After making waves abroad, bungee fitness has landed in Luxembourg with the Esch-sur-Alzette-based Aeclectica. Offering yoga HIIT and dance classes, the versatile service is also an example of turning passion into an entrepreneurial project.
Fitness and wellness have many faces in Luxembourg. While the country’s love for cycling and running remains undisputed, with the influx of expats and various cultures comes a diversification of the sports sector. Bungee fitness is perhaps the most distinct example of bringing the newest trends to the grand duchy.
Although the term invokes images of daring jumps from dizzy heights, this sports practice is anything but that. Participants take part in body-weight exercises while being connected to the ceiling via a harness and a bungee cord.
“When the harness is attached to the back, it is aimed at cardio, when it’s the front, it’s about flexibility and core strength. It involves movements like lunges and jumps,” explains Denise Bernuci, founder of Aeclectica, the first service to offer bungee classes in Luxembourg.
Versatility and fun
The bouncing fitness routine attracts people with its promise to be fun and engaging rather than feeling like a chore. On the other hand, applying less stress to the joints because of the use of bungee cords makes the practice attractive to people of age or with physical constraints.
Versatility was the fundamental aim of Bernuci when creating Aeclectica, but this relates to the offer as well as the audience. The Brazil-born expat got into yoga and aerial yoga (which involves hanging with the use of straps) during the pandemic, which coincided with disillusionment with her job as a project officer. Those practices, as well as High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), flexibility, and dance classes, are part of Aeclectica’s offer.
Turning passion into an entrepreneurial project
Having been an instructor in some of the major yoga studios like Yoga Loft and Flowbox and finding herself in between jobs, Bernuci decided to launch her own fitness and wellness service. After being approached by Blocx, Esch-sur-Alzette’s urban fitness site, she decided to take up their offer and rent 64 hours per month for a start. Bringing more people to the south of the country was also an aim for her in this project.
“The ceiling is very high, which is necessary for bungee. When I was first visiting, I thought, ‘Okay, if I had something, it would be here.’ Also I am on their website, so it’s kind of a showcase for me as well.”
Denise Bernuci, founder of Aeclectica
Carrying over skills
While Aeclectica is not the founder’s full-time occupation at the moment, it contributes to a more diverse offer in the fitness sector and allows her to monetise her enjoyment of being physically active. It has also been a way for her to use some of the skills from her previous jobs.
Bernuci admits that she is making use of having worked in social entrepreneurship for the European Investment Bank Institute. She points to taking risks, assuming mistakes, and not giving up as ideas she has taken from her experience facilitating entrepreneurs, which now help her move forward with her own venture.
