Published on : 27 August 20194 min reading time

With more than 3 million practitioners, fitness is the most practiced sport in France. From the 1980s and their wild aerobics, to the disciplines mixing dance and martial arts of today, fitness has managed to stand out. Here you can find an overview of this practice.

What is fitness?

This term covers all the fitness activities offered in sports clubs (light weight training, stretching, and cardio-training…).

The different activities

Fitness covers a multitude of activities. This list is therefore not exhaustive. You can find many more in all sports halls:

  • Strength training courses: the famous and dreaded buttock abs are a classic in sports halls and can be found everywhere. You can also choose between chest / arm, abdomen / waist or buttocks / thighs.
  • Body combat: practiced in group classes, it is a mixture of several fighting techniques such as boxing, karate or taekwondo. To wild music, you alternate kicking and punching. It’s active, fun and you sweat a lot!
  • Body balance: like body combat, it is a mixture of several disciplines, but this time soft. Yoga, tai chi and pilates are combined for complete muscle strengthening and relaxation.
  • Gentle gymnastics: this is the perfect activity if you haven’t played sports for a long time, or if you don’t want to go too hard. Practiced in group classes, this activity consists of gentle and progressive exercises to avoid any trauma to your body.
  • Step: This activity is performed on a small raised platform, the height of a step. You must make movements up and down this platform, following the rhythm of the music. This exercise is ideal for tightening your thighs and buttocks.
  • Aerobics: this involves practicing fast movements on very rhythmic music. Make way for sweat and coordination, because it is not always easy to follow! A distinction is made between low impact (LIA), which is softer, and high impact (HIA), which is much more dynamic. If everyone is unlikely to do this activity, still monitor the level of your course.
  • Biking: this activity is practiced to music with fixed bicycles. Based on endurance and strengthening the cardiovascular system, it is a recommended discipline for weight loss. But be careful, you have to keep up the pace. Not recommended for beginners.
  • Stretching: this consists of stretching and softening to relieve muscles and joints, but also to lengthen them. It is often practiced in addition to another activity. It is a relaxing discipline and accessible to all.
  • Aquagym: as its name suggests, it is about doing gymnastics in the water. Practiced in the pool or for the luckiest in the sea, this activity strengthens the whole body by playing with the resistance of the water which facilitates movements but also makes them more effective. This gentle activity is recommended for people who are not used to sports, or who are overweight. Today, it is available in aqua-boxing, aqua-cycling or aqua-power.
  • Body sculpt: it is a complete bodybuilding training, based on the principle of a circuit training. Practiced to music, without machines but with elastics and dumbbells, exercises are alternated by regularly changing the parts of the body worked on. Dynamic, this activity allows a complete and subtle remodelling.

Pilates: a gentle gym method based on concentration and breathing, the aim of which is to rebalance the body. We work in depth but very smoothly, so the muscles lengthen and develop harmoniously.

The flying trapeze: at the med gym club, you can take to the air. Strong sensations guaranteed!

Body jam: this new discipline combines rhythmic dance and fitness movements. To get out of the way in good shape!

The NIA: this discipline mixes nine different activities, from dance to martial arts. Enough to move without ever getting bored!