Welcome to spring! Many people drop off their fitness track come spring and there can be a number of reasons for this. A couple of primary reasons are boredom and a decline in progress. Both of these can be linked to a stale workout routine. That being said, let's discuss ways you can ensure your routine doesn't become stale and help you stay on track.

First, recognize that no routine will be magical for your body forever, no matter how 'magical' it may be initially. In fact, after about 3 months (sometimes less), your body has adapted to your routine and is no longer really stimulated by it. This means that your body will not be effectively stimulated to progress and your mind will become bored. As soon as you notice a plateau in your progress or get the faintest hint of boredom, it's time for a change.

There are many elements to your routine that can be manipulated to refresh your workout, re-instigate your body into progression and get your brain fired up. Some elements of consideration, besides specific exercises, include: repetition range, set-up design (consecutive sets, supersets, circuits, etc.), intensity, duration, equipment and location, among others. The most important element to consider is YOU. How have you or anything about you changed since starting your last routine? Are you closer to your goals? Has your schedule or availability changed? Anything else? Keeping your workout properly focused on you and built around you and who you are at this exact moment is probably the biggest key to staying on track. Having your workout routine so specifically tailored to you sets you up for success by limiting excuses and by giving you a positive emotional connection to the routine, increasing enjoyment.

During the changes of the seasons, another important consideration for most people, is current interests. For active gym-goers, this change in interest often involves sports or recreational activities. So, how do we tailor our gym workout around our other sports or activities to stay on track throughout the season? The obvious tactic is to choose exercises that directly enhance your performance in your activity of choice, thus making your activities are more enjoyable. One, often overlooked but very important tactic is to include exercises, stretches and other techniques that prevent injury. Preventing injury is of utmost importance since an injury, besides painful and unenjoyable, can be a game ender. There's not much fun to be had when the game is over. Another tactic is incorporating your extracurricular activity into the gym. For example, if you're a runner or a cyclist, try running or riding to the gym as your warm-up. This can shorten your time inside the gym and give you more time with your choice activity. For a soccer player, use of a medicine ball for footwork drills can be a great form of active rest in a high intensity or interval training routine. Every soccer player can benefit from footwork drills.

Hopefully, this article has given you some inspiration to refresh your workout, re-instigate your body into progression and get your brain fired up! If you need more help or direction to stay on track this spring, reach out to one of our talented and creative Trainers. Remember that personalized program design is a benefit included in your membership. More frequent, Personal Training, is also available to all members and guests at a reasonable price.

 

  Jade Dahle
  BHC Personal Trainer
  Group Fitness Instructor 

How long have you been a member at Ballard Health Club? Fifteen years this summer. 

The glutes include 3 major muscles: the gluteus maximus, minimus and medius. This workout is designed to help you strengthen all three areas. Why should you train your glutes? To start with, your entire backside helps to stabilize your pelvis, and therefore your spine, during running and walking. Strong glutes also help you keep proper form when lifting, helping to protect your knees and back. If your glutes are weak, your entire lower body and spine may fall out of alignment, which can create muscle imbalances that can lead to injury.

Train Those Glutes! Workout:
Complete 15 repetitions of each exercise 3 times through.


SINGLE LEG GLUTE BRIDGE: Lying on your back, place your feet flat on the floor and bend your knees to the ceiling, making sure you can reach your fingers to your toes. Center one foot in the middle of your butt and lift the other leg to the ceiling. Squeeze your booty as you lift your hips off the ground and lower back down. Repeat 15 times and switch legs. 

BACK SQUATS: Place a barbell on your back, a few inches below your neck. Reach your hips back and sit down, keeping your chest lifted. Keep your weight in your heels and push your knees out, in line with your ankles, as you stand back up.

SINGLE STRAIGHT-LEG DEADLIFT: Start standing on one foot, with two kettlebells on either side. With a slight bend

 in your standing knee, reach your other foot to the back wall and bend from the hips to reach the kettlebells. Grasp the kettlebells and stand up on one leg, drive your hips forward to begin the upward movement.

JUMPING LUNGES: Begin in a lunge position with back knee toward the ground and front knee over ankle. Jump into the air and switch legs, landing in a lunge on the opposite side.

CLAMSHELLS: Lie on the ground, on your side. Stack your knees and feet on top of each other and bend your knees at about a 90 degree angle, with your heels in line with your back. Keeping the sides of your feet together, open your legs from your knees, squeezing the side of your butt. Return to start.

Allison Raines
BHC Personal Trainer
Group Fitness Instructor

Handstand Workshop
 with Lisa Elliott

 April 19th, 2pm-3:30pm
 

Handstands are a fantastic practice for improving core strength, shoulder range of motion, balanced musculature and for tuning up the connection between your core and your limbs. This workshop with aerial acrobatics coach Lisa Elliott will give you tools and smart progressions for adding handstands to your bodyweight training repertoire. Enrollment is limited to 12 students to allow Lisa to carefully assess each person's strengths and weaknesses and provide individualized feedback for you to optimize your progress in this demanding skill.

You'll be amazed at the positive impact handstands can have on all your athletic pursuits and even on your state of mind. There's nothing like intense balance work for calming your busy brain and getting you in the present moment!

Prerequisites: A fairly healthy spine and some experience with kicking up into a handstand with a spotter or on a wall. You don't need to be good at it, but inverting on your hands is our starting place for this workshop.

Cost to attend workshop is $20 for members. $30 for non-members ($20 plus $10 drop-in fee at the time of the workshop)

 

 

Introduction to Yoga 

 with Jamie Carroll

 6 week course: Saturdays, April 18th - May 23rd

 

This six week course will teach basic yoga poses, sequences, breath exercises and touch upon the philosophy of yoga. Suitable for all levels, this class will help build a foundation for a health yoga routine.

This 6-week course will be $60 for members. Non-members pay an additional drop-in fee of $10. Sign up online at our website or at the front desk.

Member Trevor Clark is currently training for a canoe trip, where he will be paddling 631 miles of the Alabama Scenic River Trail from May 18-July 18 before heading off to graduate school. In addition to paddling all day, every day, Trevor will have to walk with his canoe, about 90-pounds, through 6 dams along with an 80-pound backpack.

As you can imagine, Trevor is at Ballard Health Club training hard! He needs endurance, and extra strong upper body and core muscles. Trevor has been utilizing free weights to work on muscle stabilization in addition to strength and range of motion. He begins his workouts with an intense cardio session, cross training with the elliptical and stationary bike. He has also been practicing his canoe lifting and carrying technique around his neighborhood.

Trevor is a great example of what an exercise program can prepare you for! He has acquired 9 corporate sponsors along the way and a heck of a lot of expertise in training. Wish Trevor good luck if you see him working hard! Way to go!

Read more about Trevor's trip here.

As many of you have heard, mostly via construction noise, the expansion is coming right along. We are very excited for BHC's first expansion project!

The rebuilding of the staircase leading to the new area is done. A wall has just been removed to achieve the full size of the room. The next phase includes installing a separating wall (20 feet high!) between our space and the new retail business that will be replacing Romanza.

After that, we will have to do a complete overhaul of the electrical, heating and air conditioning. We'll keep you posted as we move forward!

Matt Anderson
BHC Facilities Manager 

From the Owner

We identify with being a COMMUNITY club at BHC and we take that to heart.

Some of the activities that BHC participates in as a community health club include:

• BHC is working closely with the Ballard Chamber of Commerce to come up with ways to build and create more positive activity at the Ballard Commons Park. Initial activities we are working on include hosting a regular schedule of "Yoga in the Park" this summer and working with another group to offer Tai Chi. These sessions will be open to the public to join in and are just a start.


• We are opening our Run Club this year to include non BHC members.


• Every year BHC supports the proud heritage of Ballard by marching in the Syttende Mai / Ballard Parade on Norwegian Independence day - May 17th.


• BHC is proud to sponsor a Ballard Little League 89ers team (8 and 9 year olds). Games started April 1st at Gilman Field.


• BHC donates short term memberships to over 30 local charity and school auctions a year.


• We embrace the "Silver Sneakers" program when many other clubs have discontinued it because it was not profitable enough. I cannot think of a better community endeavor than encouraging our seniors to get together and exercise. For those that do not know, "Silver Sneakers" is a program for people 65 and over that has supplemental health insurance which includes a benefit for health club membership.

BHC is the only major health club in Ballard where 100% of the ownership lives in the same community it is serving. This fact increases the sense of awareness of our role in this community. We look forward to continuing to expand our involvement in the home we call BALLARD.

Pat Gilbrough
BHC Owner and General Manager
pat@ballardhealthclub.com