Happy 2019 everyone! Here’s to hoping that you and yours had a wonderful
holiday season and are looking forward to an even better 2019. If you’re
the type of person who makes resolutions when the calendar turns over,
chances are improved fitness is on the list somewhere.
For the past 13 years, the American College of Sports Medicine surveys
thousands of fitness professionals at the end of the year to forecast
the hottest new fitness trends for the upcoming year. The results are
published in the ACSM’s
Health and Fitness Journal. The ACSM’s most recent findings predict the three most popular
things in fitness for 2019 will be group fitness, HIIT (high-intensity
interval training) and fitness trackers.
Luckily for us, Thibodaux Regional’s Fitness Center offers all three
of these things in a 60,000 square-foot, medically-integrated facility.
As a 2019 bonus, you can join the Fitness Center without paying an enrollment
fee during the month of January.
I love that the Fitness Center offers all types of group fitness classes
– more than 20 – at various times throughout the day to match
anyone’s busy schedule. Just to name a few: Cycling, Water Aerobics,
Body Attack, Body Combat, Body Pump, Piyo, Yoga, Tai Chi, Step, Zumba,
Barre, P90X and Aquatic Tai Chi. I’m a workout warrior, who does
something daily. However, Father Time and spine and knee issues have forced
me to change my exercise routine. Thibodaux Regional’s Fitness Center
features classes such as Forever Fit and Aqua Boomers designed specifically
for seniors like myself, who want to stay in the best shape possible,
but who need classes tailored to them.
If you aren’t familiar with High Intensity Interval Training –
or HIIT classes - it’s a strategy professional and elite level athletes
have trained under for years. The science behind HIIT workouts says that
if we exercise using short, intense bursts of exercise, paced with rest
breaks in between, we can burn more calories. Intense also means unsustainable.
This is a type of workout and pace that you couldn’t keep up for
30 minutes. You push yourself as hard as you can for a short period of
time and then rest. HIIT workouts not only burn more calories than regular
cardio routines, but they also boost metabolism, reduce insulin resistance,
improve heart function and help you build endurance. If you want to try
this sort of routine, check out the Fitness Center’s “Sprint”
class. It uses an indoor bike and heart-thumping music to help you achieve
fast results, as you push your physical and mental limits.
Finally, there are a lot of fitness tracker choices on the market today.
The technology is now so much better and more accurate than what it was
a few years ago. I think many of the mainstream trackers deliver results
that are impressive. You can program them with your age, weight, body
mass index and sex to get detailed, personal statistics about your workout.
If you don’t own one, the Fitness Center at Thibodaux Regional is
equipped with state of the art equipment outfitted with top notch computers.
Take a few seconds to enter in some information before you start your
workout, and you won’t need to invest in a personal fitness tracker
to keep up with how many calories you’ve burned, your heart rate
or your mileage.
Here’s to a great 2019 everyone!
Archie