Tag: exercise

How To Make A Great First Impression At Your Trial Fitness Class

Posted on by Lisa S

Attending a trial fitness class is an exciting opportunity to explore a new exercise regimen and potentially find a workout routine that suits your needs. Making a positive first impression can help you feel more comfortable and confident in this new environment. Here are some tips to ensure you make the most of your trial fitness class experience.

Arrive Early

Punctuality is key to making a great first impression. Arriving early allows you to familiarize yourself with the surroundings, settle in, and mentally prepare for the class. It also gives you the chance to introduce yourself to the instructor, who can provide guidance and answer any questions you may have. Being punctual demonstrates respect for others’ time and shows your commitment to the class.

Dress Appropriately

Wearing appropriate workout attire not only ensures comfort but also reflects your dedication and readiness to participate. Opt for clothes that allow freedom of movement and are suitable for the type of exercise involved. Choose comfortable, supportive footwear that is appropriate for the specific workout environment. Dressing appropriately shows your preparedness and sends a message that you are taking the class seriously.

Be Open and Friendly

Approach the trial fitness class with a positive and friendly attitude. Smile, introduce yourself to fellow participants, and engage in light conversation before the class begins. This helps create a welcoming atmosphere and may lead to potential workout buddies. Remember, everyone is there for a common goal: to improve their fitness. Embrace the opportunity to meet new people and build connections within the fitness community.

Listen and Follow Instructions

Once the class starts, be attentive and listen carefully to the instructor’s instructions. Show respect by following directions promptly and correctly. Avoid distractions and focus on your form and technique. Demonstrating attentiveness shows your commitment and eagerness to learn. If you are unsure about any instructions or exercises, don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. This will help you get the most out of the class and prevent any potential injuries. By arriving early, dressing appropriately, being friendly, and actively engaging in the class, you can make a great first impression at your trial fitness class. Enjoy the experience and embrace the opportunity for personal growth. Offering a trial fitness class is a great way to attract more students into your fitness program. To manage your fitness studio more efficiently learn how My Best Studio’s fitness studio management software can help.

How to Take Your Power Pilates Class To The Next Level

Posted on by Lisa S

Power Pilates is a great way to get in shape and build muscle, but if you want to take your workouts to the next level, there are a few things you can do.

Get the right trainer
Make sure you’re working with a trainer who knows what he or she is doing. This person should have experience with power pilates and be able to give you advice on how best to approach your workout so that it’s effective and safe.

Check your form
Ensure that you’re using proper form when performing each exercise. This will help ensure that you don’t injure yourself while exercising.

Warm up before you work out
Learn how to warm up properly before starting your workout session and cool down afterwards. Warming up will help loosen your muscles and increase blood flow; cooling down allows your heart rate time to return to normal levels so that it doesn’t take too long for your body temperature to drop back down again from its elevated state during exercise (which can lead to dizziness or fainting).

Don’t skip the stretching
The importance of stretching cannot be overstated. Stretching is an important part of any workout routine, but especially one that involves strength training like pilates does. Make sure you stretch for at least five minutes before jumping into your exercises.

Use the right equipment
If you have access to a reformer, make sure you’re using it and not just doing resistance by pushing on your own bodyweight. The reformer gives you more stability and lets you do more repetitions than when working against gravity alone.

Pick up the pace
Instead of holding each pose for 30 seconds, try holding them for 45 or even 60 seconds (but only if your instructor says that’s okay). You can also increase your speed during the exercises—try speeding up each move so that instead of doing one rep every five seconds, you do one rep every three seconds (again, only if your instructor says it’s okay).

Set goals for yourself
If there’s something specific about your body that needs work or if you have an event coming up where you want to look particularly fit (like spring break), set goals for yourself based on those things during class each week so that by the time they come around again in reality, you’ll be ready for them!

Pilates trainers can also follow the tips mentioned above to help their students get the most out of pilates classes. If you own a pilates fitness studio, explore how a pilates studio management software like My Best Studio can help manage several important tasks of running your studio while you focus on what you do best.

Body Age: What Is It and What Does It Mean for You?

Posted on by Lisa S

Wondering if your body age is higher than your actual age? It’s a common concern, and it’s not hard to understand why. We live in a society that values youth and beauty, so it’s natural to feel like we’re aging faster than we should.

But here’s the thing: You can’t really change your body age. The only thing you can do is change what you do with your body, which will inevitably affect how it ages.

So why does knowing your body age matter? It’s all about making the right decisions for yourself—and understanding what those decisions are.

What is Body Age?
According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), your body age is a number that represents how old your body feels based on its actual age. The ACE’s study found that the average person’s body age is about two years older than their chronological age.

Why is it worth knowing Body Age ?
Body age is an interesting piece of data because it can be used not only for health purposes, but also for tracking your overall fitness level and how long you have before reaching the end of your life expectancy. Body age can help people who want to live a longer life learn more about their mortality and how they can stay healthy in order to extend their lifespan.

How is body age calculated?
Body age is calculated by looking at five different factors: muscle strength, cardiovascular health, liver health, kidney function and immune system function.

Muscle strength: This is measured by the amount of resistance needed to push a button on a device called a dynamometer.

Cardiovascular health: This is measured by the ability of blood vessels to relax and dilate in response to blood pressure changes.

Liver health: This is measured by the amount of bilirubin in your blood—bilirubin is produced when red blood cells break down and die.

Kidney function: This is measured by how much creatinine there is in your urine—creatinine comes from muscles breaking down during exercise or protein digestion.

Immune system function: This measures how quickly white blood cells are produced in response to an infection (white blood cells fight infections).

Regular workouts at a fitness studio can improve your body age. If you are a fitness instructor, you know that best. Focus on your expertise while My Best Studio handles the managerial aspects of running your fitness business for you. Know more.

Why Cycling is One Of the Best Ways to Lose Weight

Posted on by Lisa S

Many people are looking for the best and easiest ways to lose weight. Cycling is one of these. It is one of the best ways to lose weight because it can help you burn calories, while ensuring you have fun. You can also use cycling as a form of exercise and then eat healthier foods because of your improved fitness level.

Significant calorie burn
Cycling can help you burn off 300 calories if you ride your bike for 30 minutes. That’s around the same amount of calories as jogging or walking at the same speed for that long! This means that if you ride your bike every day, you could lose 5 pounds in just one month!

Improved cardiovascular health
Cycling is also great exercise because it improves your cardiovascular system and helps keep your heart healthy. The more fit you are, the healthier your heart will be and the longer it will last throughout life.

Helps you stay active
Cycling is a great way to get outside and enjoy fresh air while staying active at the same time!

Helps build muscle mass
Cycling helps build muscle mass, which means you’ll be able to even when you’re not cycling! The more muscle tissue you have, the more efficiently your body can convert food into energy and use it throughout the day.

Tones your body
Cycling tones your body by increasing flexibility in your joints and improving coordination between your limbs while riding on two wheels! This helps increase endurance so that you can keep going longer without feeling tired out too quickly or getting injured along the way.

Low impact exercise
You can cycle anywhere, and you can use your own body weight to generate the resistance needed to work out. Cycling also burns more calories per minute than running or walking, so you’ll see results faster!

Good for beginners
Because of its low impact nature, you don’t have to worry about injuring yourself when starting out! It’s also easier on your joints than other forms of exercise like running or cross-training exercises like swimming laps at the pool or taking part in martial arts classes where there’s lots of jumping around involved.

If you’re thinking about starting a cycling studio and want to learn how to manage your operations better, explore the cycling studio management software offered by My Best Studio.

5 Fun Facts About Zumba As A Form of Dance Fitness

Posted on by Lisa S

Zumba is a high-intensity workout that mixes international dance moves like salsa, merengue and flamenco to create an exhilarating dance fitness experience. The Zumba dance workout is typically done in a group setting. It’s very much like going to a class at the gym; however, this is not your typical workout.
The practice has become popular all over the world, but do you know why? Here are 5 fun facts about Zumba as a form of dance fitness.

Fun Fact No. 1
You can burn between 500 and 1,000 calories with a single class. That’s the equivalent of jogging for about 30 minutes! The average woman can burn up to 800 calories in an hour of Zumba (and less for men).

Fun Fact No. 2
Zumba is an easy-to-follow, intense dance workout. There are no quick steps or complicated moves in Zumba.

Fun Fact No. 3
This form of dance fitness is a great way to boost your energy, lose weight, improve joint health and body awareness.

Fun Fact No. 4
Zumba is one of the most popular forms of exercise in the world today. This dance fitness has been incorporated into a number of TV shows, games and even movies.

Fun Fact No. 5
A fiery North Carolina dance teacher created the first Zumba class after watching her students practice salsa steps in Spanish-speaking countries. Nowadays there is an entire Zumba instructors network!

If you are looking for a fun way to stay fit and build up your strength, Zumba may be right for you. When you participate in Zumba and other forms of dance fitness, you might be surprised to learn that these activities are not just about having fun – although that is one part of why people do them. The other main reasons are for physical activity, burning calories and improving your overall health. Zumba exercise for belly fat control is widely known.

Do you have a dance fitness studio ? My Best Studio is a fitness studio management software used by dance fitness studio owners across the world. Know more.

What Happens To The Body If You Don’t Exercise

Posted on by Lisa S

Sometimes doing nothing at all can be the most dangerous move of all. Inactivity (like sitting for hours on end) causes more deaths around the world than cigarette smoking or diabetes. Experts say the results show that no matter who you are or how fit or unfit you are, there’s still a benefit to taking even a short walk every day.Researchers have found that the least fit people (determined by a treadmill test) had a 500% increased risk of early death.

Still need convincing? Here are some more reasons to stop being a couch potato and break a sweat!

Exercise helps you get a good night’s sleep
Have you ever experienced a deep, extremely satisfying and rejuvenating sleep after spending a couple of hours in the fresh air, paddling a kayak, working in the yard, backpacking 10 miles, or running a long-distance race? Vigorous exercise, especially outdoors, is a highly effective sleep inducer—one that you are missing if you aren’t getting regular exercise.

Exercise may prevent you from developing high blood pressure
Exercising helps your heart become more efficient at pumping blood, which decreases the force of blood flow through your arteries. If you don’t exercise regularly, over time you will lose your cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF). A study of 3,831 men found that those whose fitness levels decreased over about 10 years were 72% more likely to develop high blood pressure compared to subjects who increased their cardio-respiratory fitness.

Exercise could protect you from memory loss
Scientists have linked physical fitness to the brain’s ability to make new neural pathways, and the hippocampus, which refers to the area of the braindevoted to memory and executive function. Studies have shown that people who were fit as young adults had better motor skills, memory and aheightened  ability to focus on emotional control 25 years later, in middle age.

Exercise could help regulate your blood sugar levels
Researchers found that just one 30-60 minute session of moderate exercise can help to boost insulin sensitivity, and improve the way our body regulates blood sugar. So take a walk at lunchtime, or maybe have a mini workout after dinner – there’s a good chance it will help to keep your blood sugar levels in check.

Exercise may reduce chances of getting some cancers
Does sitting the entire day increase your risk of cancer? Scientists don’t know for sure. But what they do know is sedentary behavior is a risk factor for several chronic conditions and premature death.According to the National Cancer Institute, while no studies have conclusively proven that lack of exercise causes cancer, many self-reported observational studies have provided evidence that links higher physical activity to lower cancer risk.

The importance of having a regular exercise schedule

Posted on by Lisa S

People who are insufficiently active have a 20% to 30% increased risk of death compared to people who are sufficiently active (Source: who.int)

Exercise is an integral part of living a healthy lifestyle. Apart from maintaining an ideal weight, you must have various reasons to exercise on a daily basis. It is said that exercising on a regular basis releases endorphins in your body and these endorphins are also responsible for keeping you mentally happy. Thus, not only does exercise help in maintaining an ideal body weight but it also helps you in being energetic, positive and strong.

Exercise prevents health problems and helps in building strength, boosting energy and reducing stress. Experts recommend that an individual must exercise for 60 minutes in a day either by way of yoga, walking, going to the gym, aerobics or any other of physical exercises. Exercise is known to benefit every part of the body, including the mind. There are innumerable health benefits of exercising and hence, one must commit to it for a longer and better life.

A few studies have also found that people who do regular exercise perform better on all fronts of life. It is also said that high physical activity reduces the chances of being obese or overweight, thereby creating a positive and healthy lifestyle for people.

Here are some reasons that will encourage to you to add exercise to your daily routine and get you moving –
  • Exercise lowers the risk of heart diseases and ensures that your cardiovascular health is in check
  • Exercise reduces stress and anxiety levels
  • Exercising on a daily basis improves your energy and endurance
  • Exercise is known to improve your sleep cycles
  • Exercise reduces the effects of aging and gives you strong
  • Exercise enables you to maintain a normal weight and also assists in increasing your metabolism
  • Exercise can contribute positively to mental well-being and is also helpful in treating depression
  • Exercise keeps your joints, muscles and ligaments flexible, making them easier to move and giving them more elasticity
  • Physical activity enhances learning and thinking skills
  • Exercise acts as an aid in boosting your overall well-being
  • Exercise lowers the risk of various diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer etc.

It is also said that physical activity stimulates brain cells and releases chemicals that leave you feeling happier and give you a pleasant mood. Exercise further enables you to feel better about your appearance and feel more enthusiastic and joyful. Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and thereby helps in the efficient working of your cardiovascular system.

Moreover, exercise and physical activity are a fun way to keep your health intact and improve it to a large extent. Exercising with your friends and partners makes you socially active and helps you have a pleasant mood, Hiking, Trekking, taking a dance class, swimming, joining the soccer team are all forms of exercise that will help you in contributing to a good health. Moderate aerobic exercises like brisk walking, jogging, trekking,  biking, mowing lawns etc. can help you meet your fitness goals and get more health benefits.

A study has also found that kids who exercise well function in a better fashion and have improved cognitive functions like reasoning, memory, attention span and increased knowledge.Additionally, physical activity and exercise gives people a sense of pleasure, accomplishment and pride of having achieved a purpose. It also imbibes discipline and passion at an early age. Thus, it is of prime importance to start exercising at an early age.

Hence, if you are tired after a stressful day, feel loss of energy or need an emotional lift, remember exercise will come to your rescue. A regular exercise routine will always go a long way in securing your health.

Workout for Beginners

Posted on by Lisa S

It is not an unknown fact that exercising has innumerable advantages. Exercising helps in reduction of the risks associated with chronic disease, better mood and mental health, balanced energy levels, slowing of the aging process, a boost to brain health amongst various other benefits. Some common types of exercises include cardio training, strength training, flexibility and mobility training.

With multiple write-ups, blogs and videos on the internet, it can feel overwhelming for you to get started. Also, as a beginner, you might be worried about where to start from and how to start exercising and workout.

Through this article, we wish to simplify your workout sessions and help you in setting an approach that will motivate you to exercise on a daily basis and reap the benefits of workouts. The first step to planning a good workout session is to set your short-term and long-term goals. Setting the right goals encourage you to work in the right direction and feel more energized and productive.

Here are a few steps that will help you in planning your workout as a beginner-

Decide a workout routine and stick to it
While planning a workout routine, you must always keep in mind that you as a beginner will have a slow journey. However, it is more important than the duration and type of workouts that you maintain a regular routine and follow it strictly. In the initial phases, even a short 7-10 minutes workout session will provide you with great health benefits.
Start gradually and keep a track of your progress from the start, so that you can see your improvisations on a daily basis and stay motivated.

Expect setbacks and learn to overcome them
There may be days when you have a planned workout session but you suddenly feel loss of energy and feel tired. It may also happen that you feel stressed or have no motivation to pursue your workout plan. In all these cases, you must encourage yourself and remind yourself of the great health benefits associated with workouts. You must learn how to overcome your setbacks so that you can get back on the right track immediately.

Don’t stress hard on the days when you fail to workout. Instead, just start again to feel energized and refreshed.

Set realistic goals
Starting with small and achievable goals is the key to reaching towards bigger goals. For e.g., if your goal is to walk 10,000 steps in a day, you must first aim at walking 4,000 steps in a day and gradually increase your stamina to reach to your desired goal. Hence, setting realistic goals will help you go a long way and make your workout sessions more fun.

Make your workout a Habit
Making your workout a habit is another key component to attaining success. It is easy to purse your workout sessions in the long run if you make exercising your habit. Furthermore, you should make a schedule and do your workouts at the same time everyday so that you can sustain your routine and make it last.

Below is the list of a few workout exercises for beginners to make it achievable in the long run:-

  1. Chair Squat
  2. Bridge
  3. Knee Pushup
  4. Stationary Lunge
  5. Plank to Downward Dog
  6. Straight-leg Donkey-kick
  7. Forearm Plank
  8. Bird Dog
  9. Side-lying hip abduction
  10. Bicycle crunch

It is very important to stay hydrated, optimize your nutrition and listen to your body while exercising and doingworkouts.

Lastly, have fun while doing exercises and do not dread it. Work out in groups or with your friends to maintain accountability and keep your exercise routine within your control.

Track your progress at each stage and gradually, try to reach for more intense workout sessions so that you can reach to the intermediate level and advanced level with passing time.

Conclusion
Starting something new can be difficult but having real objectives and doing it for your body will take you a long way. Start slowly and build your fitness level in order to achieve the maximum benefits of workouts and exercise. Additionally, take care of your diet and keep a check with your healthcare provider to see that you are going in the right direction.

Dance as a form of fitness

Posted on by Lisa S

Dance is defined as an act of performing arts where humans execute specified sequenced movements. Different countries and cultures have different dance forms. 9,000-year-old paintings in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures, dating as old as 3300 BC depict the history of dance.

But today, thousands of people around the world are incorporating dance in their daily life as a form of fitness. This is because dance has several health benefits and is enjoyable to do. Dance has several health benefits like:-

  1. Improving the condition of the heart and lungs
  2. Increased muscular strength
  3. Endurance and motor fitness
  4. Increased aerobic fitness
  5. Increased muscle tone and strength
  6. Weight management
  7. Stronger bones
  8. Reduced risk of osteoporosis
  9. Better coordination
  10. Agility and flexibility

These benefits are only to name a few. Dance has several other benefits as well, making it a very popular form of fitness.

But every coin has two sides. With a list of benefits, there is also a list of disadvantages that come with dance. Namely breaking of bones and tearing of tissues due to dance accidents, injuries to hips and toes (particularly in ballet), repetitive strain injury due to overdoing, stress fractures, tendon injuries, sprains, and strains.

Despite all the negative effects, dance is at an increasing demand as a form of fitness. In 2019, there were over 100,000 dance studios only in the United States. Even as of now the number is increasing.

One of the most popular dance forms for fitness is Zumba. Zumba is an exercise fitness program created by Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto “Beto” Pérez during the 1990s. In this dance form, people usually take an hour-long class and follow the Zumba instructor.

Zumba choreography is composed using all or some of the sixteen core steps. There are four basic rhythms: salsa, merengue, reggaeton, and cumbia, and each basic rhythm has four core steps. It is total body cardio and aerobic workout where people burn about 900kcal in one session.

Thus, this was dance as a form of fitness with benefits.

Last 10 Years Fitness Trends

Posted on by Lisa S

As we move towards the end of 2019 we also move to the end of another decade. These 10 years have shown immense growth and diversity in the methods and techniques of different workouts and trends. This one is for the last 10 years that have got us here today.

2010

Fitness boxing and specialty classes such as Zumba, Bollywood, Afro-Cuban, and ballroom dancing grew in popularity – encouraging more people to become involved in physical activity, but in a slightly different way. This period saw personal training to increase significantly in popularity (and continues to be up until this day). It was less for the rich and famous, and more for the everyday gym user, and as a result many gyms and fitness centres moved away from having ‘floor-based’ gym instructors to service their clients.

2011

It was during this time that the age demographic of those involved in physical activity began to broaden quite dramatically, with a large focus on providing fitness programs for both older adults and children. With obesity at epidemic levels for both children and adults in Australia, more families were looking for programs to help them lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

2012

trends like intermittent fasting, low carbohydrate and gluten-free diets became popular to follow (and continue to be up until this day). The first examples of successful wearable technology were also starting to hit the market at this time, giving people an insight into information about their health and fitness that was previously unobtainable.

2013

With the functional fitness movement becoming increasingly popular, traditional gym equipment was still being used, but was now sharing space with innovative equipment such as kettlebells, battle ropes, suspension trainers and many other unique tools that could be used as a part of an exercise program. Primal, body-weight training, movement-based, whatever you want to call it, functional fitness was at the forefront during this time.

2014

This period also introduced the world to a new type of ‘fitness centre’, one that was determined to capture the atmosphere of large group-training while incorporating high intensity strength and aerobic based exercises – all in short, pre-determined and repeatable workouts.

2015

High Intensity Interval Training was trendy and there are lots of people seeing fabulous results in the fitness club and with home regimens using these high and low intensity moves. Strength Training remained a popular form of exercise workouts, especially among males interested in fitness and better health. More and more women continued to hit the fitness clubs for various strength training exercises as well, in the hopes of building or improving their strength.

2016

Bodyweight training included the use of minimal equipment makes it a super convenient and affordable do-anywhere workout. And it’s not limited to just push-ups and pull-ups-put a fresh spin on bodyweight exercises with different routines.

2017

Group Training.
Some things are just more fun in a group. Group exercise instructors teach, lead and motivate their students through classes designed for a specific intention. Experienced and educated group instructors help people of varying levels achieve their fitness goals. They use a combination of leadership, teaching and motivational skills to accomplish this. Group programs appeal to a wide demographic because of the variety of choices available, camaraderie and social aspects. Thus group training was immensely popular in 2017.

2018

Wearable Technology
Activity trackers, smart watches, and heart rate monitors were as popular as ever in 2018 for people who—were into seeing their workouts by the numbers, wearable technology can give them interesting feedback about how you move. Many estimate your steps, sleep, standing time, calories burned, and time spent working out.

2019

Yoga
The ancient practice has been on the list for many years. ACSM notes that in 2019, yoga has taken on many forms, like “Power Yoga, Yogilates, yoga in hot environments,” and more. Now that we’ve seen goat yoga, who knows what other forms of yoga the future holds? Yoga became immensely popular with a 32% increase only in 2019. It is on of the hottest forms of workout right now and will continue to be for some time.