As much as a daily exercise routine is essential to maintain a healthy lifestyle, it doesn’t have to be boring. There are several exercise classes available in the community (including right here at McGrath!) that are fun that you can change as often as you’d like. Try them all to see which is right for you:
Zumba
According to health.com, Zumba is an exercise fitness program created by Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto “Beto” Perez during the 1990s. A Zumba class combines fast and slow rhythms that tone and sculpt the body using principles from aerobic and fitness to achieve cardio and muscle-toning benefit. You don’t have to know the steps to have fun, but if you attend classes regularly, you’ll soon become a pro.
Tabata
Tabata is a form of HIIT training. HIIT is an acronym for high intensity interval training, one of the most effective and well-known styles of training that’s become popular in recent years.
If your goal is to lose body fat, than HIIT is your answer. Our bodies continue to burn calories after the workout is over, which we call the afterburn effect. It’s kind of like your car cooling down after a long drive – it continues to emit heat for some time after the drive ends.
HIIT training can be modified for any fitness level. The interval workouts will help improve your aerobic fitness as well as your stamina.
Yoga
While there are more than 100 different types of yoga, most sessions typically include breathing exercises, meditation, and assuming postures (sometimes called asana or poses) that stretch and flex various muscle groups.
There are many benefits of yoga that many don’t realize. Yoga can lessen chronic pain, such as lower back pain, arthritis, headaches and carpal tunnel syndrome, too. Health care professionals also agree that yoga can also lower blood pressure and reduce insomnia.
Other physical benefits of yoga include: increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone improved respiration, energy and vitality, maintaining a balanced metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance, protection from injury,
Hot Yoga
According to Health.com, hot yoga is a vigorous form of yoga performed in a very warm and humid studio. There are many different types of hot yoga classes. Bikram yoga is a 90-minute program that consists of a series of different standing and stretching postures. The postures require lengthy, forceful and sustained contractions of all major muscle groups. The demanding nature of the poses and the heat are designed to raise your heart rate and exercise your muscles.
Hot yoga is not for everyone. The intensity of the workout and the hot temperatures have the potential to cause heat-related illness. Be sure you check with your doctor before trying hot yoga, especially if you have any health concerns or if you are pregnant.
Pilates
Pilates is a form of exercise that works the body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness to support efficient, graceful movement. It was developed by Joseph Pilates and is also known as the Pilates Method.
All of the exercises are developed with modifications that can make a workout safe and challenge a person at any level.
POUND
Pound fitness is a combination cardio and weight training exercise approach that includes some of the rhythmic techniques used in Pilates. A full-body workout usually lasts 45 minutes to an hour, and includes exercises that involve alternate squatting and standing to strengthen the inner and outer thighs, buttocks, core muscles, and back muscles. Many of the positions used in Pound are ideal for helping maintain and improve balance.
Colorful, light-weight drumsticks, called ripstix, add an element of fun to Pound classes while they help exercisers count out the length of time they hold certain positions. Although they are light weight, the ripstix also help tone forearms, upper arms, chest, and shoulders.
You can try a variety of exercise programs through McGrath’s Fitness Center, as well as at “Meet Me at the Market,” a free exercise program Thursdays at NewBo Market, and through Hiawatha Parks and Recreation’s “Motivational Mondays,” and its free monthly exercise classes.
-Cindy Petersen