Floating gyms, museum workouts: holidays for fitness fanatics are a hot trend

With our time becoming ever more limited and our list of commitments ever longer, some innovative minds are coming up with ways for people to combine two of humankind's greatest impulses: tourism and exercise.

Until March 9, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is trialling a programme designed by Monica Bill Barnes & Company, in which visitors work up a sweat in front of "the finest art in the world".

Called The Museum Workout, the programme has participants gathering early, before public hours, to chug along behind Barnes and her dancing partner Anna Bass through the museum, warming up in the grand entrance hall, performing choreographed exercises in the galleries and jogging up the 19th-century staircase before collapsing for a cool-down in front of a bronze statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt.

story_article_left1

Meanwhile, an Italian design firm has invented a boat that combines a fitness centre with a tour of Paris down the River Seine, harnessing the energy of its passengers.

The Paris Navigating Gym is a sleek 20m-long vessel with glass walls, powered by human energy on spinning bikes. The glass-walled boat can host up to 45 people, riding to push the boat up the river.

The design was developed by firm Carlo Ratti Associati, who say that, while it is still in concept stage, it could be implemented for real in under 18 months, once ordered.

Finally, for those who take their workouts super-seriously, a UK-based company is offering the chance to train in the French Pyrénées with actual Olympians.

Performance Team is selling spots on a five-day boot camp aimed at amateur triathletes, cyclists and runners who wish to boost their endurance and fine-tune their physique with the personal assistance of medal-winning stars.

The camps will take place in May at Domaine Lavie, a historic manor house set on 2.8ha of land in Salies de Béarn in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region of Southwest France.

The price tag for such glory, however, is not cheap. Think £10,000 (R164,000).

mini_story_image_hright1

Middle-distance runner Andrew Baddeley, who competed in the London and Beijing Olympics for Great Britain; and Mark Buckingham, an Olympic physiotherapist, are co-founders of the company.

They say the camps are for people looking to break their personal records while keeping their joints healthy.

Participants will undergo several pre-camp tests, including blood work and electrocardiograms from a sports scientist who works with Britain's Olympic team.

The six-day programme includes macro-nutrient eating plans and long training sessions in the countryside, followed by consultations with the physiotherapist, a soft-tissue specialist, and the athlete-coach, who'll advise on training plans, including how to stay motivated.