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The Future Of Fitness: Trends For 2001 |
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The future of fitness is taking a turn - for the better! Better, bigger, faster and more dramatic, that is! Take a walk through any fitness club and youll see a whole new style of fitness classes and programs. |
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Why the change? I believe that people are looking for a more thorough, holistic approach to wellness. Instead of being concerned about just building bigger muscles and getting slimmer waistlines, todays fitness buffs want more. They want to feel good too -- inside and out. They want their exercise to help them with everyday activities such as lifting children or putting away heavy groceries. They want to be able to do their weekend sports with more strength, skill and confidence. |
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In addition, fitness is reaching a greater audience. Seniors, pregnant women, people with injuries or health conditions and those who are overweight are all looking to get fit and make a change. |
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To meet the demands for total well-being for all ages, fitness levels and conditions, were seeing new trends. Some of the activities have been around for a while, but instead of just being in the elite clubs, they are more mainstream - allowing a greater variety of people to participate. |
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Group Athletic Conditioning |
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Cycling |
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Kickboxing |
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Tae Bo |
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Sports conditioning |
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PUMP (group weight lifting) |
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These challenging group activities have an athletic slant that emphasize a combination of strength, balance, endurance, and coordination - all gained in a social atmosphere. |
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Latin |
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Belly dancing |
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African |
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These dance classes have been around for a long time, but they have traditionally been found only in dance studios where the focus was on skill. Today, these classes are offered in fitness clubs with a new twist. They combine aerobic exercise and skill; social connection and rhythm; freedom of movement and inner focus. |
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Beach running |
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Ropes courses |
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Snowshoeing |
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Track workouts |
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Hiking |
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Rock climbing |
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Sport-specific training |
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Not all fitness clubs are confined to the indoor gym anymore. Many are taking their classes outdoors. There are plenty of ways to combine the pleasure of the outdoors with the challenge of exercise. These activities are a great way to train your body while working amidst the elements and soaking in the beauty of nature. If you want to improve your condition for a particular sport such as skiing, this is an excellent approach. |
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Yoga |
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Tai Chi |
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Martial arts |
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Need to slow down? Try a mental discipline that enhances physical strength and inner focus. They refresh the spirit and rejuvenate the body. These classes encourage listening to your body and working at your own pace to reduce stress, increase flexibility, strength and coordination. |
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Yoga for the mind, spinning for the heart, hiking for the spirit and belly dancing for the community -- exercise in 2001 builds the persons whole being. Its not just for fitness anymore! |
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You, Too, Could Live to 100 -- Or at Least 80 |
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Attitude. Centenarians tend to be an optimistic group. They rarely consider their age a limitation. They have dealt well with the stresses in their lives. And they take advantage of new opportunities. |
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Genetics. Most people can live to age 85 if they take good care of themselves. But if most members of your family are living into their 60s and 70s, an alarm bell should go off. Disease prevention and screening, along with good health practices, can help you make up for at least some of the genetic differences between you and centenarians. |
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Exercise. After age 30, we lose about 1/3 pound of muscle every year -- muscle that's replaced by fat. Through exercise, especially resistance training such as weight-lifting, you can regain muscle mass while reducing your risk of heart disease, improving your mental ability, and markedly enhancing your sense of well-being. |
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Investigate new challenges. Keep your mind active with new activities to exercise different parts of your brain. Learn a new language, learn to play an instrument, write your autobiography, volunteer. Such activities develop new connections between different parts of the brain, strengthening it and preventing any deficits from showing up in everyday functioning. |
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Nutrition. Keeping calorie intake under control is critical to slowing the aging process. For most people, simply cutting back on unnecessary calories a little every day -- especially sweets and other carbohydrates -- can make a big difference in weight loss. Perls also recommends taking daily supplements of vitamin E (400-800 units) and selenium (100-200 milligrams), both of which have been shown to be potent antioxidant substances that combat cell damage from so-called free radicals, thus helping to prevent cancer, stroke, and heart disease. |
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Get rid of stress -- and don't smoke. Both cut years from your life and are responsible for a lot of illness. |
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We all can learn to manage stress better, adds Silver. Meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, creative visualization, and exercise are all great stress reducers. |
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For her, the answer is listening to audiobooks during the drive home. "It's always fiction, something that takes me to another world. Then I'm immediately out of the daily problems, the stresses, and off somewhere else. It clears my head of all my worries for a time," she tells WebMD. "What's really important is taking time every day to do something you really, really enjoy, something that empties your mind of all the stuff that's producing stress in your life." |
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Also, building a support network is important. Many centenarians lead "intergenerational lives," she says. Many never married. "When they don't have family around, they surround themselves with lots of other friends of all ages. They have personalities that draw people in. They're gregarious." |
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Silver is heartened by the fact that so many centenarians had excellent thinking ability:. "It very much counters all the myths and common thinking, that by the time you get to be 100, you'll be demented. |
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"It's true that exercising your brain is just as or more important than exercising your body," she says. "Whether you retain your thinking abilities predicts whether you're going to be able to remain independent -- much more than your physical condition. People can often compensate for physical disabilities with various devices and assistance, but if you don't have mental acuity, it's much more difficult." |
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Also, there's such a thing as "centenarian humor," says Silver, which boosts immunity plus keeps things in perspective. "As one 105-year-old said, 'The best thing about living to 105 is, there's no peer pressure. You don't have any peers left.'" |
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