Scottish fitness craze ‘set to sweep the world’

The Highland Hustle in full swing. Picture: Contributed

Highland Hustle blends the traditional with the modern, taking the key elements of highland dancing and combining it with high energy music to create a fun and funky dance workout.

Developed by mum of three and Highland dancing world champion finalist, Gillian Urquhart, 40 from Perthshire, this latest workout is set to have women jigging in their living rooms.

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“I have always loved dancing and keeping fit,” said Gillian, “but as I mum of three I know how hard it can be to find the time.”

“I’m a PE teacher and despite keeping up exercise like running and cycling to keep fit, my heart belongs to dance. I wanted to share my love of Highland dance and create a workout that is uniquely Scottish as well as being fun and effective - that’s how Highland Hustle was born.”

Gillian has been running Highland Hustle classes in Scone, Perthshire for the past six months and has this week launched a series of workout videos that can be downloaded from her website.

She said: “The feedback from people coming along to the classes has been fantastic and lots of people said they would like to come but couldn’t make the date or time, so I decided to take Highland Hustle online and make it accessible for everyone.

“Highland dancing is already popular across the world and in the few days since I launched, I’ve had people downloading the videos from the USA, Canada, Australia and Switzerland. It’s really exciting.”

Highland Hustle is based on the movements and routines from Scottish Highland dancing and includes focused toning exercises for an all round workout. A series of half hour sessions are available and have been designed to work for everyone no matter what his or her fitness level.

“During a typical workout, there will be lots of jumping about, raising your heart rate and burning those calories before it slows down a bit to focus on the trouble areas like bums, tums, hips and thighs,” explains Gillian. “I’ve also produced a low impact version for anyone who is new to dance or hasn’t exercised for a while.”

Katrina Lowndes, mum of 2 from Scone, Perthshire, has been attending the Highland Hustle classes for the past 6 months. She said: “I’ve been to lots of exercise classes over the years but this one is different. Being based on dance its more fun than a traditional workout and I’ve seen great results.

“I’ve downloaded the video so I can fit in an extra session in between Gillian’s classes.”

• To fine out more about Highland Hustle and to download the workouts visit www.highlandhustle.com and to get an idea of what it’s all about.