Why I love Pilates mat:

Practicing Pilates mat helps build a strong, balanced body inside and out, while increasing flexibility through dynamic stretching movements.

• Inside: deep core muscles and stabilizers help keep the body optimally supported.
• Outside: our large, powerful prime movers are challenged making us stronger and more capable to function in our day to day activities and athletic pursuits. 

As you progress in your practice you will notice improvements in breathing, focus, stress management, and body awareness.

Pilates mat is perfect for beginners because you only need your own body, a mat, and some floor space to start. And perhaps investing in a light set of hand weights down the road.

My Pilates Fit classes take all that is good with classical Pilates and put a functional fitness training twist to the class. Adding light hand weights and/or a long resistance band to some of the exercises challenge our entire musculoskeletal system to improve...

Given that we are seeing rising numbers of those affected with COVID, it often feels like this whole situation is beyond our control. I don't know about you, but lately I have felt overwhelmed with the amount of unknowns. I thought to write an article about the tiny bit we can control. 

We can try to boost our immune system by eating healthy foods, especially a diet rich with a colourful variety of fruits and vegetables.

Another great way to boost our immune system is through exercising with moderate intensity. This is one of the main reasons I am so passionate about teaching healthy movements for our bodies and minds (mental health).

Studies show exercise:

• Increases blood flow which allows the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently
• Strengthens antibodies that help fight infection by causing change in our white blood cells. WBCs are the body's immune system cells that fight...

Exactly what is strength training? Strength training is any planned exercise that challenges your muscles by adding load (weight) to your movements.

By challenging your muscular system you slowly and gradually built your lean muscle mass. As an added bonus you also strengthen your ligaments and tendons that surround your joints. 

Why is this important? Strength training lays the foundation to building a highly functional body. In the end this helps your body perform optimally so that it eases the demands on the body when you go about your daily activities. 

One of the cool side effects of exercising consistently is your body functions better even at the cellular level. That is why after a couple of weeks of exercising, you gain more energy. Amazing that when you exercise you are even making your cells stronger and more efficient! 

Other Benefits of Strength Training:

• Increases in muscle mass increase metabolism, meaning our bodies are able to...

1) Running is Good for Your Heart

Running doesn’t just strengthen your heart muscle, but also improves your entire circulatory system by making the lining of your blood vessels more flexible. When your blood vessels are more flexible the heart doesn’t have to work so hard to pump blood throughout your body. Another bonus is blood vessels of a fit person tend to accumulate less plaque than those of an unfit person, leading to a much lower risk of a heart attack or stroke.

2) Running Boosts Your Mood

When you run, your brain pumps out a feel-good hormone called endorphins. Endorphins are natural pain killers. The cool thing is these endorphins don’t just last during your run, but they also stay in your body for hours after, helping to boost your mood throughout the day.

3) Running Strengthens Your Bones and Joints

A recent study showed that runners were half as likely to suffer from knee osteoarthritis compared with walkers. The reason for this is every time your...

I taught this strength circuit three times this week: to the Wednesday evening crew, Thursday morning Older Adult 55+ crew, and the Friday morning crew. All thought it was pretty intense...however my Older Adults crew didn't complain too much. I promised my clients I would also be tortured by it Friday afternoon. I had so much fun I decided to film myself to share :)

Being my first time filming myself performing a workout, I realize after the fact that horizontal filming is the way to go (not vertical as most of this footage is) and definitely some of my camera angles need improvement, a bit too much of the bright ceiling light. Oops!

I did not make all my clients work as hard as the video shows...well except for my client Agnes! All exercises can be modified. The wonderful thing about small group personal training is I tailor the exercise to suit each client to be successful and safe in their joints. 

The workout:

Warm-up

5min dynamic stretches and...