the mouth to high calorie foods. That is definitely the hardest part.
