Want a little more workout intensity? Fitness trainer Herman Baptiste is upping the ante at his Los Angeles-based Asylum Gym with Troika workouts, in which clients strap on vests weighing as much as 60 pounds (27 kilos) while training with kettle balls, free weights, and cone hurdles.
Dubbed after the Russian word, which, according to Baptiste means "three horses pulling for the same purpose," he devised the class based on his training with the US National Team Handball squad. "Clients wear weighted vests ranging from three to 60 pounds [1.4k to 27k], utilizing training techniques, weight stations, and all kinds of fitness toys," he told Relaxnews.
Some of those toys include agility ladders and battle ropes, which are heavy, long braided nylon ropes that users slam down on the ground to build endurance in your upper body. Watch the ropes in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbkbcPJTTes
Or work with Bulgarian bags, crescent-shaped weighted bags that you sling around to strengthen your arms or wrap around your neck to add extra weight for leg exercises. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0euhaBBPFw
Baptiste uses three trainers on six clients for a small group training program, with each class lasting close to an hour. "Participants should expect to have their strength, balance and endurance challenged," he says. "We constantly change up the combination of exercises which generates a lot of possible workouts."
Other new fitness workouts? A novel class to be presented at the IDEA fitness convention in San Diego this week is a group training course dubbed "Armed and Dangerous," which focuses on chiseling your upper body using weight training.
Watch a clip of the workout: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR1MwEHrmCI
