Working Out, Korean Style: Behind Seoul’s New Fitness Movement

Do Korean girls ever work out? People tend to believe that much like the Parisienne, whose fitness approach is relatively laissez-faire, the Seoulite can eat whatever she likes without breaking a sweat. Considering the preternaturally slim models and street style regulars who dominate Seoul’s Fashion Week scene, the notion doesn’t seem too farfetched. But when I broach the idea over tea with Korean Vogue Beauty Director Jisu Paek, her reaction—laughter—says it all.

It’s true: Korean women have to work at staying in shape like anyone else, and over the past three years or so, a new fitness movement has swept through the city—one that focuses on building muscle, not losing weight. “It was all about being thin and slim, but now it’s about having that healthy, glowing body,” says model Irene Kim. “It’s recently started to become more of a routine, too.” For the rainbow-haired icon, that means Pilates at Shasha in Apgujeong—a favorite workout studio among models—two or three times a week to create that newly desirable muscle tone.

It’s in nearby Gangnam that Seoul’s beauty and workout trends are born, and according to Paek, the current yen for boutique studio fitness boils down to two camps. Posture correction was the city’s entrée into exercise culture; yoga and Pilates took hold first, followed by extreme homegrown variations like Sling. “A lot of the ones that make you look pretty, or that look pretty when you do them, are trending,” Kim says. Sling is a next-level take on balance training that involves pushing your feet through two cotton loops, hung from a jungle gym structure, and contorting your body in midair.

Lately, Paek adds, more hard-core workouts have been proliferating, too—weight training, TRX, and even CrossFit. Thanks to a spate of chic fitness salon openings, including a popular series with Reebok called CrossFit Sentinel, the high-intensity interval workout has become a favorite of Gangnam women—particularly those who, Paek says, want to build a better butt. “The body trends are changing,” she says. “Now muscular is better than thinner.” But as Kim puts it, “Women are [also] working out for their health.”

The intensity of CrossFit, however, is nothing compared to Micro, which just might best embody the Korean workout philosophy: It’s a machine that delivers low-frequency electrical pulses (or micro-currents) to stimulate muscles. Enthusiasts claim that it packs around four hours of exercise into just 20 minutes—and swear by it. It seems that here, beauty is pain after all.

 

Watch Irene Kim’s Seoul Fashion Week Snapchat takeover:

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