Burraah the Healthy Way with
Fit Bhangra!
Learning bhangra while burning calories and staying fit is something you have always wanted, you just did not realize it until now. Fit Bhangra is a fitness club in the UAE whose motto is “Burn Calories the Bhangra Way!”. Helmed by the brother-sister ‘jodi’ of Jassi and Preeti Rehnsi, Fit Bhangra brings a bold new approach to the goal of becoming healthy while dancing to the vibrant Punjabi beats we all love to move to at the weddings, or in the privacy of the room for the shy ones! Gloss had a chance to have a chat with the two about their interesting new club and where it’s going to go.
Turning a traditional Punjabi wedding dance into a workout is a novel idea, to say the least. How did this idea occur to you and how did you translate the dance into a workout?
Bhangra has become best known for shoulder shrugging, toe-tapping, and head shaking to the contagious beat of a dhol, symbolised as a way of celebration at an Indian wedding. Since your body involved from head to toe, bhangra turns out to be a good cardio workout thanks to its dance style.
The two of us decided to take time out of our schedules to post bhangra videos to our social media together, and we got quite a positive response. We have been practising and performing bhangra from a very young age. We were asked by loads of people to start bhangra classes and training, but we never took the idea very seriously. At every wedding, function or party we attended, we were asked to perform and to lead others.
We noticed that others were lacking stamina and fitness, which was why they couldn’t jam along with us for long and would soon back out. People around us would get exhausted even before a song would finish. Jassi, who is our talented trainer, has been athletic since childhood and she is a bit of a fitness freak now, and she had a thought: why not combine the element of fitness in teaching bhangra as it involves a lot of jumping around and extending, impacting hip flexors and quads, calves and hamstrings and helps in burning a lot of calories. We then started working on the concept of Fit Bhangra to start bhangra classes that would include steps and techniques to improve fitness so our members can learn bhangra and get in shape.
What is a typical session at Fit Bhangra like?
We start our class with a warm-up, followed by a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) bhangra cardio workout. This is done with Punjabi music that generally has slow and fast rhythmic beats. We then focus on one song every day and choreograph basic and easy steps for beginners. Our sessions end with bhangra freestyling and cooling down of the body by stretching and relaxing muscles.
Do you think Bhangra will be the next Zumba? Do you see Bhangra classes becoming a staple of fitness clubs in a similar way?
Bhangra is a dance of strength, power, energy and grace. Bhangra dance classes are no doubt the latest trend in fitness. Yes, we see bhangra classes becoming a fundamental in the fitness industry. Bhangra music has progressively made its way into mainstream music and is gaining popularity globally. And not just on the radio, but also in cardio classes in gyms and studios across the globe.
Bhangra classes do share similarities with Zumba in their ability to break down dance steps in pieces to easy-to-replicate routines but unlike Zumba, bhangra steps are wider open going from a slow pace to fast with a lot of hand and legs movements. One can burn around 600 calories in just 45-60 minutes in a bhangra session. Besides getting your heart pumping, Bhangra finds a way to target parts of your body that you might not even realize it would. The upper body movement during a Bhangra dance workout mimics the effects of a light lateral workout by working the deltoids and lateral muscles that run down your back and the sides of your body.
How do you attract fitness enthusiasts?
What makes bhangra so attractive is that it has energy, as well as grace, especially when performing in a group. Choreographed and in proper coordination, such group assembled acts are even more mesmerizing. Having the blend of fitness to it attracts a lot of people who are looking for a fun and entertaining way of losing fat and getting in shape.
How well are people taking to this concept? Are your members all from the sub-continent or have you sold the magic of bhangra to people from other parts of the world as well?
Bhangra is incredibly infectious. Regardless of the ethnicity of the student, they always have a good time. We mostly have Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese students as of now and we are open to welcoming people from other parts of the world as well. Over the past couple of years, bhangra has been growing as a trend on the internet. With the numbers of Punjabi songs, the key element for bhangra, going viral, people are becoming interested in learning bhangra. Getting in shape and losing fat is another reason why people show interest in our workouts as they help you lose weight and burn calories the bhangra way. We have yet to find someone that was exposed to bhangra and actually disliked it. We are still on our journey to share our Fit Bhangra experience with people from other parts of the world as well.
How do you deal with someone who is not a dancer or has no experience of dancing? Can they easily get the hang of it?
We are very easy on beginners. We observe each individual very closely and teach them step-by-step. We teach the steps at a slow pace by breaking them into pieces, focusing first only on the leg movements and then the hand movements.
We believe that improvisation is the key to perfection. We have seen some really good changes in few of our committed students who have been part of the journey from the very beginning.
Bhangra sometimes gets tricky to learn, from stepping/tapping feet to lifting. We start with very basic moves. Once they start mastering a few basic steps, we keep adding on more complex moves. Professional bhangra can be as tough as other dance forms but the basic steps are not very challenging. It does not require any individual to have previous dancing experience, someone with little or no experience in dance or bhangra can also fully enjoy it.
Have you faced any challenges as you grew your club?
Yes, challenges are everywhere!
People have a conception about Abu Dhabi being boring. Something like this has not been done before in the Emirates. We knew we would face challenges at the beginning with a new concept like this, but we kept a positive attitude.
We initially faced challenges in selecting the right institute or studio where we could start our sessions. After having selected the perfect studio, which is right in the city with the easy availability of parking, the second task was to inspire people to add Fit Bhangra to their routine. People were quite interested in stepping into our session for once to see what we were offering, but the challenge was to convert them from one session to joining us monthly and that could only be possible if they liked what we were offering them. We gave them our best, which changed their minds, resulting in our team successfully growing from the very first week itself.
Pretty much everyone is busy here with the full-time jobs or education, so another challenge we faced was having a time for our session that was suitable for everyone.
There were a few days where we couldn’t make it to many members of our class, some having a busy work schedule and some travelling. Some days the studio is packed and some days there were just 4- 6 students. However, are pleased with the number of inquiries we get about the classes and the willingness to join, it keeps us going.
We compromise on timings and adjust it according to our members in every way possible so that nobody misses any sessions. We try our best to let everyone come in and see what Fit Bhangra is all.
The playlist is the key to a good workout. What are your favourite songs to jam to?
Music has the capacity to energise and increase endurance. Bhangra music, which we perform on, is so vibrant and energetic, and it releases your inner being to a higher level. It’s very evident by how overjoyed the person is while doing bhangra.
Music is one of the best motivators in the world. With the increased energy levels provided by heavy bhangra music, one is able to work out longer and harder. The body will start to hit new peaks, and that is hard to do without music. It results in an impact on the whole body, helping in all-around toning of your back, arms and shoulders.
Doing cardio by stepping and tapping into the power of heavy Bhangra music helps in pushing one’s limits and acts as a motivational tool. Lately, Zumba trainers started have also started to use heavy Bollywood bhangra music to pump up their sessions.
Over the past couple of months, we have bhangra’ed to new songs like Daru Badnam by Mankirt Aulakh; Illegal weapon by Jasmine Sandlas; Wonderland by Lakeeran; Do You Know by Diljit Dosanjh; Shape of You Bhangra Mix by Dj Frenzy, Koke by Sunanda Sharma; and some classic songs like Tera Yaar Bolda by Surjit Bindrakhia and Tere Tille Ton by Kuldeep Manak, among others. Some of our favourite songs are Yeah Baby by Garry Sandhu and Wonderland by Lakeeran.
Where is Fit Bhangra going in terms of expanding and branching out?
We have successfully ended season 1. It has been 4 months now since we started Fit Bhangra. We are planning and doing our best to reach as many as possible in Abu Dhabi. As bhangra is going viral all over the globe and since we are the first fitness related bhangra club, we have a lot enquires coming in from all over the Emirates. We definitely have thought about expanding to other places but as for now, we would be focusing more on growing and improving it in Abu Dhabi before we jump onto another location. We are open to and are welcoming of any sort of platforms that would be given to us in order to branch out or expand.
What’s coming up soon for Fit Bhangra?
After successful completion of season 1, we are all pumped up and ready for our next season. We will be back in August with lots of new exciting concepts and themes. We will be including a lot of props related to bhangra and fitness. We will be collaborating with events and will have a presence in upcoming promotional activities, stage shows.
