Illumanis - a brand-new healthy way to holiday

Aptly launched ahead of the sporting frenzy of summer 2012, Illumanis is a new luxury, five-star fitness-holiday company.

Offering five-star fitness holidays at a luxury spa resort in Turkey, Illumanis offers a proven route to weight-loss with an emphasis on education and keeping the pounds off when back home. A productive way to spend a week, seven well-structured programmes – great for both sexes – have now been launched, all led by experienced trainers and consultants. Rather than spending a week in the gym, knowledgeable instructors will get guests to make use of the great outdoors with circuits on the beach and runs up into the Taurus Mountains.

Says Stephanie Eddy, Marketing Manager of Illumanis, “Hectic, fast-paced lifestyles are becoming more and more the norm, and often it takes a week away to kick-start a new regime. Illumanis is ideal for busy, time-sensitive people who are keen to shed the pounds and combine this with a luxury holiday in the sun. Not only can guests expect to lose up to a stone of body fat, but they’ll also learn how to adapt their routine once home to ensure that the hard work doesn’t go to waste.”

Here are three of the new fitness holidays:

Boot Camp, from £995 pp*
You don’t have to be a serial ‘boot-camper’ for this holiday, which will motivate people of all fitness levels with its emphasis on team spirit and a group mentality. The instructors will make sure everyone’s pushed to their maximum limit, whether it’s during military-style circuits on the resort’s private beach, hikes up to Alanya’s medieval castle or spinning classes. There are also optional medicine-ball and kettle-bell workouts, yoga, meditation and resistance work in the gym, and the sea (plus an Olympic-sized pool) is right there whenever you need to cool off. It’s not all about hard work though; evenings are free for relaxing and there’s unlimited use of the steam rooms, sauna and Turkish bath to relax weary muscles. During mealtimes, there’s always an instructor on hand to advise on what you should and shouldn’t eat.

Ultimate Weight Loss, from £1,295 pp*
Rather than over-exercising and creating a large calorie deficit – a common theme for many fitness holidays – this weight-loss week is different. It combines a precise diet with a resistance-training programme to avoid the weight gains that ‘yo-yo dieters’ often incur. The training’s not designed to exhaust; instead, you’ll follow a controlled training programme and diet specifically written with you in mind, including one-to-one and small-group training. Combine short training sessions with a thoroughly well-researched menu of amino acid-based supplements and essential oils, which trick the body into thinking you’re consuming a large quantity of food – meaning that body fat is reduced at a particularly rapid rate. You’ll even wear a special wrist-band to ensure you can’t give way to temptation in the restaurant. Alongside the programme, there’s time to use the hotel’s extensive facilities, visit nearby Alanya and book in for a massage.

Muscle Mass, from £1,175 pp*
As with many of the other programmes, the Muscle Mass week starts with a 12-site body fat assessment, which will make it easy, come the end of the week, to assess how much muscle you’ve gained and body fat you’ve lost. Depending on your body type, you’ll be given a training and meal plan designed to help build muscle and bulk up fast, including innovative training tools and a balanced diet. You’ll work on different body parts, alternating weights and the number of reps, and be pushed to your limit in training sessions. Carefully working the different muscle fibres, you’ll exercise arms, legs, abs and shoulders, combining this with regular meals both in the restaurant and by the pool. There’s also time for sled-training and beach volleyball, plus optional trips to a floating river restaurant and to Alanya, and plenty of time to relax by one of the pools.

*Prices are based on two sharing and include flights (Gatwick), transfers, seven nights’ full-board accommodation at a five-star hotel, all training and fitness sessions, nutritional advice and use of the hotel’s facilities and spa.

Ultimate Weight Loss (which runs on a half-board basis) and Muscle Mass also include supplements (as per programme), plus a personal fitness assessment and some one-to-one training sessions.

Other new Illumanis fitness holidays include: Tone Up, The Wedding Diet, Lean Muscle and Weight Loss.

For more information, visit illumanis.com.