Keep Up with your FITNESS ROUTINE! Sign up for the next session - Starts March 6th!

POWER MOVE TO FIRM YOUR LOWER HALF

Over-and-Back Lunge with Biceps Curl

Step forward off a step, arms at your sides, and lower into a lunge. Press through your front heel to stand up, raising your knee and curling your arms up to your shoulders. Immediately step back into a lunge and straighten your arms. Return to start. Do 10 to 12, then switch legs and repeat

GET INTO A FITNESS ROUTINE!

The Step It Up + ABS class will now be held on Tuesdays AND Thursdays from 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM!  

Happy NEW YEAR Classes Start This Week!

CHANGE - Note:  The Tuesday evening Step It Up + Abs class will start Tuesday, January 10th and run through Tuesday, February 28th.

New Year's Resolution: GET FIT! Pilates with Props & Step + Abs- CLASSES START JANUARY 2nd!!!

Is it okay to exercise when sick?

The best guide for deciding whether or not to exercise when sick is the location of the symptoms. Specifically, are the symptoms located above or below the neck?

When the symptoms are above the neck—such as a stuffy or runny nose, headache, sore throat or sneezing—the illness is relatively mild and probably will not worsen with exercise. Sometimes, in fact, the symptoms may temporarily improve while exercising. For example, exercise may unclog a stuffy nose.

But when the symptoms are below the neck—such as a chest cold, hacking cough, muscle aches, fever, chills, nausea or vomiting—the illness is more severe and probably will worsen with exercise. In this case, rest is needed.

If the illness is mild and the choice is made to exercise, a level of intensity that’s below normal should be employed. Symptoms that worsen during exercise are a clear indication to stop.

A related topic that often gets overlooked is whether or not the illness can spread to others in the gym. Something like this shouldn’t be taken lightly as the health of others is now at stake.

When in doubt, hold off on exercising until healthy. And, of course, seek medical advice.

-American Fitness Magazine

Does aerobic training improve mood?

For many years, it has been known that exercise has a positive effect on mood. Research has shown that the improvement in mood lasts for a few minutes to a few hours.

But a recent study has shown that the post-exercise effect on mood may be of much longer duration. In the study, researchers at the University of Vermont randomly assigned 48 healthy, college-aged subjects to two groups: One group did 20 minutes of aerobic training on a stationary bike while the other group acted as a control and didn’t do any exercise.

Prior to the experiment, all subjects were given an assessment of mood that looked at six areas: tension, anger, depression, vigor, fatigue and confusion. The assessment was repeated immediately after the treatment or control condition and then again at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours post-exercise.

It was found that aerobic training of moderate intensity—the average exercising heart rate was about 112 beats per minute—improved mood state for up to 12 hours post-exercise. Another great reason to exercise!

-American Fitness Magazine