Fired Up Fitness - Personal Training - Calgary Boot Camps - Corporate Wellness

We're Outdoors Again!!

Get ready for summer with our Outdoor SPARC Fitness Classes. Registration is now open for our SW & SE Calgary outdoor classes. Come out of hibernation and get the blood pumping again! All fitness levels are welcome. Check out our website for more details & to register. Hurry, space is limited!!

May 2011 Outdoor SPARC Group Fitness Schedule

Killarney/Richmond Green (SW Calgary) Mon/Wed 6:30pm-7:30pm
May 16, 2011 - June 27, 2011 (No Class May 23)

Fish Creek (SE Calgary) Tues/Thurs 6:30pm-7:30pm
May 17, 2011-June 23, 2011

Shawnessy (SW Calgary) Tues/Thurs 9:30am-10:30am
May 17, 2011-June 23, 2011

More Details

What are SPARC Fitness Classes?

Why Join Us Outside

Aside from the great fun and fantastic workouts to be had in every SPARC fitness class, here are a few other great reasons why you should join us as we move back into the great outdoors.

Daily D Dose
Put away the pills and get your dose of the ’sunshine vitamin’ the way nature intended it...from sunlight.

Exercise Your Mind When you exercise outdoors your mind has to be aware of the changing terrain. Your brain has to focus differently outdoors than on a flat gym floor so it gets a workout too.

Improved Mood
Research shows that exposure to the elements and outdoor scenery can have a marked, positive effect on your mental, emotional and physical state. So come out and get happy!

Strong To The Core

It's not just about that often envied 'six pack'. Strong core muscles (commonly refered to as the abdominals, back and hips) benefit you in so many ways:

Build Balance - In everyday activities and exercise, balance and stability matter. Core strength training improves both. Core strength training not only works the muscles in the hips, abdomen and back, it also trains them to all work and function together. It builds coordination between these muscles, and as the Mayo Clinic writes, these muscles working together balances and stabilizes your body.

Even Things Out - Most physical activities overwork certain muscles and under-work others. This leads to muscular imbalances - a potential source of injury. The American Council on Exercise writes that most people have a strength imbalance between the lower back and abs. core strength exercises help to build even strength throughout the core and reduce these types of muscular imbalances.

Use the Force - A strong core improves sports performance. Jason Brumitt, a physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning coach, writes in the National Association of Strength and Conditioning Coaches Performance Journal that a strong core helps transfer force to and from the body's extremeties. Throwing a baseball, swinging a golf club and easy jogging all require force generated in one part of the body to move to another. Brumitt says strong core muscles help that force move as efficiently as possible so that athletes and exercises can perform their best.

Source: livestrong.com

Move of the Month

Speaking of a strong core, this move will challenge each of those vital muscles. You can preform it with a medicine ball as shown or use a dumbell, full water bottle etc.

Wood Chopper

Start with the feet a little wider than hip distance apart, keeping the knees slightly bent.

Bend your elbows slightly bringing the ball above your left shoulder.
Pull your abs into your spine to stabilize your center.
On an exhale, bring the ball down diagonally across your body toward your right knee while coming into a squat. Imagine you're chopping some wood at this angle and the ball is your axe — the move is a bit percussive.
Don't twist through your knees, but really rotate through the trunk.
Control the ball back up to the starting position. This completes one rep.
Remember you are moving with force, but control. Don't give into the momentum of swinging the ball around.

Complete 3 sets of 10-15 reps on each side

Healthy Eating