FARRINGDON, LONDON:

Peters "cross-training" on a night out.

Mainstream public opinion has long held Clubbing culture as an unhealthy and potentially dangerous lifestyle option, an opinion fueled certainly in part by the stark warnings and headline grabbing statements issued by Doctors, health professionals, and the medical community as a whole.

But this may all be set to change with the rising popularity of a little known underground dance trend- bodybuilders who are merging the worlds of high-resistance training with high-energy clubbing.

Kelly Peters, a keen amateur body-builder and regular at London's Trade night, explains- "Clubbing has always received bad press-the only stuff you ever see is about thin emaciated pale kids getting off their heads. But as a body-builder of over 12 years, I'm combining the strict discipline of my sport with an aspect of clubbing that everyone's quick to overlook- a maximum intensity, high aerobic cardiovascular workout."

Professional fitness trainer Dan Jones agrees: "Now that trance and house have gone up-tempo, breaking into the 150-160 b.p.m mark, you're dancing right smack in the critical 'fat burning' zone. And staying there all night." It seems that clubbing bodybuilders are taking advantage of this to achieve the crucial, sought after 'ripped' lean look.

Peters, who works out 30 hours a week, continued: "I find that certain styles of music favours different body parts. With hard house for example, you tend to get more of an upper body workout, which work your traps, tris and bis. Funky U.S house on the other hand isolates the glutes and stomach area" an effect that "really blasts the abs," he said.

Pre-competition in a popular London club night.

Peters went on to clarify why this was critical in picking the right night out. "If it's an arm day for example, you want to try and avoid the hard house nights. I do legs most Saturdays, and I find the combo of stiff-leg deadlights, seated curls, and quad blasts don't stop me doing Trade. So on alternate weekends I do chest and back, and then it's off to Love Muscle (a popular gay night) in Brixton."

And it seems the advantages of clubbing have not gone unnoticed by the bodybuilding pros either. IFBB 3 time champion and 2nd place runner up in the Arnold Schwarzenegger 'classic' last year, Matt Zeraski is typical of the new breed of professional sportspeople who are looking to recreational outlets to give them an advantage over the competition.

Zeraski has been one of the first professional sportsmen to use house and trance to winning effect. "I quickly cottoned on that this could give me an edge over the other guys," said Zeraski "and it was on about my 2nd night out that it dawned on me that dancing with glow sticks was basically a pump class. That's when I established the lights concept."

Zeraski pioneered a ground breaking idea - employing specially customised, oversized glow sticks, for a winning formula of dance moves and low weight reps. "Boogying about with two 70 kg fluoro lights eventually gave me the freaky monster delts and super-wide x-frame barnhouse lats that are my trademark today" he said

Zeraski is no stranger to challenging popular bodybuilding norms. Bodybuilders traditionally had always focused on sculpting solely the body's external muscles, an approach the 3-time champion claimed was 'narrow minded.' So in the early 90's he changed the pro-circuit scene forever by focusing internally, beginning to lift weights with a previously overlooked muscle-his ass. "You have to start off really gently, and begin with a low-weight high rep regime," he explained, "but once you've trained it sufficiently it's just like any other major muscle group. I can easily clean and jerk over a 100kgs with my ass now."

"It basically adds symmetry," he concluded. "And that's something the judges really look for."