By Chelsea Garcia, MS PHASE IV Exercise Physiologist
1. All In One Fitness: As a society we are focused on health more than ever. Don’t be surprised if you start to see new facilities pop up that have a one stop shop for health and fitness. This includes your general physician, physical therapist, exercise physiologist, nutritionist/dietitians, psychologists, and personal trainers. That way there is better communication and action on how to help each person achieve their goals.
Hey, that kind of sounds like Phase IV…
2. Community Driven Fitness: Our world is extremely fast paced and sometimes doesn’t allow for much human interaction with all the tech we use. You might start to see more community based fitness classes where you can workout with like minded individuals. You would be surrounded by a supportive group that’s working toward the same goals. Being able to connect with others while working out can lead to higher compliance in the gym. If your new friend is going to be there then it will be harder to cancel on them.
Try out Phase IV’s Women’s Weights classes on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 5-7 pm.
3. Cardio Classes: Cardio can be long and boring sometimes and changing it up every once in a while can be good to keep your routine fresh. Trying a new kickboxing class or rowing class can help keep the boring exercise at bay. Kickboxing will be a high intensity cardio workout and will burn more carbs than fat. With new rowing studios starting to pop up you’ll get a low impact workout if kicking a heavy bag isn’t really your thing. Rowing can also give you a full body workout and you can make it as challenging as you want.
4. Meditation, Mind Body, Mindfulness: The mind body connection is becoming more prevalent and important in the fitness community. Having a good understanding of your body in space is extremely important in sports, but can also have a positive impact on any general gym-goer. It’s important to be in a good head space while working out to get the most out of your session. Trying more mindful practices like yoga can help clear your head.
If you struggle with your mind body connection try one of our Pelacore classes(Mon, Tues, Thurs 12:30-1:15). It will teach you how to engage muscles you never knew existed! You’ll build stronger abdominals, pelvic floor, and back stabilization muscles all while improving the mind body connection.
5. High Intensity Low-Impact Training: Still want that feeling of a good sweat, but don’t want to jump around onto giant boxes? This is a new fitness trend that could still help you break a sweat, but not break your joints! These types of workouts will focus more on higher intensity and will save your body. Deep water running, water workouts, barre, Pilates, TRX, and body weight training are a few good examples of low impact workouts that will still get your heart rate up.
Want to try some deep water running? Forster Physical Therapy has a pool designed specifically for deep water workouts!
6. Customized Fitness Programs: If you want something that you know will work for you why not get something completely personalized to your physiology? Periodization science builds recovery into your weekly workouts making sure that you don’t become over-trained. It also decreases your risk of injury and burnout. Engaging in scientific testing and training will give you personalized programs instead of doing a workout class because you heard it worked for your friend.
Come in for a Resting Metabolic Rate Test and a VO2 to know specifically how many calories your body needs in order to reach your goals. The VO2 will give you training zones to fully optimize your workouts for the best results possible!
7. Foundation/Movement Quality: Building a proper base will increase your likelihood of avoiding future injuries. If you start out going hard in the gym, whether that be cardio or strength training, there is a good chance
your body will break down quicker and be more prone to injuries. Building that foundation and having good form to start will help you get results without getting hurt.
Want to build a good foundation for the gym? Our Structure Program will teach you how to build up your stabilization muscles to make your body structurally sound and decrease your risk of injury.
8. Exercise Is Medicine: By keeping the body moving on a regular basis you’ll be ‘using it and not losing it.’ Regular physical activity will keep your body from deteriorating as you age. Don’t forget stretching is just as important as cardio and strengthening!
Don’t like stretching? Come on in for a 25-30 minute Assisted Stretching session and let us do the work for you. Just lay down, relax, and we will stretch your entire body out.
9. Strength Training over Cardio: Using only cardio machines has become a thing of the past. More people are realizing the benefits of combining strength training in addition to their cardio routines. If you are a cardio addict you might try mixing in some strength or resistance type training to keep your routine balanced. Adding in strength training will build muscle, which also helps you burn more calories throughout the day!
Try out Phase IV’s Women’s Weights classes on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 5-7 pm. Or come in and train one on one with one of the Exercise Physiologists or Physical Therapists here at Phase IV.
10. Wearable Tech/Smart Clothing: We all have seen the latest and greatest fitness watches that are out on the market these days. I don’t see those going away anytime soon with companies like Apple, Garmin, and Samsung putting out new models every year. What is new in this world of tech is smart clothing. There are various products out from socks that give you feedback on your run form to yoga pants that vibrate to tell you that your warrior 2 position isn’t aligned properly. These new workout clothes will set you back quite a bit with their hefty price tags. It will be interesting to see what they come out with next!