Dancerobics

The most fun way to get fit and fight fat. Dancerobics is an exciting dance based cardio workout that draws on a vast array of dance genres from Broadway to Street Dance via Jazz and everything in between. With great music and being an effective workout for all abilities this has proved to be an extremely popular class. Everyone welcome regardless of current fitness level or number of left feet. Class times and venues: Mondays: 8:00 – 9:00 pm at the Fitness Factory, 1a Portland Street, Newport, IOW. £4.00 per class; Tuesdays: 7:00 – 8:00 pm at The Heights Leisure Centre, Broadway, Sandown, IOW. £4.20 per class or included on the full ‘One Card’.

Abs & Back Core Conditioning

This is a furiously effective class for those of us who want to flatten our stomachs. A blend of traditional abdominal exercises, pilates based core strength exercises and stretching this half hour class is a really great tool in a balanced exercise programme. With plenty of options given with regards to level of difficulty for each exercise this class is tailored to your individual needs. As it follows directly after a dancerobics class together they make for a terrific double whammy! Class time and venue: Tuesdays: 8:00 – 8:30 at The Heights Leisure Centre, Sandown, IOW. £2.70 per class or included in the full ‘One Card’.

Zumba – Ditch the workout, join the party!

Coming January 2010 The Zumba® program fuses hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves to create a one-of-a-kind fitness program that will blow you away. Our goal is simple: We want you to want to work out, to love working out, to get hooked. Zumba® Fanatics achieve long-term benefits while experiencing an absolute blast in one exciting hour of calorie-burning, body-energizing, awe-inspiring movements meant to engage and captivate for life! The routines feature interval training sessions where fast and slow rhythms and resistance training are combined to tone and sculpt your body while burning fat. Add some Latin flavor and international zest into the mix and you’ve got a Zumba® class! In the past years, the Zumba® program has become nothing short of a revolution, spreading like wildfire, and positioning itself as the single most influential movement in the industry of fitness. As of July 2009, the Zumba® program is being taught at over 40,000 locations in 75 countries, has sold millions of DVDs, and has changed the lives of Zumba® Fanatics worldwide with an astonishing five million participants taking Zumba classes every week. Why? Because it’s the best party around

Class time and venue: Wednesday 7:30 – 8:30pm at The Heights Leisure Centre, Sandown, IOW. £4.20 per class or included in the full ‘One Card’.

Fitness Pilates

Coming mid-January 2010

Fitness Pilates is a group based exercise class that is based on the original teachings of Joseph Pilates.  It integrates a mix of the original Pilates exercises together with modern research and updated techniques to make it suitable for a group exercise class.

Fitness Pilates is designed to enhance the posture, strength, balance and stability of a healthy adult.

Fitness Pilates focuses on the body as a ‘human kinetic chain’ and by applying the Pilates technique and exercises Fitness Pilates aims to offset musculoskeletal imbalances.  Through Pilates exercises the aim is to:

• Increase muscular balance
• Increase muscuar strength
• Increase muscular tone
• Improve posture

By using stretching exercises to lengthen short, tight muscles combined with strengthening exercises to increase the tone of lax muscle Fitness Pilates aims to redress the balance in muscle tone.

Don’t worry if all the above sounds very technical.  In Fitness Pilates we use a wide variety of imagery and postural correcting techniques to ensure that everone gets as much as possible out of each work out.

Class time and venue:

Coming mid-January 2010 at The Heights Leisure Centre, Sandown, IOW.  Price to be confirmed.

Aquarobics is a great way to introduce variety into your exercise programme and is especially good as a way into exercise for people who perhaps haven’t exercised in a long time or who fear that they don’t have the co-ordination for a land based aerobics class.

A typical aquarobics class will consist of cardio work i.e. raising your heart rate and therefore exercising your cardiovascular system and in the process using lots of energy to do so (<strong>burning</strong> <strong>calories</strong>) and then you will mostly likely do some strength exercises using the water for resistance.  Strength exercises help build your lean muscle and as lean muscle is the only tissue in the body that can metabolise fat you will be increasing your fat burning potential for long after you finish exercising.

In my aquarobics classes I also love to include flotation devices like ‘noodles’ as these are great for spicing up the exercises and are fantastic to play games with.  Yes that’s right, in aqua classes we even get to play proper, have a great laugh, games.

I will be launching my own weekly aquarobics class at the Heights Leisure Centre, Broadway, Sandown, IOW, from Friday 15th January between 8:00 and 9:00 pm.  £4.20 per class.  I look forward to seeing you there.

If there are any types of classes that you feel are not catered for well in your part of the island then let me know and we’ll see if there’s an opportunity there for me to start one.  All ideas considered!