How to plan an effective workout routine with your gyms time table

Have you asked yourself or your group fitness instructor “how many times should I go to the gym to lose weight or get stronger”? I often get asked “how many classes do you teach a week?”. I suspect that the idea is to copy the amount of classes I teach in the hope that it will speed up getting stronger or achieving weight loss results. We fitness instructors exercise for a living and doing so is neither health promoting, nor does it help us get in shape; in fact it actually hinders the body from adapting to the work load because we have the same exact routine/ class schedule every week. Often we do not get enough rest and recovery days. Instructors need to take the classes that they can get so we can not plan a nice alternation between a hard days and a easy recovery or mind body days. You as a participant have the opportunity to plan out your own gym schedule from the time table your gym provides. I will explain how I would go about choosing which classes to do on each day of the week and what kind of rules you should bear in mind when doing the planning to get the most out of working out. After all non of us have endless amount of time to spend in the gym or patience to endure not getting results as soon as possible.

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The easy tai chi sequence - Tai Chi Qigong Shibashi

Today I will give a short introduction to the Shibashi sequence I teach and practice. Shibashi is really nice as it is simple and allows everyone, novice or experienced, to practice and relax together. If you thought tai chi has to be serious and martial arts focused think again, this is definitely different, much more in line with a group fitness class such as Yoga. If you have been following me for a while you may have already read the “5 benefits of stress management and reasons to do tai chi before you draw your pension” and “I didn’t like tai chi…”, I think both of these posts are helpful for anyone that is hesitant about incorporating a slow movement practice into their fitness schedule just as much as I was once.

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I didn’t like tai chi…

You go hard in the gym, you party hard and spend more time than 9-5 at work, it is likely that your body is sending you signals pleading for stress management and me time on a regular basis. You think stress management is a waste of time, boring or too spiritual? You haven’t tried the Leeds Tai Chi Body Flow class yet. It works whether you believe in chi/ qi which is described as life energy or vital force or not. All you need to do is join in and breathe you will increase your vitality or chi automatically.

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