With fitness becoming top priority for most people in the urban scenario, the health and wellness sector has become a space to constantly innovate and bring in newer fitness routines to break the monotony, challenge one's body and increase fitness levels. Staying fit is no longer about just pumping iron or running on a treadmill; it is about adding variety and intensity to one’s workout.
The 40/20 routine, where one does 40 minutes of strength training and spends the next 20 minutes doing another routine like yoga, pilates, swimming or kettlebell exercises for example, is the latest trend to have caught on with fitness enthusiasts.
Interspersing a fitness routine with another type of physical activity is a great way to beat monotony as well as amp up the intensity of the work out and challenge ones body. After all, who wants to do hour after hour of cardio and strength training every day of the week?
“People are looking to add variety to their workout these days and the 40/20 trend is a great way to beat the monotony as well,” says Dr. Daniel Suman, divisional head, fitness at Apollo Life. “Since a traditional work out can get boring, we encourage our clients to break up their work outs and dedicate 20 minutes of their exercise hour doing something different like swimming, kickboxing, pilates, cross weights or even basketball and football. The 20- minute regime changes every day to kill monotony and adds variation to an individual’s workout sessions. The whole idea is to adopt a more holistic approach to health and fitness and suggest regimes based on an individual’s strength, stamina and cardiac levels,” he explains.
Fitness enthusiasts too are rather upbeat about the new trend and say that it does help beat monotony and keep them interested. “I love to work out but I must admit that it can get boring to do the same routines every day. So I love to add a little variation to my exercise routine every once in a while. I love to swim so I reserve weekends for that; besides it’s a great full body workout. On weekdays, I break up my exercise hour into two, where I spend either 30 or 40 minutes doing cardio and strength training and the remaining time doing yoga. It’s a great way to cool down after sweating it out,” says Vrinda K., a software professional.
Keeping with the trend, fitness centres too are designing fitness packages accordingly. “We have a specialised area called the hardcore zone where our members do a lot of plyometrics, kettlebell exercises and kickboxing among others after spending 30 to 40 minutes doing a regular workout. The 40/20 routine seems to be quite popular with people between the ages of 20 to 45 where the focus is on staying fit and building a lean body. A traditional workout is time consuming, and for people targeting fat loss, these high intensity workouts show more positive results. Also, people like to push their limits, challenge their bodies and do functional exercises,” says Kuldeep Sethi, director, 360 Degree Fitness.
