Beer yoga and museum aerobics: Melbourne’s new fitness trends

TIRED of The Tan and sick of the gym? There are new ways to get fit in Melbourne and some classes even involve drinking a beer. Here’s some of the new fitness trends to hit our city.

TIRED of The Tan? Sick of the gym?

Then sign up for aerobics among animal exhibits or a join a hotel rooftop yoga session where you sip beer between moves.

Exercise-mad Melburnians hunting for new fitness sites are finding them in the most unlikely places.

Instructor Emma Joubert performs a Beer Yoga stretch with a participant at a Beer Yoga class at The Emerson. Picture: Michael Dodge.

Model Shane Holloway performs a Beer Yoga stretch at a Beer Yoga. Picture: Michael Dodge.

Deanne Butterworth, 43 and Jess Lakatosh, 28 show off their best moves at Museum Moves. Picture: Jason Edwards.

Melbourne Museum is hosting ‘Museum Moves’, breakfast time workouts where instructors lead adults on a “creative aerobics journey’’ through the Carlton Gardens building.

On Wednesday Deanne Butterworth, 43, and Jess Lakatosh, 28, joined a trial run and found themselves climbing stairs like an insect, skipping rope among whale vertebrae and winding down in an indoor rainforest.

This week, the city’s first ‘Beer Yoga’ session was also held on the roof of The Emerson hotel in Prahran.

Guided by an instructor, 20 invited guests made all the right moves while sipping gluten-friendly Omission pale ale.

Benjamin Cairns of Craft Revolution, which distributes the popular US brew in Australia, said: “Its all about adding another dimension to being healthy and this seemed like a perfect fit.”

Buoyed by its success, The Emerson is contemplating more beer and yoga sessions.

‘Museum Moves’ — conceived by Museums Victoria and Melbourne’s BalletLab company — starts next Tuesday, running through July.

Limited to groups of 20, the hour-long sessions combine a “serious workout with a good dose of fun’’.

BalletLab artistic director Phillip Adams said: “You get to see the museum before everyone else, you work out in incredible spaces, and you enjoy a great breakfast before work. You’ll be the talk of the office.’’

Bookings essential.museumvictoria.com.au