Roxy Beach Body Workout

When it comes to water sports I’m a total wuss, as they’d say in Oz. I’m probably the only person who has lived in Australia yet never dared try surfing. I did attempt to boogie board once on Manly Beach in Sydney, but when the lifeguard made an announcement to beware of blue bottles, it didn’t take me long to realise he wasn’t referring to the common house fly (blue bottles are jelly fish). That was the last time the sea saw me.

These exercises, if done regularly alongside a healthy diet, can really help condition the bum, hips, thigh and save you from every woman’s greatest fear- the FUPA.

Shame really, as if you can manage to get over Jaws 1, 2, 3 and 4, the sea is actually a great place to get a full body workout whilst having fun in the process. I mean, just look at surfers’ bodies. The outer physiques tend to be like that of Brad Willis off Neighbours. Remember him? He was the Erinsborough surf hunk with a board for a brain. But brains aside, what’s going on inside a surfer’s body matches the outer appearance because it takes the use of your whole body to beat those waves. Toned right to the core, surfers’ bodies are strong, conditioned and beach body perfect. I want one.

Luckily, for land mammals such as me, Virgin Active Health Clubs have recently teamed up with surf brand Roxy, to bring the ultimate beach body workout to dry land in the UK. Keen to gain some Brad body benefits ahead of my beach holiday, I went along to the class at Virgin Active in Didsbury.

Thanks to the gloriously sunny weather we’ve been having of late, our Roxy Beach Body instructor, Lucy, decided to take her class outside on the grassy area near the car park instead of on the gym floor where it normally is. Once gathered on our grass-coated sea, Lucy explained that she’d laid out a series of activities in a circuit to work on four components of strength, balance, flexibility and power, taking influences from the surf, dude. She then demonstrated each exercise before getting her stopwatch out, ready for us to try 60 seconds on each part of this sea circuit.

Starting on the BOSU balance trainer, a dome-like rubber platform used for balance that stands for ‘both sides up’, I did 60 seconds of side lunges which are great for inner and outer thigh muscles. Next up was the BOSU again, but this time placed upturned on the grass. I did press ups which, minus the BOSU are hard enough for me as it is. The addition of the BOSU means you have to use your stomach strength as well as your upper body to press up and stay balanced. It’s much more targeted and intense this way.

The third exercise involved use of the ViPR - that stands for Vitality, Performance and Reconditioning by the way. It’s a long, tubular, rubber free weight with slits cut out for your grip. You can do all sorts with this device - carry it, drag it, flip it, stand on it, roll it, you name it. For this particular part of the circuit we were to use the ViPR to perform what Lucy described as needle and thread action. From a standing position we had to thread the ViPR through our legs and then back up above our heads before repeating the other way around. Once into the swing of it, I have to say this was probably one of my most favourite exercises although my back, shoulders and bingo wings begged to differ the following morning. The ViPR works muscles that can’t be reached by using gym machines, and that’s the beach body beauty of it.

Using the ViPR again, this time I had to hug it (I did say you can do anything with it) and use a throwing motion to fling it up, higher and higher whilst squatting with my knees at the same time. Again, great for the upper body but also utilising the core strength to thrust upwards through the feet, knees and waist.

Moving on to the next exercise, and it’s the ViPR yet again. Who’d have thought a rubber tube was to become my new fitness friend and fiend in one. This time Lucy told me to fling it from side to side, pick it up each time and shuffling my body as quickly as humanly possible, which translates to not very, in my case. Still, that’s the great thing about this workout - you don’t have to be Brad, you just have to be willing to try your best.

Now up until this point, whilst the exercises had been effective, I was waiting for the moment I could actually pretend to ride the waves. Standing on my surfboard (an exercise mat actually) the aim was to jump down and lay on my belly as if paddling and then jump up into a surfboard stance, using my core muscles. It’s harder than it sounds, so it’s helpful to imagine you’re in shark infested waters - trust me, your feet won’t touch the grass once.

The dreaded plank followed - an exercise move scarier than any shark. You need to focus on your core muscles to get to grips with the plank or, like me, you’ll end up shaking, swaying and sweating before flopping, face down into a human heap onto the mat. Not a pretty sight.

Coming to the end of the circuit, I was back up on to my feet again for the final push. Using a medicine ball, I did forward lunges, pausing on each lunge and thrusting the ball out in front of me before rotating 90 degrees to the left and then on the next set, to the right. This one is great for toning the waist as well as strengthening the thighs and arms. The final exercise was similar, but this time I had to squat down whilst raising dumbbells upwards with my arms each time. Both these exercises, if done regularly alongside a healthy diet, can really help condition the bum, hips and thighs as well as save you from every woman’s greatest fear - the FUPA.

It was actually a colleague who taught me the word FUPA. Funny really, that it’s taken up until now to invent a word to describe that roll of fat that sits below the belly button on some people, mainly women. Yes - the Fat Upper Pubic Area.

All the sit ups in the world won’t shift it and everything you eat and drink, particularly alcohol and carb-related, seems to go there. The answer to banishing it for good is partly dietary, but you also need to work your core and those hard to reach lower abdominals.

The techniques used in the Roxy Beach Body Workout are effective in conditioning that entire stubborn area and the fact that it’s part group activity with an instructor, means you can all spur each other on chanting ‘free us from FUPA!’.

Ok maybe not the last part, but the workout was a lot of fun. We had an up-beat Ibiza soundtrack on throughout our circuit in the sun and then chill-out tunes to the yoga inspired cool down at the end. For a moment I could have sworn I was really surfing, and then I remembered - I’m scared of the sea.

The Roxy Beach Body workout is available to members in all Virgin Active Health Clubs nationwide. Visit www.virginactive.co.uk to find your nearest club and the time of the session.