Is Twerking an exercise?

Can the West African dance called the Mapouka or “dance of the behind” Aka Twerking, be the next new craze in the fitness industry?

Derived from a traditional dance taken to a whole new level Twerking is the latest craze that nearly everyone has tried, whether you are willing to admit it or not. Yes guys I’m talking to you also. As we have seen over the years, there has been different styles of dance that benefit our health and fitness, such as ballet, Zumba, Contemporary and Jazz. Could we be seeing Twerking on our gyms timetable? The next question is what is Twerking? How is it considered an exercise?

giphy (3)                                       Or is it?

For those of you who calorie count, think about this next time you are doing a moderate jog for an hour, an hour of constantly Twerking will burn somewhere between 300 and 480 calories in an hour, about the same as the run or 60 minutes of power yoga.This may sound crazy and hard work however think about this, what exercise can you do to your favorite music, having the best booty and legs in an hour? If we break it down now, no that was not a pun, or was it? However it does take talent to stabilize yourself into a squat position, and maintain that depth whilst moving your glute muscles in an upward and downward motion for a continuous amount of time.

 

       I challenge you                  Twerking

to try this just for 30 seconds to 1 minute and tell me how you feel afterwards? Not only is there “normal Twerking” but there is wall Twerking also, this takes things to a whole new level and great for fitness that will leave you breathless and toned in no time. Now try doing this for long periods of times, think of celebrities such as Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus.And we all know what Beyoncé is renowned for, don’t we? Although Miley Cyrus does not have the best reputation when it comes to Twerking, in all fairness to her it did get “Twerking” out there.

 

      Let’s face the facts                         giphy (2)

people have been shaking their behinds as a form of dance or exercise since dance and exercise emerged as an expression. I’m sure majority of the male population will agree with me when I say a nicely shaped ass is more hypnotizing than a hypnotist. SO ladies this one is for you, use it as your advantage. Use Twerking as an exercise to maintain a nicely tight booty and I’m use it can be used to get a few things done around the house if required. Here is something we prepared earlier; yes I know how cheesy that sounds. However, check out this awesome clip to see how  handstand Twerking is really done and can be played with.

If you have Twerking under your belt, follow our video to take the challenge of handstand Twerking to use as your next party trick.

 

2014-12-23T01:58:20+11:00

About the Author:

Denee Lalouette
A UFT PLAYground is a place that people of all shapes, sizes and ages learn to develop their movement abilities through an infinite learning and development program. UFT PLAYgrounds have been created to re-inspire our natural ability to move, create, adapt, re-act, connect, have fun and of course PLAY. PLAYgrounds have been developed to allow people to feel and explore their own abilities by utilising a multidimensional, infinite, creative and PLAYful approach to training. We live in a world full of specialists and obsessions. At an ever increasing rate, people are specialising more and more, in their jobs, in their businesses, in their sport and in their training. The result, is a backward step in human evolution. By specialising, we limit ourselves to thinking that 1 particular way of doing things is the right way, or the only way. We promote creativity, not only in movement and training methodologies but in thinking in general. A UFT PLAYground is created to provide the general public with an opportunity to PLAY across multiple styles of training and moving, to be able to progress in the training methods that they become passionate about or that excites them and to be a part of a community that promotes more than just fitness. The “fitness” industry above all others has brought about a need to specialise in order to achieve anything, and majority of what we do for “fitness” is for an aesthetically pleasing reason. We understand that aesthetics are nice and we too love to look and feel good. However a UFT PLAYground is developed to allow people to move better than ever before across a broad range of training methodologies and ideas. Aesthetics, therefore are a result not a goal of that system. We know that “If you train to look good, you will not always enjoy what you do, but if you PLAY a lot, and do the things that you love, you will ending up looking good”. Aesthetics should be a result not a goal. For years now, we have recognised that the best movers on the planet are children. They are flexible, mobile & fit, they have better relative strength than a typical adult (and even most adolescents), they are the best creators and innovators, they learn faster, the adapt better, they interact better with other people, they are more connected to nature and most importantly, they PLAY more than anyone else. As adults, we tend to believe that because we are taller and more experienced in “life”, we are better, and then we get to an age that says we are “too old to PLAY”. As we grow taller (and in a lot of cases rounder), we experience things that inhibit our ability to move, think and not think. We allow our experiences to limit our abilities as humans, whether it be a physical injury, a story that we heard or a youtube video that we watched. We also allow our emotions to control our behaviour because of our past experiences. Maybe it was the feeling of humiliation when we tried something new, regret when we failed or heart break when it was taken away from us. Because of this, we allow our experiences to control our future instead of learning from them and creating our own . This is what UFT PLAYground’s are built on. The understanding that we as humans need to go back to the way things were before our negative experiences took over our subconscious mind and body. A UFT PLAYground gives people the ability to re-learn what they have lost, as well as develop new sets of skills that will allow them to follow any particular passion that they uncover in PLAYtime. When we PLAY, we are simply, exploring. Through exploring we become curious and through curiosity we become obsessed or passionate about a particular thing. This is why in a PLAYground we allow people to PLAY across a broad range of training systems (minimum of 3), Through this system they are able to identify 1, their current limitations and be educated on how to overcome them, and 2, identify their passions and learn to develop, grow and excel in them. UFT PLAYgrounds are also a development centre for up and coming entrepreneurs in the fitness industry. Each PLAYground founder will have been trained and will be continuously trained in UFT’s Trainer Success System. This system allows personal trainers, coaches, teachers, instructors, etc. to continue to develop in their fields of specialty (as they play they will find it) and in the philosophy of PLAYtime. They will also be trained in the business systems of UFT in order to have their own successful and profitable business. See UFT Trainer Success System for more details.

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