How to dance your way to health and fitness

Dust off your dance shoes – disco fever is taking over the workout world. Here’s how to work dance into your fitness regime.

Dynamic dance floors, strobe lighting and booming beats are commanding centre stage in the latest fitness trend to sweep through indoor cycling classes, fitness studios and even yoga mats.

It’s time to dance.

Shake your booty like Beyoncé

The world is going crazy right now for the butt-popping, body-rolling moves of Queen B. And you can dance like a diva too – or at least try.

The curvaceous superstar has spawned a dance-fitness movement around Australia and the globe, transforming amateurs into dancing queens through workshops teaching “Beyography”. For the true believers, there are even spin-offs like Bey Flashmobs, Bey Yoga and Beylesque.

But if you’d prefer to bust out some Britney or break dance like Bieber, dance studios around Australia, including Body Electric and The Cultmunity, are teaching the intricate moves to some of the best pop music videos in sweaty, fat-burning sessions.

New spin on indoor cycling

Spin classes are pedalling the fun factor, turning gruelling sessions into a nightclub-style cycle through DJ-mixed soundtracks.

Melbourne’s Bodhi and Ride pledges to fire motivation to new levels with whole-body cardio workouts in “underground sweat chambers”, which are designed by a nightclub architect and come with strobe lights and pulsing music.

Vicious Cycle Sydney’s rhythm riding studio has live DJ sessions, while LA Fit Studio in Perth promotes its “Ride” classes as a dance party.

Ravin crew at @activelifeessex ? ???

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Hangover-free clubbing

What could be better than donning fluoro lycra, waving around flashing LED glow sticks and partying like it’s 1999? Perhaps the knowledge that you are burning around 600 calories per session.

London’s Clubbercise craze has arrived in Melbourne, Perth, the Gold Coast and Adelaide. It’s described as “exercise in disguise”, with nightclub lighting, tracks from the ‘90s to today and easy-to-learn aerobics and club dance moves.

“Everyone gets so into it because it’s a fusion of dance, toning and combat moves with our signature LED glow sticks – perfect under the dimmed lights,” says Clubbercise trainer Jade Purdie.

Disco yoga

It’s enough to make a yoga purist stumble during their sun salutation – but you’ll want to Nama-stay long after the disco yoga class has ended.

Silent yoga discos and yoga classes combined with freestyle dance and live DJs are popping up all over the nation, attracting a new breed of yogi to an ancient practice that’s beneficial for the body and the mind.

No Lights, No Lycra

Dancing like nobody is watching is always easier in the dark.

That’s the philosophy behind this growing No Lights, No Lycra groove movement, where groups of self-conscious people congregate to let their hair down, let themselves go and burn unwanted calories.

From jazz hands to interpretive dance and hip hop, anything goes at these events, which started in Melbourne and have gone global.

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Written by Elissa Doherty

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