Page 6 - FIS World May 2019

Into the Unknown
Seeing the Benefits of the FIS REAL Program
Students in Manika Mookerjee’s (front left) Fun-n-Fit with HIIT class
As a person who works in fashion, I was saddened by the death of Karl Lagerfeld last February. Arguably the world’s most iconic fashion designer, Lagerfeld led an impressive seven-decade career in couture. Now he is gone and we are left with his fashion legacy and eccentric, often rebellious quotes from his countless interviews. Lagerfeld was notorious for his blunt and sometimes offensive statements such as, “trendy is the last stage before tacky,” and “sweatpants are a sign of defeat.” Yet, one particular Lagerfeld quote really inspires me: “What I enjoy most, is doing something I’ve never done before.”WhatistrulyadmirableaboutLagerfeldis that while designers half his age fizzled from fashion’s maddening pace, Lagerfeld made himself even busier by dabbling in a constant stream of extra curricular activities such as publishing, photography, film and architecture.
Like Lagerfeld, who admitted to going to bookshops everyday because he wanted to,“know everything,” I have an insatiable curiosity and seek out enrichment courses to learn new techniques or explore a passion. Yet, as I get older and put my daughter’s schedule be- fore mine, it’s often difficult to find time for continu- ing education and routines make it hard for us to try new things. So I was delighted to see the diverse of- ferings from the FIS REAL Program and started taking classes shortly after I moved to Frankfurt last August.
I found comfort in being able to continue with my usual exercise in a familiar environment with people I recognized, but to propel myself further, I needed to act like Lagerfeld and challenge myself to embrace the unknown. So, for FIS World readers, I decided to try three REAL classes that pushed me far out of my comfort zone and filled one criteria: scare me.
HIIT Me Baby One More Time
There is no shortage of interesting fitness classes at FIS and for this quest, I selected Fun-n-Fit with HIIT! High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is fast-paced cardiorespiratory training with bodyweight resis- tance and features repeated segments of short du- ration, high-intensity exercises mixed with periods of lower intensity active recovery. In other words, you’ll work yourself to the max the majority of the work- out, sweat a lot, and then when you feel like you can’t do another rep, you’ll have to find it in you to do ten more. This was all sorts of terrifying for me, because I am not an athlete. I am someone who likes the idea of working out but who also believes that resistance training is refusing to run. But, for the sake of inves- tigative journalism, I tried it and actually loved it.
The instructor, Manika Mookerjee, immediately cre- ated a welcoming environment and was enthusias- tic but never overbearing. None of the moves were too complicated either; you’ll see basic push-ups,
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