Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Workout Idea

Hello everybody,

This week’s work out idea comes from our PERSONAL TRAINERS!

** Remember: Rec Center’s hours are:     Mondays – Fridays: 7am – 10:30pm
                                                                      Saturdays: 12pm – 10:30pm
                      Sundays: 1pm – 10:30pm **  

GET FIT is sponsored by PPOW - Peers Promoting Organized Wellness. Want to know more about us?
Go to http://www.ashland.edu/students/rec-services/fitness-wellness/ppow

Workout Breakdown – adapted from bodyrock.tv.com
Time: 24min.Workout Type: Interval training Exercises: 4
·       Low Jacks with Jump Rope: max. reps
·       One Leg Dead Lift -left leg: max. reps
·       One Leg Dead Lift - right leg: max. reps
·       Jump Lunge: max. reps
Instructions:
This workout takes exactly 24 minutes and it is an amazing cardio and core training. Set your Interval Timer for 36 rounds of two intervals: 10 seconds and 30 seconds. Your goal is to push at your maximum effort during each 30 second interval and write down your reps during the 10 seconds intervals.
There are 3 exercises in this workout and you will be going through them in this order:
1. Low Jacks with Jump Rope
Start with your feet together and bend your knees so that you keep low throughout this exercise. Basically this exercise is like jumping jacks but you will be using the skipping rope for more challenge.
2. One Leg Dead Lift
You can use a sandbag for this exercise with about 30lbs of garden stones in it. Remember to keep the knee of the standing leg slightly bend, your core should be tight and your back straight. Don’t round your back. Also don’t forget to switch legs. You will do 30 seconds on left leg and then another 30 seconds on right leg before you move on to the next exercise.
3. Jump Lunge
Starting position like you are about to do a lunge and all you have to do is to jump up and switch legs. This is one of the most amazing bodyweight exercises is known! Make sure to keep proper form because this exercise is not exactly easy. You have to keep your chest up, core tight and make sure to get low enough without banging your back knee against the floor. Each time you jump up use all of the power of your core and your legs.
Add all of the reps that you did for each exercise and write down your scores. Keep that records, because the next time you do this work out your goal will be to beat those number at least by a few reps!
Good luck and have fun!!


5 Great Ways To Motivate Yourself To Exercise

Hello participant,

I hope you're excited about this semester’s GET FIT challenge and that you're ready to complete all your workouts to win a prize!!

This week’s work out idea is about HOW TO KEEP YOURSELF MOTIVATED!

** Remember: Rec Center’s hours are:     Mondays – Fridays: 7am – 10:30pm
                                                                      Saturdays: 12pm – 10:30pm
                      Sundays: 1pm – 10:30pm **  

GET FIT is sponsored by PPOW - Peers Promoting Organized Wellness. Want to know more about us?
Go to http://www.ashland.edu/students/rec-services/fitness-wellness/ppow


-          Adapted from ineedmotivation.com
At this point, everyone is pretty much aware of the huge upside to exercising regularly. The reason that there aren’t more people doing it is the sheer lack of motivation. There is nothing that pushes them enough to go out there and exercise. Fortunately, there are some very useful ways which you can use to motivate yourself to become a more active individual.
1.      Change from a “maybe” to a “must”
The first thing you need to do is to categorically include exercise into your lifestyle without any maybe’s or but’s. Exercising should be a must within your daily routine. Within your time management, there should always be time allocated to exercising. It can’t be stressed enough how important this is. Instead of trying to fit exercise into your tight schedule, make it a permanent part of it which is non-negotiable, and make other non-productive activities such as watching television secondary to it.

2.      Surround yourself with fitness-oriented people
If you are not exercising, have a look at your close unit of acquaintances. Chances are that most (if not all) of them are just as non-active as you are. If you want to be successful at not only starting but staying active over time, you definitely need to have friends that share this same goal with you. Having a training partner is one of the best ways to get you the proper motivation to keep at it day in and day out. Someone with whom you can discuss the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, and that understands you fully are extremely important to your success at staying active. The bottom line is, if you are trying to be active, your non-active friends will never understand what you are going through and they are certainly not the right people that will motivate you to keep going.

3.      Think long term health benefits
Luckily, people are becoming more and more concerned with being healthy and living a better quality of life as they get older. Use this to your advantage as well to motivate yourself to exercise. The list of health benefits that exercising provides you with is just enormous. By thinking about maintaining a high quality of life for years to come, you are thinking long term and thus you can find the proper amount of motivation to stay active even during times that you feel like giving up. We all want to be healthy, and going through health concerns brings about much stress to our life as well as to those that we love. That’s one of the strongest motivations you could ever have to turn your life around with exercise.

4.      Work towards a goal
Do you have a reunion to go to in a few months and you want to look your best? Do you have a vacation planned and you want to look fantastic in a bathing suit? Do you idolize a certain person and want to look just like them? These types of goals are extremely powerful, and can provide unrelenting motivation that can then carry you towards those very goals. The key is to always have such a goal, because you don’t want to go back to your old ways once you have reached that goal. Always have something to work towards, and every time you reach one, create a new one. You will not only be amazed at the amount of motivation this creates, but you will astound yourself at how much you can accomplish that you never thought possible before.

5.      Simply start
As hard as it is to get yourself to start, you will be happy to know that things get much better as you keep going. The steepest hill to climb over is to start. Once you start, you have conquered the biggest obstacle. This is something that you should be proud of. Once you start, you put the wheels in motion to create momentum, and this momentum is crucial to bring you towards the finish line. But for that to happen, you need to start. So stop finding excuses and ways to delay your start. Choose to start exercising today, and never look back. You will be thankful that you did

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Idea for Group X Workout!

Hello participant,

This week’s work out idea is one of the GROUP X Classes!

** Remember: Rec Center’s hours are:     Mondays – Fridays: 7am – 10:30pm
                                                                      Saturdays: 12pm – 10:30pm
                      Sundays: 1pm – 10:30pm **  

GET FIT is sponsored by PPOW - Peers Promoting Organized Wellness. Want to know more about us?
Go to http://www.ashland.edu/students/rec-services/fitness-wellness/ppow

Jump-start your workout with Group X!
It’s fun, safe, and effective for all skill levels!
Attend one of these great classes:
Turbo Kick® - the fat-blasting, ab-defining cardio workout that is sweeping the nation’s health clubs and allows you to burn up to 1,000 calories an hour! A mix of kickboxing and simple dance grooves set to heart pounding dance music that will have you looking forward to your next workout!
Zumba® Fitness - When participants see a Zumba class in action, they can’t wait to give it a try. Zumba classes feature exotic rhythms set to high-energy Latin and international beats. Before participants know it, they’re getting fit and their energy levels are soaring! There’s no other fitness class like a Zumba Fitness-Party. It’s easy to do, effective and totally exhilarating, often building a deep-rooted community among returning students. How many calories does Zumba burn? Roughly 500 – 1000 calories per hour.
Pilates®- developed by Joseph Pilates, which emphasizes the balanced development of the body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness in order to support efficient, graceful movement. Burns about 300 calories per hour.
Tabata - an enhanced form of interval training, an exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is an effective form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 9–20 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning. Burns up to 500 calories per hour.

Indoor Cycling - is a group exercise class done on stationary bikes.  During the class the instructor simulates a ride.  Together, you travel on flat roads, climb hills, sprint and race!  It is truly a fantastic cardiovascular class.The beauty of indoor cycling is that you can do it even when its raining or snowing outside!  You are kept motivated by the instructor, the people around you and by the music!  Its lots of fun and burns 500-1,000 calories per hour based on intensity levels.
Yoga - Many people think that yoga is just stretching. But while stretching is certainly involved, yoga is really about creating balance in the body through developing both strength and flexibility. This is done through the performance of poses or postures, each of which has specific physical benefits. The poses can be done quickly in succession, creating heat in the body through movement (vinyasa-style yoga) or more slowly to increase stamina and perfect the alignment of the pose. Yoga typically burns up to 200 calories per one-hour session.
Try combining a higher intensity class like Zumba® or Tabata with a lower intensity one like Pilates® or Yoga for maximum results. You'll get a great workout and feel relaxed and refreshed afterward!
Check out the Spring 2012 Group Exercise schedule for more information on class times and class descriptions. You can also visit www.ashland.edu/students/rec-services/fitness-wellness/group-exercise for more info!

Idea for Climbing Wall Workout!

Hello participant,

This week’s email is about CLIMBING WALL and how you can use it to exercise!

** Rec Center’s Climbing Wall hours are: Mondays: 3pm – 8pm
                                                                      Tuesdays: closed
                                                                      Wednesdays: 3pm – 8pm
                                                                      Thursdays: closed
                      Fridays: 3pm – 8pm
                      Saturdays: 3pm – 8pm
                      Sundays: 3pm – 8pm **  

GET FIT is sponsored by PPOW - Peers Promoting Organized Wellness. Want to know more about us?
Go to http://www.ashland.edu/students/rec-services/fitness-wellness/ppow

-          The University of Calgary did a study and found that an average climber (defined by their criteria) burn more calories indoors than outdoors (under their parameters).

-          Rock climbing is a challenging exercise that works all major muscle groups in the body and burns a lot of calories

-          According to RockClimbing.com, more than 102,000 outdoor rock climbing sites can be found around the world.

-          Rock climbing also involves the use of all major muscle groups including those found in your hands, arms, legs, shoulders, back and abdomen.

-          Whether for fun or fitness, rock climbing improves your strength, agility, flexibility and endurance.

-          According to Harvard Health Publications, climbing a rock wall burns between 660 and 976 calories an hour, depending on your weight.

Idea for Pool Workout!

Hello participant,

I hope you're excited about this semester’s GET FIT challenge and that you're ready to complete all your workouts to win a prize!!

This is our weekly email, where I will send you different exercise ideas, so you keep motivated to achieve your goal!

This week’s work out is done in the pool!

** Rec Center’s Pool hours are: Mondays – Thursdays 8am-2pm/6pm-10pm,
      Fridays 8am-2pm/6pm-9pm,
      Saturday s12pm-9pm, Sundays 2pm-9pm **

GET FIT is sponsored by PPOW - Peers Promoting Organized Wellness. Want to know more about us?
Go to http://www.ashland.edu/students/rec-services/fitness-wellness/ppow

Pool Running
·         Works on lower abs as well as gives legs a chance to get a great workout without the pounding of being on concrete.
·         Can be done with aqua belt.
·         For best results, pool running should be done in the deep end of the pool.
·         Need to focus on running form while pool running.
o   Make sure your body is vertical and not an angle or horizontal.
o   Drive knees upward the straight down while arms go through a normal running motion.
o   Try to keep shoulders out of water.
Swimming with a Kickboard
·         Using a kickboard engages the ab muscles as well as works on leg strength.
·         Flutter kick and dolphin kick can be used, and kicking can be down on front or back.
Arms with Water Dumbbells
·         Keep arms straight out and push arms down into the water and bring arms back to starting position.
·         Put arms straight down in front of you with dumbbells in water and do bicep curls.
·         Float on stomach with dumbbell in each hand with arms extended out to sides.  Push the dumbbells into water in an arcing motion until they are straight under you and slowly bring arms back out to sides.
Arms with Weights
·         Bicep curls with weights in the water.
·         Side arm rise with weights.  Start with arms at sides then raise out to the side in an arcing movement all the way out of the water and up to the head then slowly lower arms back into water.