Start of Summer

Summer is here!

Summer is here!

Summer is here! Can you believe it? Here we are in December already – almost another year gone. If your year has been anything like mine, it’s probably felt very quick and very busy at the same time. 2010 promises to be an exciting year, I can’t wait!

Before 2009 comes to an end there’s still plenty happening. Tomorrow we have our second instalment of Fitness Age Testing at 6:30am before Boxing at 7:30am. For all those members who participated last time, this is your chance to re-test yourself and see where you have improved. For some of our new members, or those that missed it last time, I highly recommend you participate. It is a powerful motivational tool that can help you stick to your training and improve your results. Fitness Age Testing will be conducted the first Saturday of every month.

Next week we will celebrate with the Oxygen Xmas Party on Friday 11th December. Held at the Blue Diamond Bar in the Sebel Hotel, the festivities will kick off at 7pm with beer, wine and soft drinks provided. A delicious menu will be served up to those in attendance. Cost is $28 pp and payable by Thursday 10th December. Please RSVP to cass@oxygenfit.com.au

The following day, Saturday 12th December, the Oxygen Team will be playing host to a division of the Nestle chocolate company. They have requested some family fun activities for the 40 staff and family members that are coming down to stay at The Sebel that weekend. With about 90 minutes worth of games, fitness and fun on the agenda all we need now is some sunshine on the day. With plenty of experience at these events with corporate businesses and sporting teams it should turn out to be a great day.

Mmmm.....Nestle

Mmmm.....Nestle

To finish off the year, our last official class will be Boxing at 7.30am on Saturday 19th December.
The day after, Sunday 20th December, Oxygen Health & Fitness will have a stall at the Kiama Seaside Markets on Black Beach. I encourage you to come down and check out the stalls on offer and stop in to say hi. The markets run from 9am-12pm. There are sure to be a couple of great last minute Xmas gifts on offer.

The week of December 21-24 I will be a doing a few casual exercise sessions and if anyone is interested and has the time please contact the office on 4233 2963 to come and join me for some fun.

Group Training Classes will resume on Monday 4th January 2010 with plenty of exciting initiatives for the year ahead. Bring it on!

What age do you wanna be?

We have a great new initiative this weekend for all our Group Training clients with the introduction of Fitness Age testing. FitnessAge is a fitness assessment that health professionals use to guide an individual through a series of physical tests, record the results, and then calculate that persons “FitnessAge”.

There is no magic formula here, rather, just a new way of looking at the industry established fitness statistics from over 60,000 people who have taken these same tests. From the data, we are able to easily see the performance averages for males and females at all age levels.

For example, the average 37 year old female has a recovery heart rate (from the step test) of 109 beats. Therefore, any female who achieves a recovery rate of 109 will receive a CardioAge of 37. The same is applied to each area of fitness to produce a BodyAge, CardioAge, FlexAge and StrengthAge, which when averaged = your FitnessAge.

The first testing session will be held Saturday November 7th at 6.30am before Boxing.

The test all up will take 30-45 mins and although not compulsory is highly recommended. Each participant’s results are entered into our computer and instantly emailed a copy of the results. The figures are then stored on file for future refernence and make a great motivational tool when you look back over time and see how mcuh you have improved.

Fitness Age tests will be conducted every first Saturday of the month at 6.30am. Your results will not be shared with anyone else but will make a great personal guide for you in knowing what specific area you need to work on to improve your Fitness Age. You need to know where you are at right now if you wish to improve.

How do you know you’ve reached your destination if you dont know where you are going?

I look forward to seeing everyone improve their Fitness Age and results so you can live a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.

FitnessAge_Challenge

Oxygen is Underway

Sunday 11th October saw the Official Launch of Oxygen Health & Fitness. The festivities kicked off at Hindmarsh Park Kiama where 20 people boarded the Oxygen Mini Bus bound for Werri Lagoon. From there we witnessed the opening of The Kiama Coastal Track by Mayor Sandra McCarthy, a 6km stretch between Gerringong and Kiama that has been 9 years in the making.

underway1The crowd was huge, the views were amazing and nature even turned on a performance for us too with a spectacular sunny day and a pod of whales coming out to play for the visitors. The pounding of huge seas into the headlands also added to the atmosphere of the morning. We made our target of completing the track just before 11am and then it was back onto the bus with the warm up completed.

Just after 11am we arrived back at Hindmarsh Park,our new base, to be greeted by a few more participants for our Punch in the Park Boxing Session. By this stage it was really starting to heat up but despite a few sun burns the crew battled on for the hour and showed the people of Kiama how to pack a punch.

underway2 underway3

Oxygen would like to thank all in attendance for making it such a great day and helping us gain an immediate presence. There were a few enquiries on the coastal walk about who we are and what we do and there were certainly lots of curious onlookers at Hindmarsh Park during the boxing session.

I’m sure we will look back at this blog post in years to come and reminisce about how it all began. Stay tuned…

Five Tips for Making Kiama Fitness a Priority

Committing to a Kiama fitness program is really hard.  It’s tough to stay motivated when you are the only one saying you have to do it.  It’s hard to see the fruit of your labours when some of them are only measurable with a doctor’s complex testing and instrumentation. It’s exceedingly easy to be consumed by the responsibilities of life and it’s really easy to tell yourself that one more day won’t make a difference.

To make Fitness a priority in your life, you need to give yourself as many reasons and as many helpful tools as you can.  Here you’ll find five great tips for making fitness a priority in life, rather than an afterthought.

5 Tips To Make Health And Fitness A Life Priority

Clarify your undeniable need for fitness, enlist some help, and pencil—no pen—fitness in to make sure that you live well and live long.

Write it down
—what gets done in the course of your day?  The things you’ve made time for.  Exercise should be top of that list because it is what will ensure that you are around to do more and live better.  Schedule time for fitness just as you would for getting dressed, working, and attending important meetings.  Block out your time for fitness in your daily planner first so that you make the time.  Schedule exercise in at a time that makes sense and the rest around it.

Buddy up—get a friend to be your fitness buddy; or, if a friend isn’t interested or available, partner with a like-minded acquaintance and make him or her your friend and fitness buddy.  Having a buddy makes fitness fun and (close to) painless and helps you support each other.  You’ll find that the reasons you give your buddy to go on work for you, too!

Make a list—list all the reasons why you want to get fit and be healthy.  This helps you set fitness goals, motivates you with clear reasoning, and works as a reminder for those times when ambition is waning.  Refer back to your fitness list to see what goals you’ve accomplished, what goals need revamping or replacing, and for general motivation.

Reward yourself—create a reward system as further motivation; with one rule—your reward cannot be food.  Give yourself something worth working for, something that promotes fitness, and something with lasting motivational power.  A massage treatment, new clothes/wardrobe, a long weekend or vacation, or new recreational or even fitness activity are some good rewards to start with.

Look to the pros
—the guidance and support of a good personal trainer is unbeatable as a prioritization strategy for Kiama fitness.  A personal trainer will help you in innumerable ways by making exercise more enjoyable, more ‘do’-able, providing ongoing information and support, structuring a fitness program tailor-made for you, and being a general source of motivation.  You’ll find that keeping that appointment time and being accountable to someone else helps, too.

You’ll find these five simple tips for prioritizing fitness in your life will go a long way toward your success on the Kiama fitness trail.  Small changes like these can make a big impact and really help you keep your good health and well being at the forefront of your list of things that need doing.

Kiama Fitness Tips For Beginners

Starting on the path to better fitness in Kiama can be a difficult road in the beginning, but those that make the commitment to stick it out will be rewarded not only with better health, but feeling better as well. There are plenty of pitfalls for those that are starting a Kiama fitness routine, but being aware of them and working through them don’t have to be a struggle. In this article, we’ll take a look at five tips for people that are starting on the path to better health.

Eating Right

Improving your eating habits is an important part of improving your overall fitness. A great way to think about what you eat is that it is fuel for making your body work better. A diet that is comprised of a healthy balance of proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables will help your body work better, and you’ll be surprised to see how much more you can eat following a healthy diet than one that is made up of fast food or lots of junk food. But changing your diet doesn’t mean starving yourself – if you’re following a Kiama fitness routine, your body will need plenty of fuel to run efficiently.

Work Out with a Kiama Fitness Trainer

A personal trainer doesn’t have to be a drill sergeant! The relationship that you form with your Kiama fitness trainer can be a highly valuable one. Not only will he or she be there to make sure you are working out in a safe and efficient way, but they can help encourage you when you’re feeling down or that you can’t get through the next exercise. A personal trainer can also assess your needs and create an exercise program that is right for your body and reaching your goals.

Stay Positive

It’s easy to lose your enthusiasm for working out shortly after you’ve only begun. You may not see changes in your body soon after starting an exercise program and this can be very disheartening. While it’s true that you might not see changes right away, you are making great strides in ensuring that your healthy lifestyle will have a positive impact on your health and your self confidence! Try keeping track of your progress and you’ll see that, while you may not see changes overnight, the small changes will soon add up.

Get Plenty of Rest

While exercise is an important part of improving your health, getting plenty of rest is just as important. Sleep deprivation has lots of had effects, from temperament to loss of memory and concentration and can even reduce reaction time. Try to avoid exercising right before sleeping, as well as caffeinated products, and try to get eight hours of sleep every night.

Make a Lifestyle Change

Those that are willing to make a lifestyle change, rather than those that only want to lose a few pounds for an upcoming event, are much more likely to succeed. Crash dieting may help you reach a short term goal, but what will happen when you go back to your regular eating habits? Most people will put the weight they lost right back on. Making the commitment to change the way you eat and your exercise habits will not only help you reach your goal, but you’ll be much more likely to retain the good results.  There is no better way to stay on track, than to hire a Kiama Fitness trainer!

Why Strength Training is Beneficial to Fitness

A Kiama Fitness Expert Reports! There’s a common misconception that muscle is heavier than fat, so why bother with strength training? The truth of the matter is a kilo of muscle weighs exactly the same as a kilo of fat. Muscle just happens to be leaner than fat and looks a whole lot better on the body. This isn’t the only reason to incorporate strength training into your fitness routine. In this article, we’ll take a look at more reasons why strength training is beneficial to those that wish to improve their overall health.

Beneficial for Weight Loss

Strength training is a very important factor in weight loss because the metabolism is increased as muscle is increased. The metabolism is the rate in which calories are consumed, and the rate and efficiency of the metabolism is greatly increased depending on how much muscle is present in the body. Simply put, the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. It has been estimated that for every kilo of muscle, the body will burn 15 to 20 more calories a day. This not only helps reduce fat, but helps keep it off.

Helps Prevent Osteoporosis

Not only can strength training help with losing weight, it can also help prevent osteoporosis, which is especially important for women. Strength training can help prevent loss of bone density, which can lead to brittle bones and a host of other health issues. Not only can strength training help prevent the disastrous effects of osteoporosis, but those that are already suffering from osteoporosis and benefit from it as well, as strength training not only helps prevent bone loss, but it can also help increase it.

More Good News

While helping with weight loss and preventing osteoporosis are two big advantages to incorporating strength training into your Kiama fitness routine, there are many other benefits as well. It can help with cardiovascular health, prevent Type II Diabetes, and even make great strides in protecting joints.

Believe it or not, abdominal fat is often the result of not just overeating but stress. Our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol when we are under stress, and this hormone can increase the appetite and convert calories into abdominal fat. This fat is possibly the most dangerous of all the fat the can develop on the body because it is so close to several vital organs, putting undue pressure on them and perhaps causing them to malfunction. Not only does strength training use up cortisol, but it helps reduce the appetite and also helps reduce the dreaded belly fat.

Incorporating strength training into your Kiama fitness routine has so many benefits that it would be foolish to dismiss it. If you don’t know where to start in your strength training, why not consult with a personal trainer to get you started? Anyone can take advantage of a personal trainer’s expertise to make sure they are making the most of Kiama fitness and strength training, and to ensure they are working out safely and effectively.

Choosing the Right Kiama Fitness Program to Meet Your Goals

Before embarking on a Kiama fitness program, it’s important to sit down and outline your goals. What do you want to accomplish with your fitness program? Are your goals to lose weight, or increase your strength, or simply to benefit from a healthier lifestyle? Knowing what you want to achieve before you start will start you on the path of choosing the right fitness routine to help you reach your goal. In this article, we’ll take a look a few different exercise routines, their pros and cons, and how a Kiama fitness trainer can help direct you on the path to reach your goal.

Walking Routines

Walking is a great, balanced exercise for people of all ages, but those that truly wish to benefit from this routine will have to do more than take a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. Walking at a faster pace than normal will help burn calories and keep the muscles working. Picking up the pace can be as simple as lengthening the strides and keeping the arms moving – not necessarily swinging but by bending the arms at the elbow.

For older folks, walking is a great way to help keep the body in shape, but younger people may not gain as many benefits and might want to augment their Kiama fitness program with another exercise. Walking may also be difficult for those that suffer from joint or muscle problems.

Swimming Routines

Those with joint or muscle problems may benefit from a swimming routine, which works the entire body without putting undue stress on joints and muscles. Swimming is great for those that want to work at their own pace, and beginners can slowly build up their endurance and eventually be able to swim continuously for as much as thirty minutes at a time.

However, if the goal is weight loss, swimming may not be as affective as choosing a workout routine outside the water. One of the benefits of working out outside of water is that the body temperature rises and the metabolism is increased for upwards of eighteen hours after exercise, but exercising in water results in the water conducting the heat away from the body, which means that the body temperature will not be raised and neither will the metabolism.
Resistance Routines

If your goals include increasing strength and muscle mass, doing a resistance routine may be the best choice. Not necessarily the best choice for losing weight or improving cardiovascular fitness, resistance training can at least help maintain body weight, as the muscles will use more calories than the fat. Resistance training can also be increased in difficulty with added repetitions or less time between exercises.

Trying to decide the best path to take isn’t always as simple as choosing a favorite sport or routine. Consulting a Kiama fitness trainer, who can assess your present fitness, strengths and weaknesses, can be a valuable asset to any one seeking to improve their health. Not only can a Kiama fitness trainer set you on the best path to reach your goals, but he will be with you every step of the way, to make sure you work in the safest way possible and to encourage you.

Fitness in Kiama Will Give You More Energy

Fitness in Kiama will increase your energy levels by building cardiovascular endurance.  Aerobic exercises are those which strengthen the heart and circulatory system, and in doing so, results in more efficient use of oxygen by the body.  But there are a number of other benefits which are accrued as a result of aerobic exercising combined with good nutrition and strength straining, and they all increase the body’s energy.

Energetic From the Inside Out

As people age they often begin to complain about not having enough energy anymore.  Often the lack of energy is not due to age, but rather to lack of proper nutrition and aerobic conditioning. The body uses oxygen to generate energy and when your aerobic capacity is low, your energy level will be low.

For the body to have enough energy to function at full capacity, the heart and lungs and circulatory system must be able to deliver oxygen efficiently.  Your aerobic capacity determines your endurance.  In other words, if you have low aerobic capacity, your endurance will also be low making it difficult to complete many daily activities such as climbing a set of stairs.

When you begin a program for fitness in Kiama, it must be well balanced.  Fitness is a concept which embraces three components:  strength, aerobic capacity and nutrition.  You can’t include two components while ignoring the third and expect to see overall fitness in Kiama.

Increasing your aerobic capacity increases energy levels in many ways.

  • Reduces fatigue by increasing oxygen supplies
  • Burns calories so you are able to lose weight
  • Increases heart strength so it is better able to pump oxygen rich blood
  • Increases stamina
  • Improves delivery of oxygen to muscles which increases endurance
  • Helps you sleep better at night
  • Increases metabolic rate

Joining Forces

Your aerobic conditioning exercises should be combined with strength training and nutrition in order to achieve the best results.  Your body operates as a unit, and like any unit all of the components must be maintained.  A personal trainer can create a program which improves your general health which leads to increased energy.

A personal trainer can design a fitness in Kiama program that includes a variety of aerobic exercises in conjunction with your strength training.  Aerobic exercises include jogging, bicycling, swimming, aerobics, rapid walking and many sports activities.  By including a variety of aerobic exercises to increase your cardiovascular healthy, the fitness in Kiama program will be fun and interesting in addition to being effective.

Aerobic exercise can increase your energy levels by increasing the body’s oxygen supply, improving cardiovascular functioning and helping you get a good night’s sleep.  A personal trainer can work with you in your home or office at your convenience.

You don’t have to be one of those people complaining about not having enough energy!

How Stress Influences Your Health and Fitness in Kiama

An Expert in Health and Fitness in Kiama Reports! Work, money, family, the future – there are plenty of things that we stress about. It isn’t just worries or bad things happening that cause stress, but any sort of change, from getting a promotion at work to planning a wedding, that put stress on your body. Stress can come from emotional or physical changes, illness, drastic changes in the environment, and pushing your body too hard. Eventually, stress can have a negative impact on your mental and physical health. In this article, we’ll take a look at how stress can affect your health and why fitness in Kiama is a great method to help you relieve some of that stress.

What stress does to the body

Our bodies react to stress in a variety of ways, including fatigue, headaches or other aches and pains, insomnia and other emotional disorders like anxiety or depression. Others might experience gastrointestinal problems like ulcers, cramps or irritable bowel syndrome. Stress can also play a part in cardiovascular health, prompting high blood pressure, heart palpitations, hearts attacks or strokes.

Stress can also adversely affect women and the health of their reproductive systems. Women under stress may experience an absence of a menstrual cycle or abnormal menstrual bleeding. The hormone imbalance that stress creates escalated symptoms of fibroid tumors or endometriosis. Stress can even make getting pregnant difficult for those couples experiencing problems with infertility.

Another way that stress can affect people of both genders is that it quite frequently opens the door to illness. Too much stress can cause our immune systems to falter, making us more susceptible to catching colds or the flu. Stress can even have a negative impact on our skin, causing itchy skin, hives or rashes.

Why exercise can help

While exercise has the obvious benefits of improving overall health and helping you live longer, it can also greatly reduce the amount of stress your body is under. Fitness in Kiama helps relax tense muscles and promotes better sleeping patterns, plus a wide range of benefits that aren’t so obvious. Exercise promotes better blood flow, including in the brain, which can help combat that feeling of having your head stuffed with cotton.

It also releases endorphins that can provide a happy, healthy feeling after a good work out. There is a lot of evidence that people that work out on a regular basis and are in good health are better able to handle the long term affects of stress. Stress will always be a part of our lives, but combating it with fitness in Kiama can certainly help minimize the negative effects.

Get help in the fight against stress

Getting on the right path to better fitness in Kiama can be difficult and confusing in the beginning, and you may not see the beneficial effects right away, so it’s easy to quit. Consulting an expert in health and fitness in Kiama is a great way to get going and keep you motivated. Not only can a personal trainer assess your present health and design a work out routine to help you combat stress, but he’ll also be there every step of the way to encourage you.

Balance in Your Fitness in Kiama Program

For those that are only at the beginning of their path to better fitness in Kiama, the word “exercise” conjures up the image of endless hours running or pumping away on a stationary bike. While these exercises certainly have their merits, they are only a part of a balanced fitness program that incorporates several different disciplines. Varying your fitness in Kiama routine with elements of flexibility, cardio training and strength training will not only help you optimize the results but will also help keep you from being bored. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at these three important elements and how to get help in making your routine a balanced one.

Cardio Training

Cardio training is often considered to be the cornerstone of any balanced workout. Any movement that gets our hearts pumping can be considered cardio training, from riding a bicycle to doing aerobics. The benefits of cardio is that they make the heart stronger, help burn fat and raise the metabolism so that you’re better able to burn up calories. Experts vary in their opinions of how often we should have cardio training, but most agree that about thirty minutes most days of the week is excellent, even if it’s cut up in ten minute increments. The most important part is getting the heart beating at your target heart rate for extended periods of time.

Strength Training

Strength training is an equally important part of a balanced fitness routine. Remember how cardio training helps raise the metabolism? Well, strength training can help in this area by keeping your muscle mass at a healthy rate. And if your goal is to lose weight, strength training in conjunction with cardio training is the best way to go, because the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn over the course of a day. Not only will you be improving your muscles, but also your bones and joints.

Flexibility Training

Flexibility is also an important part of a balanced fitness in Kiama program, whether it is simply a stretching routine at the beginning or end of a workout or a fuller experience such as yoga. Tired muscles are usually tight and restricted, and stretching can help to increase their flexibility and relieve tension. The benefits of including flexibility training in your fitness program are many, including better posture, protecting the joints and possibly avoiding injury, and even helping to prevent lower back pain.

How To Achieve Fitness in Kiama

Newcomers to exercise might be scratching their heads and saying to themselves, “Okay, I know these things are important, but how do I find the right balance for me?” It’s true, everyone is different and your needs might be drastically different from someone else’s. A great place to start is to consult a professional of fitness in Kiama. If you are looking for fitness in Kiama, a personal trainer is ideal for newcomers and experts alike, because they are able to do a full assessment of your needs, medical concerns and goals and help you reach them in a balanced, safe way.