Category: Workout

Strengthening your core: Challenge yourself!

5/1/2014

So last week, I wrote about the topic of exercise: the benefits, different types, and ways to incorporate physical activity in your daily life. To extend this discussion further and offer you more motivation, I decided to focus on the topic of strengthening your core muscles for this week’s blog.

For those of you who are clueless about what I mean when I say ‘core muscles,’ these include your lower and upper abdominal muscles (located near your stomach) and lower back muscles. Often overlooked, these muscles are crucial for our well-being. They help keep our body balanced, maintain proper posture, reduce inflammation and pain in the lower back area, and allow us to reach our optimal potential when we are engaged in any form of physical activity such as biking, running or dancing.

For the above reasons, it is important that we strengthen this part of our body by proper stretching and resistance training exercises. With time and a good workout plan, not only will you see the benefits but you will feel them as well! Remember to be realistic with your goals and exercise plan to avoid failure and disappointment. Starting small and being consistent with your workout plan will ensure lasting results. Summer is almost here, which makes this a perfect time to shape up :)

To help get you started with your exercise plan, I recommend that you watch the following video by Jillian Michaels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zI5EoiYi1c If you feel these exercises are too difficult, check out some other great videos on YouTube. Here is another video which includes more detailed information about the topic of core muscles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOFG2SxuaXg

Consider joining our Muscle Conditioning and Stretching class on Tuesdays evening. Click here for more info.

Diva in Heels

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Exercise: What is it good for? Absolutely everything!

4/23/2014

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It’s a no brainer that exercise is good for us. Exercise includes any physical activity that gets us moving, whether it is stretching, cardio or lifting weights. Exercise offers many benefits. It has a positive impact on our mood, hormones, immune system, heart health and metabolism (increasing our fat burning engine).

Now, we come to the most important question of all: how can you include exercise in your already busy life? There is clearly no one answer-fits-all. What really worked for me, and is likely to help others, is to set aside 10 to 20 minutes every other day for exercising (morning is best). Start small and be consistent.

I start my exercise routine by doing a little warm up (3 minutes) with jumping jacks, or running; I do a quick stretch (2 minutes) to avoid injury and improve my workout. Next, I do a series of weight training activities that focus on different parts of the body (15 minutes). I choose activities that keep my heart rate up (cardio) while also working my muscles (strength training). The best exercises are those that work a few different muscle groups at the same time. Lunges, planks and push ups are great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2n58m2i4jg

A good book to help you get started with weight lifting is ‘Strength Training Anatomy’ by Frederic Delavier. I also recommend to check out the following two websites for more great tips on this topic: www.alive.com and www.livestrong.com.

I suggest choosing the most efficient workout plans and keeping a photo journal. A photo journal includes photos you take regularly (for ex, once a week or every two weeks). You can also include a few words about how you feel (physically and mentally) when you exercise. Photos in particular will help you see real progress visually.

Don’t forget to eat a protein balanced meal or snack within 45 minutes of finishing your workout. Remember, even 5 or 10 minutes of physical activity is better than nothing! Finally, don’t forget to have fun during your workout. What activities do you enjoy? Be creative and start moving. Try one of our dance classes to get you started. Click here for more details.

Diva in Heels

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Dancing for Health: What Happened to Your New Year's Resolution?

4/3/2014

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Let's face it! We have all said it, we have all tried it, and we have all watched it melt away in the spring, like the last snow fall under welcomed sunshine rays.

Every year, as the holidays spark excitement and motivation to begin a fresh new year of promises and goals, something seemingly universal happens: we embark the roller coaster ride of our daily lives and we lose sight of what we wanted to change or improve. Commonly, our new objectives revolve around losing weight, getting fitter, healthier, or feeling less stressed. Taking a closer look at this relentless cycle of lost goals and failed efforts, we can uncover some interesting ideas.

When we think of becoming fit and healthy, people ordinarily look for the standard fitness workout plan that involves sweating and burning, losing calories, lifting weights and flattening that insidious belly! "No pain no gain is the way to go! ". "It should be all or nothing". That is what we have learned; if we fail to exude this sense of power and self control, all fingers point to oneself for shamefully lacking willingness and discipline. How many can identify with this?

We are continuously influenced by societal expectations and beliefs circulated by the gigantic presence of the media. We are born in the midst of media and we learn to become part of it, confounding our personal beliefs with those of our culture. Health is a social construction: society provides judgment on what it means to be healthy. However, optimal health is a relative concept when we consider each person as a unique individual with different needs, at different time periods and in different circumstances.

What you need today, what you can do today will be different tomorrow. And what you are able to do today, may not be the same for someone else. What it means to be healthy will change at various stages of our lives. There is no single, cookie-cutter solution to becoming healthy, fit and happy individuals.

Consequently, we need to ensure that our goals are realistic with where we are at during a particular time of our life. We must creatively find solutions that sustain our motivation, that focus initially on our strengths, and that allow us to feel good.

As a fitness professional, I have experienced my body through its journey of ups and downs. At one phase during my professional development, I was teaching certain types of fitness classes that depleted me of my optimism, passion and energy resources. I felt that I needed something that would propel me, that would ignite my natural predispositions and desire to savor life. I needed to feel good first and engage in what initially felt easy to me, so that I could sustain my motivation and overcome limitations.

Hence, I unveiled my long forgotten love for dance. Dance offered me the stress relief, emotional expression, joint mobilization and muscular endurance that I needed at that particular time. As I committed to dancing, my energy increased, my body reacquainted with the experience of strength and intensity. Ironically, the curiosity of returning to fitness classes at the gym reemerged, naturally and progressively. I had to explore something else in order to land right back to where I started, to where I wanted to be. Today, as I pursue my journey as a fitness professional, I continue to embrace the blissful moments of moving to that favorite rhythm or chorus. Dance is at the core of all my other fitness activities; Dance builds within me the roots of my strength, and in turn, everything else enhances my dancing.

Health is multifaceted: it extends beyond physical fitness to encompass our mental and emotional health. When we experience difficulties achieving our health goals, it is essential to revisit the compatibility of our goals with what we truly need at a particular time. If something doesn't work, we may have to creatively change our approach by customizing our efforts.

There isn't only one solution to become fitter and healthier. Whether it's dancing or something else, we have to start with what we can do right now. By exploring new ideas we unlock our potential, but most importantly, our ability to achieve.

The Twirling Tigress

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Strengthening your core: Challenge yourself!

Exercise: What is it good for? Absolutely everything!

Dancing for Health: What Happened to Your New Year's Resolution?

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