All About Cardio

We all love a good workout sesh, but with gyms closed for the time being it can be tough trying to think of gym equipment alternatives that will help you get that amazing strength-training or sweaty cardio workout in. Luckily, there are loads of items that you already have at home that will help you stay fit and healthy! Milk Jug - Milk jugs are a great dumbbell alternative! The handles make them easy to hold and lift and lower like you would any dumbbell. The liquid inside gives an added challenge by forcing you to use smaller stabilizing muscles to help balance the sloshing liquid. Soup Cans - Head to your pantry and grab a couple of canned goods. Cans that fit into your hands are great alternatives to small dumbbells to help tone those smaller muscle groups. Plastic Water Bottles - Repurpose your plastic water and pop jugs! Refill them with water, or put stones or sand in them to make great handheld weights for bicep curls or lateral raises! Bags of Rice - These make great sandbag alternatives! Choose the bulk bag you got on your last Costco run for added difficulty! Paint Cans - Paint cans can be used as an alternative to dumbbells. The handles make them great for bicep curls or hold one in each hand for weighted lunges! Laundry Detergent - Laundry detergent can be used as an alternative to a heavier dumbbell. Grab two for a challenging arm workout or farmer carry or use one for goblet squats or tricep extensions. Bookbag or Duffle bag filled with books - Repurpose those old textbooks you thought you’d never use again and use them to fill up a backpack or duffle bag. You can add and remove books as needed for different workout variations. Hand Towel - Just like we use in several of our group fitness classes, a small hand towel can be used to help strengthen your shoulders, back, and core! Couch - The couch isn’t just for binge-watching Netflix shows! It can make a great alternative to a bench! Use it to do split lunges, sit-ups and more! Chair - A chair is great for helping you tone your triceps with some tricep dips and incline pushups. Make some space and do some explosive steps up for a killer cardio move! Stairs - Who needs a stair climber when you can get your daily dose of cardio by walking or running the stairs in your apartment complex or in your house! You can also mix in some calf raises to help strengthen those calf muscles! Wall - Everybody’s got a wall in their home! Do some wall sits while watching your favourite TV show to help tone those upper legs! Paper Plate, Towles, Books - Paired with carpet or hardwood floor these items can be easily substituted for sliders to help tone your legs and abs. Basketball or Soccer Ball - these are a great replacement for medicine ball routines. You can also use a soft kids ball for thigh and leg squeezes! Old Tires - As the weather starts to warm up and you change over your winter tires for your summer tires before you put those winter tires back into storage use them for a great home workout! Lay them down flat and jump in and out of them for tire jumps or flip it back and forth a number of times for a great cardio and leg workout! Your Baby/Toddler - Make your daily workout a fun playtime for your kids. Kids can make a great weight for squats and lunges. Or lay on the ground and get a great chest press in! They’ll think it's playtime and you get a fantastic workout! Now that you have all of the equipment you need, if you’re looking for some workout inspiration head to our Instagram page and check out our ‘Workouts💪’ highlight for great workouts you can do from the comfort of your home! Whatever variations you decide on for your home workouts always remember to put safety first. Try a couple of reps before increasing your weights and make sure you wear protective footwear. Have fun, be safe and we’ll see you soon! 💚💙

Maintaining motivation can be a real challenge at times, which is one of the biggest determining factors when it comes to achieving our personal fitness related-goals. But the thing is it doesn’t have to be. Here are 5 tips to help you stay motivated: 1 - Create A Fitness Calendar Get yourself a journal or calendar to plan out your weekly exercises and fitness goals. Having a schedule will help you stay on track, even when your motivation starts to fade. 2 - Set Yourself Up For Success When it comes to setting goals we tend to have a habit of setting large goals, especially with fitness. While for the most part, this is a good thing it can also have its downfalls. When setting your fitness goals make sure to set yourself smaller goals that you can achieve. Break up your primary goal into smaller, short term goals that are easier to obtain. This gives you a way to keep track of the progress that you have made on a weekly basis, which will do wonders for your motivation. 3 - Find A Friend You don’t have to do this alone! Find a friend that has similar fitness goals to you that can commit to training with you at least once per week. Not only will this keep you accountable, but also having someone there to push you to do the absolute best - even on the days you don’t want to. **Pro Tip: Refer a friend for a 7 day FREE trial so they can come and workout with you! https://www.motionfitness.ca/referrals 4 - NEW, NEW, NEW Doing the same workout routines can seriously drain your motivation. Have some fun with it and switch up your workouts! If you need some extra inspiration check out the Workouts highlight on our Instagram page and screenshot for a killer workout!

Our steam room is a great place to relax and reduce stress. According to Bodybuilding.com steam baths can also help increase your metabolism, improve skin complexion and reduce the pain of sports injuries. Regular visits to the steam room can also help ease muscle tension, alter moods, cure and prevent cold and flu-like symptoms and clear the sinuses. If you’re thinking of, or already are, making the steam room a regular part of your Motion Fitness routine there are some precautions and rules to follow when entering the steam room. Don’t Eat First While in the steam room, the circulation in your blood changes and can affect the way food is digested. In order to avoid uncomfortable cramping ensure that you wait at least one hour after eating before going into the steam room. Dress Light In order to prevent your clothes from clinging to your body, as well as preventing you from overheating consider wearing a swimsuit or going nude when visiting the steam room. Be sure to always sit on a towel when steaming in public areas. Drink Water While in a steam room the high temperatures cause you to sweat more than normal. Be sure to drink plenty of water before and after taking a steam bath to stay hydrated. Don’t Stay Too Long If you’re new to the steam room start with short relaxing steam baths and build yourself up to a 20-minute or shorter time frame. New and experienced steamers should limit their time in the steam room to about 15 to 20 minutes. If you begin to feel uncomfortable or have a sudden need to be cool, step out of the steam room for a few moments or end your session altogether. Allow For A Cool Down After leaving the steam room, cool off with cool fresh air and cool water without shocking the system and to avoid shivering. Additionally, you want your body temperature to cool down and return to normal before entering any other facility with high or low temperatures, dramatic changes in body temperature can be harmful and can overtax your circulation.

Want to take your fitness to the next level? Join our Body Transformation Challenge. April 1st to June 30, 2019.

1. Get excited for you! Being healthy and active is for everyone and anyone, no matter what your level of fitness may be. Paying attention to your health and wellness with regular exercise and diet is the best thing you can do for yourself in 2019. Establishing a plan to start your fitness journey will have you feeling ready to tackle your goals. Nothing is better than feeling well prepared and looking forward to something exciting, especially when that exciting prospect is you! 2 Personal training can help you reach your goals through individually tailored plans! Personal training is a great way to get comfortable with the staff, machinery, and the etiquette of the gym. No one wants to walk into a busy gym and feel uncomfortable and lost. Eliminate this hurdle without putting your fitness on hold with a personal trainer. We will start you off with a consultation and evaluate your fitness goals to develop a schedule, fitness plan, and diet that will keep you on track for success! 3 Eating healthy is only half the journey, you need to be exercising! The gym and the kitchen go hand in hand when striving to reach your fitness goals. Nutrition is important in order to fuel your body properly and provide the energy you need. Pairing a well balanced and thought out diet with an effective exercise plan that is tailored to your goals will maximize your results. Our trainers are always happy to help out with any questions you may have about diet and exercise. 4. All your goals can be reached, 1 Day at a time. Get started on the right foot with specific, measurable, and time-bound goals. Determining short term goals that are realistic and attainable on a day to day basis will set yourself up for success and boost your confidence when it comes to tackling bigger long term goals. When you commit to the gym it should be for the long run, nothing is more important than staying healthy, and it all starts with 1 day at a time.

Have you ever forgotten where your bank is? The answer is probably not. Have you ever forgotten where your cell phone, can keys, or laptop are? You probably have because these items are moved around a lot. Sometimes it may feels like you perform mental gymnastics to remember all the important things in your life. Guess what? As we age, our brain can lose its agility. The absence of novelty causes the dopamine-producing areas of the brain to shrink. The best thing you can do is to try something new. Brain Cells Our brains are stimulated by new experiences. Science has visual evidence through MRI technology showing that the learning centers in the human brain produce fresh neural pathways when we try something new. These signs of growth are evident regardless of age. So, just as your body needs exercise, your brain needs a workout too. Even if you’re not very good at your new pursuits, you receive the brain-boosting benefits simply by doing them. Just like physical exercise, the more you do it, the more you’ll benefit. And in many cases, your life will simply be enriched by experiencing something new. Here are some tips to keep your brain strong: Alter Regular Routines: Do things like vacuuming, brushing your teeth, or brushing your hair with the opposite hand; Reverse your normal walking/running route – the same scenery will look completely different; Rearrange your furniture; Shop at a different grocery store – your brain will work harder because you are unfamiliar with where the ingredients are located. Try Something New: Cook a new recipe rich in brain foods like fish and nuts; Eat at a new restaurant (and try something new!); Get to know someone outside your normal circle of friends; learn to speak a different language; Take lessons to learn how to play an instrument; Participate in a new exercise class; Plan a vacation, weekend getaway, or day trip to a place you’ve never visited before. Brain Games Not only does your body need a workout, so does your brain. It’s black and white: there are a number of ways to stimulate your gray matter, including Sudoku, crossword puzzles, and computerized brain games. There are a number of websites that offer free brain games to stimulate your thinker. Try surfing the web under the name “Brain Games” to see what you can find, or Prevention Magazine has a dedicated section of their website www.prevention.com/brainfitness for training your brain. If gaming or puzzles are not your thing, studies show that socializing with a friend for 10 minutes has the same effect on the brain as doing these brain puzzles. Brain Foods The foods that benefit your heart are the same foods that benefit your brain. As it turns out, science has linked healthy bodies to healthy brains, as well as unhealthy bodies to unhealthy brains. Your diet goes hand in hand with your brain health. One of the best defenses against dementia, which becomes more prevalent as our population ages, is to consume fatty fish such as salmon, herring, or mackerel. According to several studies, one of which is the well-known Framingham Heart Study, three servings a week can cut your Alzheimer’s risk nearly in half. A fish-based diet provides numerous protective benefits, probably the most famous of which are omega-3 fatty acids. One of these fatty acids is DHA. DHA is vital for development of new brain cells and aids learning and memory. Omega-3s are most notably found in walnuts, with traces found in hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, and Brazil nuts. You can also buy omega-3 fortified foods such as eggs, orange juice, and more. Other brain-boosting foods are found in the produce aisle and include tomatoes, watermelon, blueberries, blackberries, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, mango, corn, melon, cauliflower, potatoes, garlic, and onions. Foods that drain the brain include high fat and high sugar foods, and foods with no nutritional value such as diet soda.

Strength training is designed to define, tone, and strengthen your whole body! This is accomplished through the use of resistance which can take the form of a weighted bar, plates, or body weight in Group Power, weighted by dumbbells, plates, or body weight in Group Active, or the body weight in Group Centergy, Group Kick, or Group Step. In addition to this resistance training, the cardio portions of all these classes and other cardio based Group Fitness classes have a strengthening benefit as the muscles overcome the resistance to the cardio workout. Two Group Fitness based strength training programs you might find at your local club are Group Power, which focuses exclusively on strength training, and Group Active, which incorporates cardio, balance, and flexibility training in addition to strength training. The Benefits of Strength How can strength training help you? Check out the proven advantages: You lose weight You lose body fat You tone your muscles You have more endurance Your clothes fit better You burn more calories during both exercise and when resting In addition to these benefits, strength training keeps your bones and connective tissues strong. Since we may start losing muscle and bone strength beginning in our 20s, a strength training program like Group Power or Group Active can help reduce or stop these losses in their tracks. What to Expect in Class One of the great parts of Group Power, or the strength of Group Active, is that you work with adjustable weights so you can pick the perfect weight for you. As you gain strength, you can choose to add weight when you’re ready, or if you have to take some time off or are having a bad day you can remove a bit of weight so that you can still benefit from a challenging but not overwhelming experience. The important thing is that you pick a weight that is challenging for YOU on any given day. In addition to the benefit of adjustable weights, using the plates alone in Group Power or the dumbbells in Group Active allows us to use both arms together or one at a time. You’ll usually experience both in every release. This helps keep one side of the body from compensating for the other and helps balance the strength of the body. Don’t forget the importance of core strength or strength in the muscles of the abdomen and the back. This area plays a big role in good posture, athletic performance, and in overall well being. Group Active, Group Centergy, Group Kick, Group Power, and Group Step all have one or more sections that typically incorporate strengthening exercises. Group Power and Group Active strength training take a whole body and periodized approach to strength training. The whole body aspect means that you will be training most, if not all, of the major muscle groups during the class timeframe. This also has the benefit of balancing strength so that no single area of the body becomes stronger than the other. This is important because muscle imbalance, or one side of the body being much stronger than the other (for example the front versus the back of the leg), can lead to injury. Periodization refers to the variation of a workout over time. Group Power and Group Active strength training is designed with this in mind. Because our bodies are so good at adapting to stress, if we always do the same workout, it will eventually not be challenging any longer as your body adapts. Varying the workout keeps the body “guessing” so that the results and corresponding benefits keep coming.

Fit to Keep You Moving Choosing the right exercise shoe is one of the most important investments you can make and may be the single best insurance you can buy to reduce your chance of injury. Wearing the wrong shoe can land you on the couch nursing sore knees or aching feet. Here are some tips to help you make an educated choice. Know Your Feet Generally speaking, your feet will fall into one of three categories: Neutral arched feet, low-arched feet, or high-arched feet. To determine the shape of your feet do this easy test: Wet your foot and step on a brown piece of paper. If your footprint shows the entire sole of your foot with little to no curve on the inside, you have low arches. If your footprint shows only a portion of your forefoot and heal with a narrow connection between the two, you have high arches. Tip: If you find an athletic shoe that does not support your arched properly, purchase insoles that specifically accommodate your feet. These are available for about $25 and are sold in stores that sell exercise shoes. Choose Your Activity Shoes are designed for specific activities. For example, running shoes are sport-specific, designed for running forward, have a lot of flexibility or bendability, but do not support the foot in side to side movements. Cross trainers can be used for a wide range of activities, are relatively stiff, and offer excellent support for the foot with side to side movements. The stiffness reduces the flexibility of the shoe across the toe box which makes it harder for the shoe to bend when running. Court shoes are specifically designed for tennis, basketball, and so forth, and give a combination of flexibility and sideways support. Fitness shoes are designed for group fitness classes, and combine flexibility with support. They also incorporate cushioning to lessen the shock-effect that comes with jumping. Tip: Buy a shoe designed for the type of activity you are planning to do. Have Your Feet Measured Our feet change as we age, so always have your feet measured at the store before buying a shoe. Don’t assume you know your shoe size. Sizes can vary between brands, so you might be a size 8 in one brand, and a size 8.5 in another. A properly fitted shoe should feel snug on your foot and immediately be comfortable. Tip: Your feet swell over the course of the day, and expand while you run or walk. Go shopping in the afternoon to be sure you get the best fit for both length and width. Make sure you measure both your feet. Bring Your Own Socks Bring a variety of socks with you that you can plan to use when exercising. It’s important to find the right shoe fit with the socks you will actually wear. Additionally, if you wear orthotics, bring those too, as the shoes need to fit those inside. Tip: Bring both thick and thin socks to see which ones fit best in the shoe. Once you have your sock of choice, consider purchasing a few pairs with the same thickness. Use Your Thumb You need about 3/8 – ½ inch between the front of your big toe and the end of the shoe, or about a thumb’s width. You should be able to freely wiggle all of your toes when the shoe is on. Be sure your heel does not slip out when you walk. Tip: Walk or run around the store to be sure your shoes fit comfortably. There’s no such thing as “breaking in” shoes. They should be comfortable right away.

Flexibility training focuses on creating length in the muscles used in a workout, or in the case of Group Centergy, creating length in the muscles as part of the workout. Most Group Fitness class experiences contain a flexibility component. These components may occur throughout the workout, like post track stretching in Group Power or Stress Reversals in Group Ride, or at the end of the workout to lengthen the major muscles used in the workout. We use two types of stretches, static and dynamic. Static stretches are held in a non-moving position, such as reaching toward your toes and holding the stretch. Dynamic or moving stretches travel through space and are often set to rhythmic sequences in the music. You may find yourself rotating your trunk of reaching your arms overhead to achieve this. Flexibility work is reserved for portions of the workout when the muscles have been sufficiently warmed, for example, the end of a track or the end of a workout. It is important for your muscles to be well prepared with enough heat and oxygenated blood to stretch and gain the benefits of flexibility. In Group Power and Group Active you will stretch at the end of the strength tracks. This is important because the effects of strength training can cause your muscles to become stiff or tight. Stretching helps relieve this type of feeling. Stretching also occurs toward or at the end of Group Active, Group Centergy, Group Kick, Group Power, Group Ride, and Group Stretch. Think of it as a relaxing finish to all of your hard work. Why We Need to Stretch Flexibility training is often overlooked, even though scientific research shows that we receive tremendous benefits from it. Research shows that when you have too much strength without flexibility, you can put yourself at risk for injury. Given the positions most of us assume on a daily basis, such as sitting at computers, driving our cars, reading to our children, or eating at the dinner table, we repeatedly put our postural muscles to the test. What happens? Typically, our shoulders are rounded forward, our heads poke forward, and our spine curves forward. Did you notice the common word? Things all shift forward. One of the goals of our stretched is to improve our posture by lengthening the shortened muscles created by these everyday positions. This is why we need to stretch. The Benefits of Flexibility Improves your ability to move Improves your posture Improves your coordination Enhances relaxation Reduces muscle stiffness May decrease the risk of injury associated with exercise Can offset age-related degeneration One of the most important things to remember when you are stretching is to focus on technique first, then on increasing your range of motion. It is not important whether you can barely reach your toes or you can do a split. Try not to compare yourself to anyone else around you in class. Feeling a stretch creating length in the muscles of your body is what is most important. It takes time to gain length in your muscles. Muscles don’t get tight overnight, so don’t expect amazing changes overnight. If you stretch two to three days per week, you will notice your body changing and that you can do certain daily activities more easily. You’ll stand taller, walk more efficiently, and simply feel better about yourself on the inside and the outside.