Virgin Active’s new workout class, Active Bands made its debut at Fit Night Out Joburg. So, of course, when it hit clubs at the beginning of September, we had to be first to try to it out. As it turned out, the class was a lot more hectic than we’d imagined. But it does wonders for your butt!
Bands That Make Her Struggle To Walk
The secret to this workout class is the bands themselves. These are not your typical mini-resistance bands. They’re about five centimetres wide and made of a durable fabric that has a bit of stretch. Emphasis on “a bit”. So when you slip them around your thighs, you immediately feel the resistance. Good like trying to walk! Or even just stand normally.
Actual footage of me after putting my band on…
Moves You Did Not See Coming
So, mini-bands… that means a workout class lying around on a mat, doing clamshells, right? Ha! Think again, my friend. The workout is…shall we say… energetic. You start off with one of those “warm-ups” that feels like it’s actually the workout in sheep’s clothing. Then, once you’re nice and sweaty and a little out of breath, you move to a high-intensity interval (HIIT) section. Think moves like high knees, jumping side to side and even burpees… with a band strapped around your thighs.
“Did she just say ‘burpee’?”
Only in the third part of the workout class will you get to lie down and do clamshells. But by then, even the tiniest movement feels hard, so it may as well be more burpees, really.
Butt-Sculpting Results
The good news? All that sweat and swearing pays off. The next two days after the class, we could feel our butts and thighs. Not just front and back, but all the way around. Sitting was interesting. And as for stairs… who really needs to go to another floor, anyway?
Shoulda called in sick…
Because the bands are so tight, they force you, without even realising it, to activate your abductors (the muscles that move your legs apart) right from the start. Then, when you start moving against that resistance, your muscles have to work even harder. Building muscle has a lot to do with time under tension. So that constant resistance, coupled with bouts of increased intensity, will round out your butt nicely. And all that sweaty HIIT work will prompt your body to burn fat, so it will start feeling firmer, too.
So Would We Do It Again?
The Active Bands workout class gives you a sweaty workout that raises your heart rate and leaves you feeling red-faced and high on endorphins. But it also strengthens and tones what many of us regard as our “problem areas”, namely our butt and thighs. If you do it two to three times a week, as part of your fitness regimen, you should start seeing good results after about a month. It gets a thumbs-up from us!
