MassiveObsessions: Heavy Metal Fitness
Do you belong to the majority of people whose New Year’s resolution is to go to the gym more and get fit for the summer? If so, have you considered doing that to a calorie-crushing music genre, commonly known as Heavy Metal?
Burn love handles - not churches - to the blazing riffs and growling vocals that make up Heavy Metal. At the same time, allow us to rip apart the stereotype that all Heavy Metal fans are lazy, beer-drinking, chubby outcasts of society.
[Image source:http://www.thrashhits.com/2008/08/australian-psychiatrists-study-heavy-metal-fans/]
(Well, some are...but that is not because they listen to Heavy Metal.)
The overall health movement has slowly crept into the subculture some of our MassiveMusic family members are tremendously passionate about. More and more heavy metal musicians and fans openly express their interest in a healthy lifestyle. And even if you are not part of that subculture, exercising to this empowering music can help channel aggression, release tension and get you ripped.
We used the long and haunting winter nights crawling through the web to discover Death Metal Yoga and Extreme Metal Spinning. The Swedish power metal band Sabaton even organised a live performance spinning class.
Nergal (Behemoth), Doyle (ex-Misfits) and Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) are just a few headbangers that are as passionate about heavy lifting as they are about heavy music.
[Image source:https://www.instagram.com/p/BI7-PEmDpUc/]
Consider mainstream, pop and/or hip hop artists that strike partnership deals with the world’s biggest sports brands. Do you actually know what sport they are passionate about? Not really…those artists rather merge sport with fashion. Good for them.
Metal musicians on the other side - the dark side - are insanely passionate about their sport of choice. Take Matt Heafy, Trivium’s guitarist and lead vocalist. Matt has been excessively practising Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for three years now and always brings his complete BJJ and workout gear along on tour.
[Image source: http://nysmusic.com/2016/01/19/trivium-destroys-a-sold-out-lost-horizon/ and http://www.acsgear.com/blog/news/how-matthew-kiichi-heafy-of-trivium-finds-music-bjj-as-outlets-for-life]
Apart from that he constantly expresses his healthy lifestyle via Instagram and Twitter as Kiichi Chaos and uses touring as a channel to discover different food cultures.
[Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BKwXuwUgXFP/]
[Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ-S0qhgbld/]
[Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ1dOWYgvBo/]
An article is not enough. Some of us are so passionate about Metal and Fitness that we have organised a Heavy Fitness class in partnership with Frame Shoreditch which is taking place today.
The class is sold out now but you will be able to see what happened on our socials (find us on Facebook and Twitter). So watch this space!
Find more info on the Heavy Fitness class here.
