Fit & Proper: If gym bores you, try out these routines

With technology ruling our lives, making us lazy and less physically productive, the need to motivate ourselves to step out or hit the gym has become more important than ever. However, a lot of people do not find treadmills and steppers motivating enough. For them, here are some new fitness trends of the year that can make exercising fun rather than a tedious routine.

Nature workout: This is an attempt at getting people out of the closed gym area and into the open air. The workout routine, which includes stretching, planks, hurdle crossing and meditation, helps improve the blood flow to every part of the body and rejuvenates the muscles and tissues.

Masala bhangra: This high energy dance workout to bhangra music is perfect for burning fat.

Rip 60: This form of exercise is quite popular in gymnasiums abroad. This is a body weighted suspension-style of training. It consists of hundreds of both off- and on-strap movements and relies upon the user's body weight for resistance. This fitness routine works by recreating natural human movement patterns.

Battle rope: This form of exercise was originally developed for combat sports such as mixed martial arts. It is also used in football training. This is an intense full-body workout that focuses on speed, core stability and strength. Battle rope training, which uses super-sized ropes, is said to burn about 10 calories per minute.

Plyometrics: Also known as 'jump training' or 'plyos', this is a special form of exercise that focuses on exerting the muscle using maximum force within short intervals of time. This involves a series of jumps and hops such as jump squats or one-leg hops. You may even jump over or onto boxes or hop over other hurdles.

Ashish Gupta
Director, Gold's Gym, Gurgaon