Wild workouts

DO YOU ALWAYS hop on the third elliptical machine from the left at the gym? Do you walk the same trails every day? Bike on the same paths? Do the same aerobics video?

If your fitness routine has become just that — routine — it might be time to shake things up.

“Your body adapts to whatever you do to it,” says Dr. Thomas Halvorson, a sports medicine specialist at Spokane’s Rockwood Clinic. “If you do the same thing over and over, it gets good at doing that … If that’s all you do, you don’t get as much benefit.”

Plus, you may be more likely to stick with regular exercise if you keep it interesting. A University of Florida study found that people who varied their workouts were more likely to keep exercising

“Most people will get bored and quit if they do the same thing over and over again,” Halvorson says.

Fortunately, there’s no reason to be bored.

Into exercise videos? There’s now “Yoga for Inflexible People,” “Cardio Salsa” even “Strollertime: A Complete Workout with Baby in Tow,” among thousands of others.

Health clubs are constantly trying to keep members entertained with new exercise classes. At Crunch gyms in bigger cities around the country, members can take Kama Sutra yoga, Can-Can cardio and striptease aerobics. Closer to home, 24 Hour Fitness offers hip-hop aerobics, salsa, water ballet and a host of other classes that go beyond the traditional aerobics class.

“It’s evolving so quickly,” says Bill Howland, director of research for the Boston-based International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. “As a trend-tracker, it’s almost impossible to track … The variety helps keep your workout fresh and gives people a reason to keep coming into the club.”

If you’re getting bored with your exercise routine, it’s time to think outside the box.

Spokane mom Deborah Shockley, 35, took up belly dancing a couple of years ago, after trying to find a dance studio for her daughter’s lessons. One of the studios they stopped at offered the sensuous Middle Eastern dance, and Shockley was hooked.

“There are some slow movements, where you’re working more like in isolation,” says Shockley, who now performs as a belly dancer under the name Nadiyah. “That’s really good when you’re trying to work the kinks out. There are things such as shimmies that really can get your heart rate up.”

Julie Pillard, who lives on Fairchild Air Force Base, was looking for a new way to exercise when she started clogging. That was 14 years ago. Now, she’s a die-hard clogger, who teaches classes for Lilac City Cloggers.

“We look at it like high-energy tap,” Pillard says. “We pick up our feet a lot. We do hand movements so we get the whole body involved.”

Pillard gained 50 pounds when she was pregnant. But she’s been able to take it all off — and then some — in the eight months since Justin was born, thanks to clogging.

“It is a really good workout,” she says.

Joseph O’Shaughnessy, a development specialist at Spokane’s St. Joseph Family Center usually bikes and lifts weights for exercise. But he decided to take a QiGong (“chee goong”) class at the center earlier this year. QiGong, an ancient Chinese discipline, combines movement with meditation.

O’Shaughnessy admits he thought it sounded “a little weird” at first, but he says the exercises have helped ease his lower back pain.

“It forces you to move in different ways than you’re used to,” he says. “It helped me to relax my entire body.”

He has since bought a book on QiGong and practices the exercise at home.

Maybe relaxation isn’t for you.

At Spokane’s Wild Walls Indoor Climbing Gym, there’s a Fitness through Climbing class that focuses on strength and endurance. An instructor leads the class through the climb.

“It’s a mental workout as well as just a physical workout,” says Alex Bertolucci, a Wild Walls instructor. “You get a pretty good burn out of it.”

The six-week climbing course will resume in the fall, Bertolucci says.

Experts recommend you get up and get moving three to five times a week with some type of exercise, Halvorson says. You don’t have to climb walls or do anything particularly wacky to keep in shape.

“Anything that gets your heart rate up is better than nothing,” Halvorson says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s walking or belly dancing … It doesn’t matter what you’re doing.”

In addition to heart-pumping exercise, you should also try for some movements to build strength and increase flexibility.

Even vacuuming the house could fit the bill. But that might be a routine that’s tough to stick with.

Says Halvorson: “Most people don’t think of that as an enjoyable exercise.”