A few notices

We have a few notifications to get out there...

Next Wednesday (the 5th) afternoon/evening there will be no classes at Fly High. If you haven't already, don't forget to get your tickets to the Women's Health Focus and baby fair. It looks like a great time! Be sure to visit our wellness services booth and stop in and give Tiff a hard time as she leads a few yoga sessions. The fitness center will still be open that evening, so there is still an exercise opportunity available.

The homecoming parade will be right in the middle of Thursday evening step and as such we are canceling that class for the night of the 6th. We will still hold spinning and yoga as usual, but there will be no step pump that night. All our babysitters are participating in the parade so there will be no childcare available for that night as well. Get out and support those tigers and cheer for the GRMC float and our sitters.

Speaking of step pump, by popular demand the time as been changed back to 5:15-6:15. Monday Zumba and Wednesday spinning have also been moved to 5:15. Hope to see you all there.

Stress relief??

I (Jen) wonder how many of us use exercise as a means of relieveing the stress of our day to day activities. At this point, many of you have heard me bemoaning my poor son's less than stellar transition from preschooler to kindergartner. I apologize now for excessive discussion of my children, but while we have had some great reports home, I can't really say it's going as smoothly as I'd like. He's mine and I love him but he's a stinker too. Of course this situation weighs heavily on my mind. Most of the time I at least have a small part of my brain wondering how his day is going. Is he having fun, is he miserable, is he being yelled at right now, are kids picking on him and he gets busted retaliating? If I let myself, I can get pretty (dare I say excessively?) worked up about this at any given moment, including when I'm trying to go to sleep at night. It's a problem.

Miracle of miracles, after powerflow yoga tonight I realized that I hadn't thought about Connor at all during class. Phew. It's so nice to have a place where I can finally turn that worry completely off. This is really not a new or unique discovery, but it is a great reminder. Many, many people use exercise as a form of stress management or release. We see them in here pounding their frustration out on the treadmill or spinner, or maybe relaxing the tension away during a yoga session. Members come in saying "I need [fill in the blank]." My experience tonight is proof that it can work. Stressful, busy lives are not an excuse for less activity. Stressful, busy lives are the reason we need exercise!

Powerflow Yoga

Today was our first powerflow yoga class. This was the first time I (Jen) taught it and I have to admit, this was unfamiliar territory for me. Thank you to all the participants that showed up and were willing to give it a try. I think we had a great time, and got a great workout. Today's class involved a number of strengthening moves. We were up, down, all over, in between and class today attacked it. There were modifications available and I was impressed with how few were taken. It's great when people are really challenging themselves. I never want someone to go too far and get an injury, but I love it when people go for it. I should say that while we were going for it, there were also some priceless faces being made during some of our more challenging sections. Mostly by me. While we'll always have a stregthening component to our class, in the future I plan to incorporate a few more flowing moves to get a little more cardiovascular work in there too. Come try it out, next Wednesday at 4:15!

Winner, winner, winner!

Congratulations to Lisa Coffman for winning the PWA Fitness Center and Fly High Fitness Studios Passport to Fitness incentive program! Lisa received a Tour of GRMC basket consisting of gift certificates to the Neon Cafe, the Glass Gift Box, and Postels Community Health Park. We hope Lisa enjoys using her gift certificates as she "tours GRMC".

Staying active

Over my (Jen) time at the fitness center I have encountered various members commenting on what regular exercise has brought to their lives. I think they were referring to an increased ability to carry on with their everyday tasks. An example would be yoga making it easier to see over one's shoulder while backing out of the driveway or the nustep strengthening a member enough so that she can vacuum her house and not have to pay someone else to do it for her. I notice that as well for myself. I can get on the floor and stay on the floor much more comfortably these days than back before I started doing yoga on a regular basis. Woo-hoo!

We love to hear those stories and also we love to hear about the bigger stuff too. I occasionally see members that started off dependant on their canes no longer even carrying them. I hear about the relief from sore muscles after getting out and moving a little each day. One member has golfed this summer after a several year hiatus thanks to the time she put in on the elliptical. Love it, love it, love it!

We have to be active to stay active. If we take to our chairs, we're done for, it's only a matter of time before we can't do the big or even the little things for ourselves. It's imporant to recognize that our exercise habits have a big influence over our ability levels. We want to hear about what exercise has brought to you. Feel free to leave your comments below...

1st Wednesday of the Month

Tomorrow, September 7th at 4:15 p.m.

an Introductory to Yoga class

will offered at the Fly High Fitness Studio

Good morning all and welcome back after a long, holiday weekend! Have ya'll seen the September schedule for the Fly High Fitness Studio?! We have tweaked some of our classes, added new ones, and unfortunately omitted a couple. One of our new classes is Power Flow Yoga on Wednesday afternoon at 4:15. The unique thing about this class is that on the FIRST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH there will be an introductory class instead. It can be any one of our classes (i.e. body boost, kickboxing, spinning, step, yoga, Zumba), but it will be a basic format. You will be able to leave feeling comfortable to step into the regular class. Come with any questions you may have and be ready to learn. We will all be beginners and will have fun learning together.

Each month, we will note which introductory class will be highlighted on the first Wednesday of the month. Tomorrow we will be featuring yoga.

1K Walk

This is the first chance I've (Jen) to write about our city-wide 1K walk on Wednesday. There were several locations around town where individuals gathered, I was here at the hospital hoofin' it with coworkers and some people from around the surrounding neighborhood. I found it to be a great community building activity and enjoyed getting out and moving around. It was a pretty warm day and you never know what people will respond to, but we had a respectable turnout. Thank goodness since we were a pilot community chosen to impress the Governor!

The whole point of this is to inspire us to stay (or become) healthy and active. I hope you all got out and took a quick walk around town with your friends and neighbors. Don't worry, there's another chance to walk on October 7th, so mark your calenders. This time it will be state-wide. I hope we see an even larger number of participants. Be on the lookout for signs around town with more details and I will post them on this blog as I become aware of them.