This is the time of year we evaluate the year that’s ending and develop a game plan for the next year.
2012 can be your best year yet, and we want to help you achieve whatever goals you set for yourself.
Have you set a weight-loss goal? Our fitness trainers will work with you to build a fitness plan to help you achieve it. Our trainers are certified in many different areas of fitness and each of them brings a unique approach to help you feel great about your body.
If working with a personal trainer isn’t for you, then we have dozens of group exercise and cycle classes offered at different times throughout the day for your convenience. Check out Paula’s cycle class or Kokay’s Yoga class. Our instructors love meeting new people and introducing them to the world of group ex.
Doing your cardio or strength training by yourself is one thing, but when you have the support and energy of a room of people, it becomes an entirely new workout. Also, make sure to jump in the indoor pool and swim a few laps for that full-body cardio experience.
Looking to improve your tennis game in 2012? Our Tennis department develops not only seasoned tennis players, but also turns people who love the sport into players themselves. Whether via group or individual classes, our tennis team will work with you to help develop your talent. The Tennis department is also a great avenue for meeting new friends: our Cardio Tennis and Social Mixers are a great way to connect with other tennis players.
While you may set a New Year’s Resolution of losing weight or improving your tennis serve, you also might consider a different kind of resolution this year. Above and beyond the physical benefits of working out and playing tennis, Midtown offers you the chance to make and develop relationships with people.
Our club has always been about people first, so try something new in 2012: meet new members and associates and experience elements of the club that you haven’t before. Come in for coffee, try a new class, or meet a new trainer. Try that deep water aerobics class, or experience what you can learn about your body in a MAT session.
Let 2012 be a year of change. Resolve to break out of your usual routine a few times this year to experience everything that Midtown has to offer. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
What part of Midtown are you going to discover in 2012?
People often ask me why I began swimmning instead of playing a “real” sport like football or baseball. When I was a child, I usually answered, ”Because my mom made me.”
Today my view on swimming is very different and I don’t think there is a better, more complete workout you can do.
Here are four reasons why swimming delivers an excellent workout:
1. Swimming Reduces the Impact on Muscles, Bones, and Joints
When your body is submerged in water, it automatically becomes lighter. When immersed to the waist, your body bears just 50 percent of its weight; dunk yourself to the chest and that number reduces to around 25 to 35 percent; with water all the way to the neck, you only have to bear 10 percent of your own weight. The other 90 percent is handled by the pool. This allows a person to build their cardio without the impact of a treadmill.
2. Swimming = Resistance Training
Water is about 12 times denser than air. That means every stroke, kick, or curl with an aqua dumbell transforms itself into resistance training. As a result, competitive swimmers have toned and defined bodies, because their in-pool workouts allow them to stretch and strengthen almost every muscle in the body.
3. Swimming Helps You Breathe Better
My mom enrolled me in swimming at a young age due to my asthma. Indoor pools are usually not as dry as, for example, a gym or even the natural weather outside. Swimming can also strengthen lungs and promote correct breathing, which makes it a perfect workout for me and for others with asthma or other lung-related issues.
4. Swimming is a Blast
Any workout can become boring and repetitive if performed for too long, but swimming provides a lot of ways to shake things up. Work your arms and chest with a butterfly or breastroke on one day, focus on your legs with some long kicking sets on another day, and focus on breathing with some long-distance breathing techniques the next.
I have friends today whom I met through swimming 20 years ago. Group swimming or exercise classes give you the opportunity to not only build your endurance but also your relationships. The camaraderie and motivation that develops through swimming is unique to the fitness world. Whether you join a Master’s team or an Aqua Fitness class or whether you and some friends are just tired of the treadmills and Stairmasters and are looking for something different, swimming delivers life-long benefits.
Is swimming a part of your regular weekly workout?
When I was a kid, gym class resembled a free-for-all rather than an organized learning session. I played
a lot of tag while avoiding the flying dodgeballs, leaping over the kids playing board games, and avoided the flying basketballs from those playing HORSE.
It was fun, but I wasn’t learning anything about fitness, and it certainly wasn’t as helpful as our new Youth Programming.
Our after-school classes have been revamped to help students explore fitness through coordination-building exercises and athletic skill sets.
In the past, our Youth Fitness Supervisor Seth Ogden developed a program to help kids get active and to teach them good sportsmanship and team play. These are still emphasized, but with a different twist.
This year’s curriculum is taken from the International Youth Conditioning Association, the premier international authority for athletic development and youth participant-based conditioning. The IYCA program is a fun way to safely teach today’s youth the skills and habits needed to live a healthy and athletic life.
This year’s Youth Program at the club is divided into three divisions by age group:
Guided Discovery Group: for children ages 6-9 and meets on Mondays and Thursdays. Primary emphasis is on coordination development and secondary focus on strength and speed. Coordination is discovered through balance, awareness in space, force production, rhythm and reaction exercises.
Learning Exploration Group: for kids ages 10-13 and meets on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Primary emphasis is building on some basic techniques that have been taught in the past while adding more advanced coordination and exercise skill sets.
Circuit Training Group: for kids ages 12-14 and meets on Saturdays. Primary emphasis is on applying form to exercise. Group circuit training is introduced to develop strength, speed and better athletic performance.
The goal of our Youth Programming classes is to teach the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle and to encourage the development of new athletic skills. More information is available at the Front Desk, or you can contact Seth Ogden at Seth.Ogden@midtown.com.
Are your kids involved in our Youth Fitness Programs? What do they think of the classes?
