Channel Your Inner Beyonce At the Gym

To those of us mortals who frequent the gym with greasy hair, baggy t-shirts, and sweat-bands, the idea of getting dressed-up to workout is not only unnecessary, it's down right ludicrous. Meanwhile, to the gals at Vixen Workout, red-lipstick and heeled sneakers are crucial to breaking a sweat.

The new workout program, founded by former Miami Heat dancer Janet Jones, encourages girls to channel their inner Beyoncé. “Yes, I’m sexy. Yes, I’m fierce. Yes, I’ve got this,” chant up to 100 women, before breaking out into a choreography of seductive dance moves that includes twerks, lunges, and booty pops.

It would be easy to dismiss the hip-hop routine as another sleazy fad, comparable to the infamous Body & Pole classes, or perhaps the Pussycat Dolls Workout series. But Jones and her army of vixens boast a more commendable mission: encouraging women of all ages to embrace their sexuality for the sake of self-empowerment. These women aren't training to be backup dancers in a Robin Thicke video — they’re simply enjoying a girls' night out.

“Most of them have never experienced themselves as performers,” said Jones, referencing the women who take her classes. “All of a sudden they’re focusing on getting the movement, picking up the choreography. They work harder and lose weight…If I have no makeup and I’m in sweats, I don’t feel like a vixen.”

So round up your friends, your sisters, your mother-in laws, because the Vixen movement is expanding beyond Miami, and has begun recruiting women in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Chicago. But leave your fiancé at home, because in the studio, it's no boys allowed.

Image: Vixen Workout