Piloxing: The new thrilla in Manila

MANILA, Philippines - It’s that time of year when people start to pack in unwanted pounds because of stress and excess calories consumed during the holiday season. But the good news is, getting fit has never been this easy... hold it! There is still no healthy overnight solution but more like there are now more options compared to before. If you have an unhealthy diet, there are recipes available online or many ways to modify your eating habits without depriving yourself. If you lack time, there are 30- minute workouts to do or healthy meals you can have delivered. If you don’t like to take classes, you can work out at home with apps or brisk walk around your neighborhood. And if you find the machines at the gym boring, you can take one of the hundreds of classes offered around the metro.

History of Piloxing

Recently, the Philippines was introduced to Piloxing, another hybrid import from the United States that is far more healthy than Cronuts, the hybrid dessert. Originating from the United States, Piloxing was created by Swedish celebrity trainer Viveca Jensen, a former body builder, boxer, and certified Pilates instructor. With an impressive background in fitness, Viveca incorporated her training, education, and experience into creating a workout that mentally and physically empowers women by achieving a sleek, sexy, and powerful image.

Piloxing 101

Piloxing is a combination of Pilates, boxing, and dancing which translates to a high-energy workout that keeps your heart rate high. Piloxing incorporates interval training alternating between work and rest periods. With one hour of Piloxing, you get your cardio, core, and strength training workout that will make you definitely feel the burn after class. A Piloxing class can burn 900 calories in an hour. To maximize calorie burn and toning, Piloxing uses weighted gloves, a sure way to blast bingo wings around the arms and tone the saggy back. Piloxing also has barefoot training to improve your personal overall fitness level as well. It also helps if one focuses on the principles of Pilates with correct breathing, the core activation, oppositions, flexion-traction, and reciprocal inhibition. For people who find Pilates too boring and boxing too rough, then Piloxing is the fun, sexy option that can still achieve core strength.

Piloxing in Manila

Piloxing fans include celebrities and fitspirations Hilary Duff, Kirsten Dunst, Vanessa Hudgens, Heather Morris, and Ashley Tisdale. In Manila, there are already a number of Filipino Piloxing fans since Mitch Felipe, the country’s first and only certified Piloxing instructor trained in Los Angeles by Viveca herself, conducted the first class at the B+B Studio back in August. Most of them are women like Ruby Gan, Betchay Monserrat, Ito Lopa, and Vina Monasterio who, like Piloxing’s tagline, are sleek, sexy, and powerful.

52-year-old Ruby Gan is the quintessential type A woman. Despite her busy schedule as a retailer and mom, Ruby still finds time to keep herself healthy and her athletic figure slim. A true fitness buff, Ruby has tried everything, from the iconic Jane Fonda workout to the latest suspension-training program, Redcord. Since Ruby likes to join marathons and compete in power lifting, she prefers exercises that have power, strength, and works on flexibility, which is what Piloxing is about. Joining Piloxing is déjà vu for Ruby since she also tried jazzercise in the ’80s, but Piloxing still has its own uniqueness.

“It is never boring and you can really feel the burn! Crossfit or cross training does not involve dance moves. There is no grace; it’s all about strength. Boxing is all about force, power. Pilates and yoga are all about core and balance. Why not get all these into one exercise and have fun?” shares Ruby.

Take it from Ruby who, like Piloxing, is sleek, sexy, and powerful.

Meet the Wednesday group

Betchay, Ito, and Vina are fitness buddies who have different motivations for keeping fit but similar reasons for getting hooked on Piloxing. Betchay has been working out since her early 20s. Every day, she would run, do weights, and dance until she had to slow down in her mid 40s. At 56, Betchay definitely looks younger, thanks to her fitness history but she is mindful of her knees. Betchay does Pilates and Redcord three times a week. But ever since Piloxing started, she is now getting her cardio fix.

For 52-year-old Ito who has an athletic body, having the obesity gene is a motivation to keep fit. Growing up as a student athlete, Ito likes to do exercises that don’t remind her of her track, ballet, and softball days. Ito, who doesn’t like jogging or cardio machines, prefers activities like badminton and Piloxing because they don’t feel like work to her. “I love Pilates and I always wanted to venture into boxing but personally, I just felt that it was not age appropriate. Piloxing sounded interesting. It’s tiring but good and fun!”

Vina has always been active and at 46, she continues to keep fit because of her scoliosis since exercising helps strengthen her back. “You name it, I’ve tried it,” says Vina who tried taebo, water aerobics, and Barre and regularly went to the big gyms that opened in Manila. Eventually, Vina got burned out and stopped exercising for six months until the B+B Studio opened and she discovered Pilates and other suspension training exercises that were also good for her back. With Piloxing, Vina likes the cardio and the just-right intensity she gets from the class. “It’s hard, but kaya naman and I feel light for the weekend.”

Vina also shares that having exercise buddies helps since they pull you to class and it doesn’t feel like work. All three agree that one can join Piloxing even without a boxing or Pilates background. Betchay even suggests Piloxing for weight loss since it has a lot of cardio and toning, compared to other group exercises.

Other benefits of Piloxing

Since weight loss is obviously a benefit of Piloxing because of the calorie burn and development of lean muscle, Piloxing also improves overall fitness. It works the whole body, improving cardiovascular fitness, body composition, muscular strength, core control, joint mobility, dynamic flexibility, posture, balance, coordination, power, agility, muscle tone and definition, ankle stability, and strength. Which is why Piloxing is also a hit among men. In fact, TV5’s reality show Juan Direction featuring hunks recently had the boys trying Piloxing and enjoying it. And like all forms of exercise, be it dancing or Redcord, Piloxing is also a stress buster that improves self-image and self-confidence.

According to Mitch, she recommends Piloxing three times a week at the maximum to see instant muscle definition, muscle and core strength improvement, and weight loss. And in between classes, activities like body weight training or running, cycling and swimming are great to supplement Piloxing. But of course, as we all know, we can’t out exercise a bad diet. And no matter how many classes we pay for or fitness trackers we were, we still need to work and discipline ourselves to achieve the fitness level we want. But at least we know, for those who want to be sleek, sexy, and strong, Piloxing is finally on our shores.

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Piloxing is exclusively available at B+B Studio (www.bbstudiomanila.com https:// www.facebook.com/pilates.philippines).