QUESTION: Choose how you'd like to exercise:

A. Lift five-pound weights, working up to ten.

B. Push the buttons on your television remote five times every minute, working up to ten.

C. Dance wildly to a Caribbean beat.

D. Carry a Lowell backpack.

If you chose C and wish to “jazzercise” your workout routine, check out these unique fitness trends that are innovative alternatives to the traditional gym workout.

Insanity/P90X

P90X, or Power 90 Extreme, is a 90-day home-exercise program created by Beachbody Limited Liability Company (LLC) that combines a variety of exercise techniques such as strength training, cardio, yoga, plyometrics and stretching. There are twelve DVD workouts, each targeting different skills and muscle groups. P90X emphasizes “muscle confusion,” a method of training that switches the order of exercises and incorporates new movements in order to prevent the body from adapting to same old exercises. The majority of the workouts are less than an hour, and the P90X program cycle lasts 13 weeks, six days a week. A series of DVD videos featuring instructor Tony Horton and his crew of workout buddies, a nutrition guide, fitness plan and calendar are all included with this program.

Some Lowell students have used P90X to motivate them to exercise more regularly. “It's a new way to work out and it's made me a lot stronger. I went from being able to do only a few pull-ups in a single workout, to doing like fifty,” senior Max Lewin, who first heard about P90X after his brother went through the program, said. As for any downsides of P90X, Lewin added, “P90X requires you to do the exercises every day, which can be annoying, especially if you don't have the time for it on some days.”

The nutrition plan is made up of three different phases. The first 30 days focuses on a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates, such as egg whites or chicken breast. On the second phase, the percentage of carbohydrates is increased, then in the third phase, it becomes a high-carbohydrate “athlete's” diet.

Insanity is another home exercise program similar to P90X, also created by Beachbody LLC. It claims to improve fitness in 60 days through “max interval training,” which is a method of exercising in which one works out strenuously for 3-4 minutes and then has a “cool down” period for about 30 seconds before starting the whole process over again. Similar to P90X, Insanity also includes a nutrition guide, fitness plan, calendar and a series of DVD videos with instructor Shaun Thompson. Sophomore Max Read did Insanity for four weeks as a freshman in Physical Education teacher Sasha Taylor-Ray’s class. “We did Insanity because it got people in shape for the fitness test,” Read said. “It really worked for me and improved my fitness test score.”

Digital Fitness Games

Digital Fitness Games, also known as “exergaming,” are video games that are also a form of exercise. Exergaming uses technology that tracks the body's movement using motion sensors. This fitness trend has been credited with changing the stereotype from computer nerds sitting at a monitor in a sedentary lifestyle to fitness afficionados having fun. Exergames have been evolving as technology improves, and can be traced back to the 1980s, when games such as HighCycle and Power Pad were introduced. HighCycle was an exercise bike that the user would pedal through a virtual landscape, and Power Pad was similar to a primitive version of Dance Dance Revolution. In recent years, video games have advanced technologically, with programs such as Wii Fit and Konami's Dance Dance Revolution that have made exergaming more popular than ever.

Dance Dance Revolution was released in 1998 in Japan, and is recognized as the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance genre in video games. Players stand on a “dance platform” or stage and hit colored arrows with their feet to musical and visual cues, then the game awards points based on how well participants timed their moves to the patterns presented. As a reward, dancers are allowed to choose songs from an unlocked selection of music. Junior Susan Park first found out about DDR through TV commercials. “I was really into it when I first got it, and it made me sweat and was a pretty good workout,” Park said. “However, it got boring after awhile.”

Wii Fit: Wii Fit is an exercise video game consisting of a variety of sports activities. This game requires the player to remain standing on the Wii Balance Board, an accessory similar to a household weight scale, while trying exercises such as yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. As the user attempts each exercise, virtual trainers criticize or praise the participant depending on how well he or she is doing. “Some people may find it more fun than running on a treadmill, but it’s not a super intense workout and won’t get you as fit as other workout programs would,” sophomore Vishaal Patel said.

Zumba

Zumba was created in 1986 by accident when Columbia-born Alberto “Beto” Perez forgot to bring his usual music to the aerobics class he taught. He went through his bag of tapes and decided to play a mix of salsa and meringue music that he personally enjoyed. The energy generated by the fast beat was an immediate success in his class, and a newborn dance-based exercise soon spread all over Colombia.

After the initial success in Colombia, in 1999 he took the class to the United States. Zumba is considered “exercise in disguise,” and claims to burn between 500 and 1000 calories in a typical class. Zumba exercises include a wide variety of music with either fast or slow rhythms, ranging from classic Spanish genres such as salsa, merengue, mambo, chachacha, tango and soca, to the world music of belly dancing, bhangra, hip hop music, axé music and reggaeton, as well as resistance training for weight loss and fitness.

Stonestown YMCA, 24 Hour Fitness on Ocean Ave. and Fitness USA at Stonestown are the nearest locations to the school that offer Zumba classes. For locations near your home, visit the Zumba website and type in your zip code. “I started doing Zumba because soccer season was over, so I was at the Y looking for classes. I passed by the Zumba class and heard sick music so I joined the class,” said senior Taryn Estébaz, who currently takes Zumba classes at Stonestown YMCA. Varied teachers teach this class and, as a result, each class focuses on different aspects. “Zumba isn’t extremely intense, but it definitely helped my coordination,” Estébaz said.

A version of this article first appeared in the Oct. 7, 2011 print edition of The Lowell.

Illustrations by Vivian Tong.