Working out comes with a twist

In a city where working out on a daily basis is becoming important,  there are plenty of workouts that one can opt to do. And in order to achieve those, a good workout partner is important. The interesting thing is that you don't really need another human being as your workout buddy. It can be a pet or a bottle of beer in your hand. Oh yes, fitness enthusiasts are all about experimenting these days.

Chaitra Ramu, a business development professional, has been working out for a couple of years and she believes that exercise is a combination of mind and body. She says, "The expansion and variations of today's fitness workouts are mind-blowing. The new concept of beer yoga and workouts with pets is trending and exciting. For those who chose to workout in their own space,  exercising with pets is a great stress buster."

"I would love to workout with pets. Nothing can keep one's mind more active than a pet while working out. Exercising is all about focus, so if you don't let you your pet take that away, it'll be a lot of fun," she adds.  

Muthu Kumar, a fitness enthusiast, also agrees that this social media trend of promoting exercising in non-traditional ways is quite cool.  But he does hope that it doesn't catch on. He explains, "It's great that people are finding new ways to amuse themselves while working out, predominantly with beer and working out with pets. It's a good way to get one pumped up, especially if they think that the traditional way of exercising is too tedious. So the more you work out the lighter way, the more you'll realise how much fun it is to  exercise and then opt to  do more of traditional ones later on."  

With beer being an unhealthy drink, Muthu says that it's best not to use it as a prop while exercising. "Drinking and having other junk food is generally avoided when you're working out so why have it now? To be honest, the trend of beer yoga is an oxymoron. But if that gets people to join the healthy lifestyle wagon, maybe you can give it a try," he adds. For freelance CrossFit level 2 instructor Prashanth Ponnappa, sticking to traditional methods is enough. "I don't think you need a bottle in your hand or a pet to work out with.  Comedian Sanjay Manaktala made a spoof of beer yoga calling it 'biryani yoga'.  This is just a gimmick and people who are promoting this someone watching them work out.  There was a group who wanted to start beer yoga in the city but the event had to be cancelled last minute," he says.

"Having said that, youngsters are more inclined to this kind of workouts. Someone somewhere is always finding a way to innovate the methods of exercising and attract the crowd. You have to realise that works for you and start working towards that. So the goal is to think why you started when you feel like quitting and stick to the healthy lifestyle," says Prashanth.