HYDERABAD: COVID has made us realise the importance of leading a healthy life and staying fit. Ever since the pandemic entered Hyderabad last year, the people have been trying all sorts of fitness techniques to add the fun element in their daily workout routines. Here’s another one that has been the talk of the town. Animal flow workout is the latest rage on social media.
Though a fairly old concept in the West, it is now picking up in India and is a style statement in Hyderabad. Instagram and Twitter are peppered with videos of people showing of f their ‘primal moves’. So, what is animal flow workout? According to Kuldep Sethi, a celebrity trainer and director of 360 Degree Fitness, it is a mixed bag of exercises from gymnastics and yoga.
“It is essentially body weight exercises which increase your flexibility and strengthen your limbs. Every year something new comes up in the fitness field and right now, animal flow workout it the in thing,” he says. Kuldep says we Indians have had this technique in yoga and traditional forms of fitness forever. “For example, in Dangal (the movie), the body building exercises shown, such as pushups and squats, are all functional exercises where you lose body weight.
‘Animal flow’ is just a new name given to it and it is being marketed really well. There are a few movements which are new and people are experimenting with this format to understand what’s different,” he says, adding that any exercise you do is good for your body, just make sure you move. Vidhya Saga, a freelance fitness trainer, echoes the same views.
“Our traditional Indian workouts already have these moves. These includes the routine cardio and strengthening. We should understand that animal flow also includes yoga,” she says. Vidhya, too, believes that the format has simply been given a new name to make it sell. Actress Sanjjanaa Galrani been practising animal flow workout for quite some time now and she find a lot of similarities with yoga. “There is something called an elephant pose where you move your neck up and down, as though we have a trunk. The cat pose helps you work on your muscles and love handles.
Yoga has similar poses. All of this originates from yoga,” she says. Sanjana Taneja Dixit, a yoga Acharya, talks about the six components of animal flow -- wrist mobilisations, activations, form-specific stretches, traveling forms, switches and transitions, and flow.
“Fitness enthusiasts of all levels realise the significant benefits of animal flow, which are increased mobility, flexibility, stability, power, endurance, skill and neuromuscular communication. Each of the six components of animal flow is designed to achieve specific results. These components can be mixed and matched in many ways, and incorporated in our fitness regimen,” she says.
ANIMAL FLOW COMPONENTS
WRIST MOBILISATIONS
These include a range of simple exercises designed to increase the flexibility and strength of your wrists
ACTIVATIONS:
These are static holds we perform to connect the body before we begin our practice
FORM-SPECIFIC STRETCHES
These are full-body stretches that start in an animal form and move through a wide range of motion.
These increase your mobility and flexibility throughout the body TRAVELING FORMS: These mimic the movements of animals
SWITCHES AND TRANSITIONS: These are dynamic movements that we perform one after the other, creating the ‘flow’. You can transfer from one form to another, or repeat one form as a drill
FLOW: Your flow is where the real magic happens. You’ll combine the moves of animal flow into a fluid sequence, seamlessly transferring energy from one move to the next
Animal flow, a form of exercise which does not require equipment, has been a rage on social media. It’s all about ground-based movement and mimicking animal moves. We speak to experts to find out what sets this regimen apart from our traditional yoga