Summer is here! It's time to get outside of the daily gym visit and enjoy some good ool fitness in the sun. Now I'm not saying the give up weight training or cacardion the gym; but it's a good thing to change your exercise patterns to maximize results, stay motivated, and avoid plateaus. Here are a few suggestions:

1 Ride your bike 20 - 60 minutes at least 3 times a week

2 Roller blade a couple times a week with friends

3 Running, speed walking, or wind sprints

4 Join an outdoor fitness group such as triathlon training, iron man or fitness boot camps

5 Play some frifrisbeeotball

6 Play some tennis at your local park district

7 Volley ball at the beach

8 Join a softball team

9 basketball pickup games

10 Adventure groups

There are so many things you can do to add to your gym training during the summer months. Take full advantage of the great weather not only for your fitness level, but for your social enhancement as well...

This is a very exciting announcement for me. My company, Chicago Fitness Training, is launching our new service, Fitness Boot Camp, in Chicago. This is a postive step forward in the world of fitness services, in that fitness boot camp opens up to helping more people at the same time while saving each person money. It takes fitness out of the gym to the enjoyable outdoors ,while training along with a motivating group of people.

Fitness Boot Camp is a great addition to common weight training or cardio training, by avoiding plateaus with changes in your exercise regimen. You can find out more details by visitng our boot camp page at:

www.chicagofitnesstraining.com/boot_camp_chicago

Any trainer worth their weight will always perform a fitness assessment on a new client. These assessments should be followed up with every 12 weeks to see if you're progressing in your goals. Even if you no longer work with a trainer, you should still hire one for a one time assessment every few months. After all, checking your weight is only of many categories when it comes to checking for results...

Always ask your trainer for a copy of your assessment. Keep this copy on your refrigerator door so you'll always have a reminder of where you started, where you are, and where you're heading...

Some of the content of an assessment are: Body Composition, Body Mass Index, Waist to Hip Ratio, Resting Heart Rate and Target Heart Range, Etc...

Full details on fitness assessments and desired results are available at: www.chicagofitnesstraining.com/fitness_assessment

Defining Yoga

• The science of personal development.
  
• A way to attain a healthy body and mind.
  
• A discipline.
  
• Leads us towards integration.
  
• The stilling of the movements of the sub-conscious mind.
  
• Consciously living life to the best of one's ability.

You've been hitting the weights hard, running agressively on the treadmill, eating all the right foods, now what? Oh yeah, Stretching! Often left out of exercise routines due to time limitations or false reports on the negatives of stretching, Yoga can fill the gap to make your exericse routine complete. Yoga is a perfect compliment or even replacement for the lack of knowledge on stretching.

Yoga is defined as the unity of mind, body, and spirit. A fitness approach to Yoga, focuses more so on the "BODY" element, but of course not to discount mind and spirit. This type of Yoga is commonly known as Hatha Yoga, and is very popular in the modern era of gyms. In fact, it may surprise you to know that many college and pro sports teams require their players to participate in Hatha Yoga during the off season in order to maintain flexibility, for the high amount of performance needed during the next upcoming season.

Yoga in general teaches the body to perform all three major actions of contractions at once; namely, eccentically, isometrically, and concentrically contract. This makes Yoga a total body experience rather than isolating certain muscles in sacrafice of others. It would do you well to become familiar with "The Sun Salutations" which is the common introduction to most Yoga Classes.

The Sun Salutations is my personal stretch routine 3 days a week after weight training, 12 basic Asanas (poses) that only takes 10 minutes to perform. The common length of gym Yoga classes run anywhere from 60 - 90 minutes. However, out side of the sun salutations, you can pick up any Yoga video or DVD in just about any store that will run about 20 minutes.

If you feel that you're lacking flexibility, or can already admit that you just have not payed enough attention to your flexibility needs, then give Yoga an effort. You may find that Hatha Yoga is in fact the missing link to your fitness needs and goals.

Chicago Fitness Training offers private and group Yoga training for your convenience, both in home and in a gym studio setting. Feel free to contact us, and be sure to visit our Yoga Page at the following link: www.chicagofitnesstraining.com/yoga_instructors