Sweat 'n' Wild

MANILA, Philippines - Who wants to be just another monkey toiling in the gym jungle? Luckily, we’ve got some interesting options (fitness that’s actually fun) to rock our bodies to. Before summer forces you out of your clothing, here are some hot new workouts you’ll want to sweat to.  

Plana forma

Let it out!” the jaunty young woman rallies, evoking one-half perky cheerleader and one-half women’s rights protester. “Traffic, work, Justin Bieber, I don’t care — let it out!”

It’s a clear order to the eight people sprawled along this mirrored room’s sides, myself the only male, to keep extending our right legs behind us, as if delivering reverse karate kicks. And even if I’m lying on my left side, a wide cushion supporting my upper torso, I’m pretty sure that this is the hardest kick I’ve ever had to execute.

Just as a bunch of seemingly simple resistance movements with your body can surprise by their strenuousness, a lot of things about Plana Forma will deceive you. You’d think someone instructing a class that brings together the disciplines of dance, yoga and Pilates would be some kind of blissed-out space cadet but Celine, this morning’s trainer, is a drill sergeant in the guise of a debutante. They don’t call Forma “Barre3 on steroids” for nothing — like it was the Step Up 3D to Barre3’s Black Swan or the riveting Mila Kunis to the latter’s stiff Natalie Portman. It’s just as fatiguing as Barre3 but fun and fast with the interval training of muscles overworked to their full range of motion, then stretched to lock in on tone rather than bulk. Exercise props like the misleadingly named Playground Ball, a black nylon strap, and the ballet barre could be considered torture devices, the trainer turning actions restless kids do — squeezing a ball between your legs, hanging off a bar and pulling yourself back up — into muscle-tenderizing tribulations.

And then there are the women who dominate a Plana Forma class: the dainty, Lulu Lemon-wearing lot of them that make something this painful look so goddamn effortless. You want proof that women are the stronger sex? Join a Forma class. “I’ve had guy friends send me private messages on Facebook, ashamed ‘cause they want to try the class. (The exercise) is really the man’s best-kept secret now,” Celine tells me after a session, citing Matthew McConaughey as an example of the lean, Michelangelo-sculpted proportions that Forma can be responsible for. “And when guys try the class, boasting that they’re boxers or triathletes, they’re always the ones to end up almost collapsing ‘cause they underestimated it!”

“It’s like I just gave birth,” my female companion gasped after our Plana Forma session. While all those fools at the gym pump iron for hours, a Forma class takes but 55 minutes — an exhilarating alternative for the fast-lane kind of person who can’t take rep-set routine drudgery at the gym and will appreciate a tough, dynamic workout where trainers pack in clientele-appropriate challenges so that no two classes are the same. Dumbbells are light and movements like dancer dips and floor exercises for the core can be girly, especially when done to the tune of Only Girl in the World or Teenage Dream. But to feel like you’ve popped out a baby’s weight in fat and sweat and returned to class with muscles whose strength betrays their lithe yogic form? Deceiving.

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Walk-ins can pay P650 for a single class. Different packages are also available and can be found on www.forma-asia.com. The plana forma studio is located at the 6th floor of the Jecoprime Building, 20th Drive McKinley Business Park, Fort Bonifacio. — Paolo Lorenzana

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Core Kinesis

If hostile-looking exercise machines have long kept you alienated from fitness regimes, then Core Kinesis provides enough aesthetic incentive to stir up the calisthenics competition. Trust us. If we’re talking just appearances here, then this low-impact, 45-minute-long workout really kicks everything else to the curb.

Core Kinesis, at first sight, is seemingly Euro-chic; with all the mechanisms hidden, it gives the system a sleek appearance rather than an intimidating one. Behind the wood cover is a closed-loop cable chain system and rotating pulleys, which are not only responsible for the fluid feel of the machines, but also increases the tension the farther you pull the ropes. This fresh take on exercise allows you more freedom of movement than traditional machines do, with its full-gravity technology — and the graduated resistance means that the harder you push, the more resistance you feel.

The comprehensive but simple workout targets all muscle groups by replicating all your familiar exercises, but it also can provide a huge range of independent movements. Because Core Kinesis follows the body’s natural motions, it expands the quality of exercise, providing greater stability and better core conditioning, while cutting down the workout time enough for maximum efficiency and results. It’s perfect for today’s on-the-goers: those who are slaves to daily schedules and workplaces. Core Kinesis, with its personalized 360-degree motion sovereignty, is the workout for the time-savvy, and maybe even those with A.D.D. Physical competence, combined with exterior confidence, makes Core Kinesis fall perfectly under the category of equipment boasting both beauty and brains.

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Core Kinesis is available at Fort Rock Fitness, Manila Polo Club, McKinley Road, Makati City or The Legend Villas, 60 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City. — Karen Bolilia

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Plyometrics

Plyometrics is a method of power training designed primarily to enhance athletic performance. The program consists of various sets of drills depending on which body parts need concentration, and may be customized to target specific problem areas.

“The concept is nothing new,” Coach Aris Manalo, head of the Strength and Conditioning Unit at more Lorenzo Sports Center, explains. “Games like hopscotch, dodge ball, and Chinese garter are actually (raw) forms of plyometric exercises.”

The workout was common only among competitive athletes until recently, when gyms around the metropolis began to offer one-hour sessions. Ideally, though, the session proper, not including the warm-up, is administered for 15 to 20 minutes — just enough time for three to four sets of exercises.

Coach Aris points out that plyometrics is only part of a regimen, and must go hand in hand with resistance training.

“(Plyometrics) develops muscular explosiveness, while resistance training strengthens the muscles,” he clarifies. “Both should be part of the program, because plyometrics is useless if you have weak muscles in the first place. Chances are you may even get hurt.”

The word “explosive” frequently comes up in plyometrics. Each drill aims to generate maximum power from certain muscle regions, and caters to either the upper or lower body. Drills that work on the upper body typically include throws — such as the sidehead, overhead, or squat throws — while lower-body exercises are made up of jumps — the tuck and standing broad jumps and the ankle hop, to name a few.

The “shock method” stimulates fast-twitch muscles, thereby improving speed, metabolism, agility and general, well, explosiveness in movement.

For first-timers coach Aris suggests starting with a basic strengthening program to prepare the body for the high-intensity workout. “After a few weeks, plyometrics may then be added to the program — twice a week, for beginners, should be enough of a challenge.”

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Sessions are available at Paolo’s Boot Camp in Metro Club, Estrella St. cor. Amapola, Makati City, across Rockwell and at Colegio San Agustin, Dasmarinas Village (call Paolo Villarroel at 895-9986); Moro Lorenzo Sports Center inside Ateneo, along Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights, Quezon City (call 426-6001 loc. 4692); Fort Rock, 8101 Pearl Plaza, Pearl Drive, Pasig City (by appointment only. Call 0915-814-0227). — Manica Tiglao