Health: Moving into a fitness groove for the summer

After an intense dance workout, the crowded class of Zumba fitness fans should be ready to drop – or least hit the shower or even the bar. Instead, the enthusiasm in the room at the Omni Centre's Virgin Active Gyms is as pronounced as the instructor's pecs.

This instructor, and the founder of the Zumba craze, is Colombian Beto Perez. He was in the city this week to promote the activity as part of a whistle-stop tour of the UK. His creation is a high-energy class where fast and slow rhythms and resistance training combine to tone and sculpt the body while burning fat, all to Latin music. Not that it really needs promoting – Zumba is the craze of 2010, with 26 venues in the city alone offering classes and more than six million people worldwide taking a class each week.

"Zumba is so successful because people all around the world and especially in the UK love to party," says Beto. "People come along, they have a great time. Everybody loves Zumba because it doesn't feel like exercise. It is about the music and not about choreography."

But if you are looking to get fit for the flesh-baring months ahead and Zumba doesn't tickle your fancy, what fitness regimes will get pulses racing this summer?

Among the venues offering Zumba in Edinburgh are Virgin Active Gyms at the Omni Centre and Fountain Park. For more information, visit www.zumba.com

Outdoor Swimming

If you want to burst out of the gym and commune with nature while you get fit, you could join the rising number of outdoor swimmers.

David Walliams' cross-Channel swim and the two part-documentary, Robson Green's Wild Swimming Adventure, have brought the sport to a wider audience and the Outdoor Swimming Society is making fresh efforts to encourage people to take to the water north of the Border through its website and Facebook group.

Edinburgh admin for the OSS facebook site, Louise Cardwell, says interest in the sport has rocketed: "The media coverage is helping – a few people have said that the Robson Green programme was really inspiring. There have also been two quite high-profile books, Wild Swim and Wild Swimming. They're pretty books, coffee table books, and I've noticed them in gift shops, so people are picking them up and going 'Ooh' and then getting an interest in it from there."

Triathlon shop The Tri Centre, on South Clerk Street, has seen such an increase in outdoor swimming interest that it is launching its own weekly swim session at Threipmuir Reservoir in the Pentland Hills next month.

Owner Stuart McInnes says: "There was a massive increase last year. A lot of people were coming in to buy kit just for free swimming, which used to be done in a pair of trunks and people were noticing that if you've got a wet suit it's a lot more pleasant. The amount of people we've had interested in our sessions is overwhelming. We'll have swimming instructors and safety people, and there will be wetsuits people can borrow."

For information on The Tri Centre's swim sessions, which begin on 5 May, see www.thetricentre.com or call 0131-662 8777

For the Outdoor Swimming Society, visit www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com or the society's page on Facebook. For other swims, see the "Wild Swimming – Scotland" Facebook group.

Hula Hooping

She may be best known for her elegance and poise, but the First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama, isn't above an impressive bit of hip swivelling.

Last year she stunned the world with her hula hooping at an exercise fair on the White House lawn, managing 142 swivels. Her efforts spawned a new surge of interest in hula hooping for exercise.

Instructor Fiona Blair teaches classes at Dance Base and Edinburgh University's Centre For Sport and Exercise, after rediscovering the hoop a couple of years ago. She says: "I was looking for a present for my husband's 40th birthday and I got distracted in John Lewis, because the sports department's right next to the menswear. I thought 'Wow – there's a giant hula hoop!'"

She was so excited she then qualified as an instructor, despite never having been able to hoop as a child. The new hoops are tailor-made for adults.

She says: "They're larger, they're weighted hoops – it just makes it easier for adults to learn. If an adult picked up a child's hoop, they won't be able to do it. When you get good at it you can downsize."

Hooping is good for both body and soul, she says: "It's very liberating, it's carefree and joyful, it's going back to the playfulness of childhood. It develops core strength, because you move from your centre. It develops balance and poise. Even if you only hoop for ten minutes, it's a great way to warm up, and it's fat burning. You will lose weight when you do this, it strengthens your back muscles, tones the body."

Hooping is easily done alone in the living room or even the park. But it's a good idea to start with classes to make sure you don't injure your insides with over- vigorous hooping.

Hula hoop guru Sharna Rose will visit Dance Base for a series of workshops on 2 May. For details of Fiona's classes, see www.edin burghhooping.info.

Kettlebells

Once an exclusive trend du jour for exercise buffs, kettlebells are fast becoming a mainstream exercise accessory.

The kettlebells come in different weights and are swung using controlled, full body movements to build muscle and drop weight. They offer an intensive workout, ideal for those short of time, according to Rannoch Donald, the first person in Scotland to learn how to instruct kettlebell trainers.

He says: "We focus on whole body movements. Kettlebells, when used properly, are very challenging, so they are a fantastic way to drop a lot of weight fairly quickly, but also build muscle, so it's not about getting big and bulky, but getting fit and lean. The key is that it's a very efficient way to train – it doesn't take up a lot of time and you don't have to go to a gym if you've got your own kettlebells."

Workouts can be effective in as little as ten-15 minutes, three times a week, he says, and it's important to learn the technique.

Rannoch Donald can be found at www.simplestrength.com and can recommend local trainers.

ViPR

Very much the exercise fad of the moment, it is claimed that this weighted rubber tube rolls into one piece of equipment the benefits of seven other existing exercise tools.

The ViPR comes in seven different weights, from 4kg to 20kg, and can be carried, dragged, thrown, stepped on and rolled. Its creators say it offers a whole-body workout.

Personal trainer Ash Boddy uses it in sessions with clients and hopes to start ViPR classes on the Meadows next month.

He says that, rather than focusing on building muscle or dropping fat, the ViPR allows users to improve their body's ability to cope with everyday activities.

He says: "We want to try and move the body in the way that it's designed, as opposed to the fixed machines that you see in the gym. There's very little that you can't do with it."

ViPR's makers also offer training manuals and online education.

For information on Ash's classes see www.boddylanguage.com. Also visit www.vipr-fit.com.