Best of the Gold Coast 2018: 11 of the best group fitness workouts on the Coast
IF you’re going to burn, you may as well do it with friends. Amber Macpherson and Denise Raward find the Gold Coast’s 11 hottest group fitness workouts.
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IF you’re going to burn, you may as well do it with friends. Amber Macpherson and Denise Raward find the Gold Coast’s hottest group fitness workouts.
Kadara Capoeira
4/7 United Rd, Ashmore
KADARA Capoeira (pronounced cap-OH-wear-ah) is a martial arts school with an interesting history.
First offered on the Gold Coast in 2010, Capoeira teaches the art of self-defence developed by African slaves in Brazil in the 1500s.
“When African slaves were brought to Brazil, they realise that slavery was never going to be abolished unless they do something about it,” Gold Coast instructor Phellipe Mello says.
“They did martial arts in disguise with a dance and music.
“It looks like they’re dancing but they’re fighting. They used a lot of that to fight for their freedom.
“They describe it as a martial arts involving dance.”
In the classes, students are taught striking and dodging techniques while instructors play indigenous South American and African instruments.
“Everything’s told by music. It’s telling people what games they’re doing, whether it’s an aggressive game, or passive game,” Phellipe says.
Phellipe says his classes increase lower and upper body strength, flexibility, encourage weight loss and foster confidence.
“When you’re on the floor, you’re constantly in the squat position,” he says.
“If you’re using your legs to strike, your upper body plays a huge part.
“We’ve had a lot of good results, a lot of the results getting people physically fitter but also mentally.
“We’ve seen shy people becoming more social, not confident people becoming more confident.”
Iron ZUU
2/63 Township Dr, Burleigh Heads
THIS global fitness phenomenon founded on the Gold Coast is all about “liberating human movement”. The workouts are based on using your body for strength training in movements that engage all of your muscles together. There’s a lot of crawling, jumping, bending and squatting, but it’s a cardio and strength workout like no other. “We really focus a lot of our class around increasing mobility and injury prevention,” operations manager Dirk Gardner says. “A lot of our moves are animal moves, it’s based around getting people to move better, getting people to move like they did when they kid. Getting strength for someone carrying a baby, getting people to the ground, strength through wrists, elbows and joints. When you’re doing a bear crawl, all of your muscles are engaged. The body was designed to move as a system, to move as one.” The classes are popular with elite athletes, sporting clubs, rehabilitation patients and everyday folk for ease of movement in daily life. If you can’t get down to Burleigh Heads, the school is excited to announce a gym in Southport will be opening soon.
Barre Fitness
Xtend Barre, 3 Park Ave, Burleigh Heads
If you think a barre workout is akin to pub hopping, think again. Barre fitness is a new-age workout popular among women looking to develop toned bods like dancers. The classes involve a ballet bar and barre equipment, combining pilates, dance and yoga to achieve lean muscle and increase strength. Xtend Barre in Burleigh Heads says you’ll have the shape of a dancer in no time when you sign up to its classes. “You might not be a dancer but you sure will look like one once you start at this beautiful boutique fitness studio,” co-owner Tiffany Murphy says. “Founded on pilates, every Xtend Barre class is choreographically different, keeping clients engaged and motivated. There is a reason and purpose for every exercise, so clients continually learn about the capacity of their own body through expert instruction. Boutique class sizes ensure that instructors know everyone in the class, their challenges and their goals.”
Next level yoga
G23 Fitness, The Brickworks, Warehouse Rd, Southport
G23 Fitness at Southport offers next level yoga classes for women. Not only can you swing from the ceiling with aerial yoga, G23 fitness holds ‘Surfset’ yoga classes — like stand up paddle board yoga, but on land, in a gym room. “Aerial yoga is one of the best hip openers and it elevates your spine,” G23 founder Georgie Leake says. “It’s a good way to deal with back problems, tight glutes … There’s so many different exercises to help muscle groups. Surfsets is like a stability board. You’re constantly having to balance on the board, which is great for your core. We use TRX bands, they’re a training band to help stretch and balance.”
Lights Out and Dance
Runaway Bay and Burleigh Heads
Founder Karleen Harrington was that girl who spent every weekend of her youth on the dance floor. She invites other dance lovers to leave their inhibitions at the door for a good, old-fashioned boogie and, just in case they don’t, she makes sure no-one will see them anyway because she turns the lights off. “It doesn’t matter what you look like, what you wear, how you dance,” Karleen says. “It’s a place to feel free of any judgment, unwind and just get lost in the music.” The beats are a selection of calorie-burning old school Motown, disco, pop, rock with a bit of hip hop thrown in. “We dance for 60-75 minutes and at the end, everyone is a joyful, sweaty mess, clapping and cheering, and feeling absolutely great.”
KX pilates
1a/31 Hillcrest Parade, Miami
There are 12 reformer machines at KX’s Miami studio where the workouts veer from traditional pilates to more dynamic, high intensity workouts using dumbbells and jumpboards to incorporate an element of cardio. “Exercises on the machines are different to doing them on the ground because it introduces balance and engages stabilising muscles,” owner Linda Wisbey says. “It never gets easy because the exercises change, you can increase or decrease the resistance (sometimes decreasing is harder) or take heavier handweights.” Throw in some good vibes music and a supportive group dynamic and you’ve got an all-over 50 minute workout that gets those endorphins flowing.
Tai Chi — Active & Healthy program
Various locations
Who hasn’t stumbled upon the mesmerising tai chi sessions in some of the most beautiful natural spaces on the Gold Coast? The City Council’s Active and Healthy program provides free tai chi to all-comers in parks around the city. Tai Chi is a 4000 year old form of light, gentle exercise devised for monks to balance mind-body energy. Brad Holmes of the Australian Academy of Tai Chi says local participants range from in age from three to 100 and it’s suitable for all fitness levels, able-bodied or disabled. “We get people walking past who’ll just join in,” he says. “It’s easy to do, easy to remember and everyone is always welcome.”
Spin House
2/11 Sunshine Parade, Miami
Joel Grech and the team of personal trainers at Spin House know how to put the pedal to the metal. The high intensity workout on stationary cycle machines can see you burn hundreds of calories in less than an hour. Working on strength and cardio, instructor Joel Grech says Spin House mixes it up with two types of classes. “Our performance classes target specific outcomes whether it be energy system development or neuromuscular adaptations,” Joel says. “Our workout classes are focused on strength, core and having fun! We work half the class on the bike and then finish with body weight strength or core related exercises. Being a bike, because it’s low impact, you can do it quite frequently without getting the muscle soreness. We’ve got a guy who burns 1000 calories every hour. On average you see about 500 calories-plus (per class).”
Salt Performance Training
Various locations
Salt Performance Training traditionally builds up muscle and strength for increasing your skills on a surfboard, but founder Marcos Freitas says you don’t have to be a grommet to join up. “It’s for everybody,” Marcos says. “It’s complex training, a lot of body weight exercise, dynamic stretching. Our classes are always different. We work on the mindset — we do a lot mental training as well.” Salt hosts outdoor classes on parks and beaches along the Gold Coast, with an occasional class indoors. “We do class from Miami to Coolangatta, always in the park. After class people say ‘my flexibility is getting better, I’m more comfortable, better upper strength’. It’s a really complex workout, but it’s amazing.” You can start with a free class, held every Saturday morning from 7am in the Coolangatta park, across from Boardriders Coolangatta.
Aqua aerobics and deep water running
Miami Aquatic Centre, 80 Pacific Ave, Miami
There’s no slacking off under the guise of splashing water in this class — aqua fitness instructor Lyn Quirk can look under the water at any moment. “There is an underwater viewing window,” Lyn says. “You can see 120 legs. It’s designed for coaches to look under the water.” The deep water running and aqua aerobics classes held at Miami Aquatic Centre are on every morning seven days a week, and attract everyone from fitness fanatics to senior citizens. “Deep water running, you wear a buoyancy belt, and that keeps you vertical in the water, you do all sorts of exercises and interval training to music. Aqua aerobics is exercises to music. It suits all ages because it’s up to you how hard you work. There can be triathletes in the pool doing the same training as people in their 90s. We do have a couple of participants in their 90s that have been doing it for a long time, including my father.” All equipment is provided and the pool is heated, meaning you can get your splash on all year round.
Gold Coast Hula Dance School
Various locations
facebook.com/GoldCoastHulaDanceSchool
There’s more to this class than swinging hips and coconuts. Equal parts fitness group as it is a history lesson, the Gold Coast Hula Dance school teaches students the art of hula dancing while learning a cultural tradition. Your core will receive a massive work out when you learn how to roll your hips and your body in time to melodic Hawaiian music, while working on upper body strength with raised arm movements. Teacher Tomoka Heneker says the class is becoming so popular, she’s expanding to New South Wales soon. “Our school has been teaching traditional Hawaaiin dance for seven years,” Tomoka says. “It’s for fitness and for people’s enjoyment too. I’m planning to put a school in Sydney next year.”
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