Back to the gym time? 5 tips for getting motivated

When it’s back to school time for the kids, that means back to the gym time for some of us adults. However, after taking a break from our regular routine to relax on vacation, it might be hard to find the motivation needed to get back into a workout schedule. Here we round up five ways to get back into the swing of things and hopefully keep your fitness regime going all year long.

1. Find a friend

Finding a workout buddy is one way to keep going with your fitness schedule, as making plans to work out together will make it harder to cancel and make you both more accountable. Exercising with a friend or partner can also help you both stay motivated by congratulating each other on a workout well done and any goals reached. You could also make exercise more of a fun, social event by organizing to grab a post-workout brunch or smoothie together.

2. Update your workout wardrobe

The end of summer may mean back to work and back to real life, but it also means the start of the new season sportswear collections. Adidas, Monreal London and Bodyism are just some of the brands who have already unveiled their new fall collections, so if you’re struggling to get back to the gym, buying some new sportswear to show off might help. Alternatively, make a new purchase a well-deserved treat for hitting your exercise goals. It will help give you something to work towards.

3. Try a new class

Why not learn something new yourself and sign up for a new class? Not only will a new sport or workout give your fitness regime a shake up, but it could also teach you some new skills and help you make some new friends. If you’re always running, why not try a Body Pump class for some resistance training? Already love resistance training? Stretch it out with some yoga. If you always swim breast stroke, book in with an instructor to teach you front crawl. The possibilities are endless.

4. Set a new goal
If you’ve taken a break from the gym while on vacation, you might be feeling back to square one. Setting a new goal now that you’re back is one way to get yourself more motivated to start again, and to push yourself further. Try signing up for a run or sponsored swim, set yourself a new amount of steps to walk each week, or increase your workouts from three per week to four. It doesn’t have to be too far or too much to start with, just something that is a challenge but also fun for you. Once you’ve achieved this goal, you can push yourself even further with another.

5. Keep track of your progress

Even if you’re not working towards a goal, keeping a track of your workouts will show you how far you have progressed and help keep you going. Invest in a fitness tracker as part of your back to the gym kit, a bit like updating your stationery for school, and make sure you’re wearing it daily to track all your activity as well as other important factors such as sleep. Alternatively schedule workouts into your diary to keep a track of how many you make it to and what you achieved. JB

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Teen who asked Pia to be his prom date ‘excited,’ inspired to work out

 @MissUniverse here's my question: @PiaWurtzbach will you go to my senior prom with me?

#AskMissUniverse #prom2k16 pic.twitter.com/zEcHb2JKPk

— Jerel Labra ن (@JerelLabra) January 28, 2016

The 17-year-old Filipino who asked reigning Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach to be his prom date had his hopes up after getting a reply from the beauty queen herself.

During Wurtzbach’s #AskMissUniverse Twitter event on Thursday, Jerel Labra from Texas, through a video message, asked the Filipino beauty title holder if she could go with him to their school’s senior prom.

Wurtzbach answered: “I’d love to go if my schedule permits. So, we’ll see. I can’t promise anything yet right now, but your message was really sweet.”

@JerelLabra @MissUniverse pic.twitter.com/zPnlatiJn8

— Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach (@PiaWurtzbach) January 28, 2016

 Labra expressed gratitude to Wurtzbach for noticing his proposal, adding he was hoping the Miss Universe would make it to their date.

“Thank you for your reply Pia! I hope you can make it, but please make time for it! Excited na ‘ko,” Labra tweeted.

The teenager also posted a video of himself working out in the gym, saying Wurtzbach’s reply inspired him to be more physically fit.

“When @Miss Universe @PiaWurtzbach gives me that inspiration to work out harder at the gym,” he said. YG/RC

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Treadmill studio classes put a spin on indoor running

NEW YORK - A New York City fitness studio is following fast on the heels of the indoor cycling, or spin, craze by beckoning outdoor runners to come in from the cold for group treadmill classes.

Equipped with 30 treadmills, lighting evocative of dusk or dawn, and group training designed to hone the skills of marathoners and newbies alike, fitness experts say the Mile High Run Club (MHRC) might do a bit to burnish the image of the most used, least glamorous, of gym cardio machines.

Billed as the first treadmill studio, MHRC is the brainchild of founder and program director Debora Warner, a running coach and group fitness instructor. She said the experience is similar to a group spinning class with many people on treadmills at the same time doing a structured class together.

“You can be very specific about incline, duration, number of reps,” said Warner, 43, “and that helps runners with their pacing outdoors. I don’t see treadmills as a substitute for running, but it’s a great training tool.”

The treadmill is the most popular cardio machine at the gym, used by 40 percent of the over 60 million Americans who utilized a health club in 2013, according to the 2014 Health Club Consumer Report of IHRSA, the trade association of the health club and fitness industry.

Nevertheless, it is viewed as drudgery, believes Connecticut-based exercise physiologist and running coach Tom Holland.

“Running on a treadmill is a pretty horrible experience for most people and they generally don’t maximize their time,” said Holland, author of “The Marathon Method.”

He points out that while there is great value to interval training, steady running has its virtues, too.

“Most running coaches say for every hard workout, you need one or two easier ones,” Holland said.

Although Warner's studio is dedicated to running, she noted that big gyms, such as Equinox, also offer treadmill classes. Crunch, another national chain, has also been integrating treadmill intervals into yoga and boot camp classes.

She offers group foundational and advanced classes. Both rely on repetitions of high-speed or intensity work followed by periods of rest or low activity, bookended by five-minute warm-ups and cool downs.

The classes also incorporate about 10 minutes of strength and power training, such as lunges, plyometrics (jumping), and stability training, which are all good for runners. — Reuters

Training with 5 degrees of freedom for strong core

At Superstar Gym – New York City. Our trainer Pawel on sensoboard, allows movements with 5 degrees of freedom that are quite similar to riding a surfboard or snowboard for example. Beside this training on the SENSOBOARD increases the strength of the muscles used while exercising and helps to prevent injuries. The reflexes of your muscles have to work really strong and your sensorimotor control improves with a regular training on the SENSOBOARD.

source: workoutloft.com