Health TBC

It may be a reflection of the growing trend towards staying fit and healthy that universities and colleges are dedicating resources to building state of the art fitness facilities with a new found vengeance.

Sports and athletics have always been an intrinsic part of college life, but the new age fitness centers taking shape at university campuses can give some of the commercially run hi tech health clubs a serious run for their money.

Before we explore the range of fitness solutions that are at the disposal of university and college students these days, let’s understand why it’s important for them to maintain a fitness schedule.

Importance of Fitness for College Students

College is undoubtedly an exciting time for students, but it can also cause a lot of stress in them. It’s the first time students are staying away from their families, which leaves them vulnerable and lonely.

Besides, they are living under all kinds of pressures – the pressure to make new friends, to fit in, to get good scores, to participate in extra-curricular activities and most of all the pressure that comes from knowing they’re on their own. All this can lead to negative thoughts and anxiety and the best way to deal with that is a good workout at the gym.

Exercise brings not just mental relaxation, but also a whole lot of health benefits to those who care to do it. Exercising regularly can ward off serious ailments that are linked to obesity and physical inactivity including hypertension and heart disease.

Moreover, the years spent in college are formative years and the habits we inculcate during this time are likely to stay with us for life. So, students who manage to squeeze in a fitness regime into their daily routine have a much better chance of continuing the habit later in their lives.

College also means nightlong study sessions, all night partying, sleep deprivation, loads of junk food & alcohol, and an overall unhealthy lifestyle. Exercise helps offset some of the ill-effects of leading such a lifestyle.

Many students find exercising fun, especially if they have access to world class facilities on campus. Gym is also a great place for them to meet people and make new friends. Working out together is believed to foster long-lasting bonds and teamwork in young adults.

On Campus Fitness Centers Take Center Stage

Considering the benefits regular exercising has for college students, it’s hardly a surprise that educational institutions have taken fitness center solutions to a whole new level overcoming budgetary constraints and other challenges.

Obviously, a lot of planning goes into the development of a fitness facility on campus and it forms a part of the overall experience a university or college offers to its students. Some educational fitness solutions that are being seen include

1. Fully Equipped Gymnasiums: And we’re not talking about a bunch of treadmills and a few cross trainers. University gyms these days are glitzy affairs featuring high performance exercise machines including the latest cardiovascular and strength training equipment that provide a complete workout to students.

2. Sports Arenas: Equipment-based exercise is not everybody’s cup of tea. A lot of people find it a passive way of keeping fit. For them, it’s more fun to sweat it out in a game of racquetball than jog on the treadmill for thirty minutes. That’s why universities build gigantic sports arenas complete with multiple courts for sports like basketball, tennis, squash, and racquetball to name a few. Many universities also have a fully laid out jogging track for runners!

3. Swimming Pools: Gone are the days of a single swimming pool that had to accommodate all students. Universities are now investing in multiple swimming pools and it’s become commonplace to find recreational and competitive pools, indoor and outdoor pools, as well as heated and non-heated pools on college campuses.

4. Rooms for Group Exercises: University gyms and recreational facilities have multi-purpose rooms where their students can learn and enjoy group exercise classes. Yoga, Pilates, wrestling, aquatic gymnastics, aerobics, and martial arts are some of the activities that are taught to students in a group. These exercises don’t just aid fitness, but are also a lot of fun for students.

5. Recreational Space: The positioning of a university fitness center has undergone a shift from being just an exercise facility to a complete wellness destination where students can get together, pursue activities they enjoy, relieve some of their stress, develop new interests, and stay fit in the process. So you’ll see many colleges equipping their fitness centers with skating rinks, dance studios, climbing walls, indoor beaches, waterslides, and the likes. Some have gone a step further by adding spa and sauna facilities for students to relax after a grueling workout session.

Clearly, modern day on campus fitness facilities are not just value added service that universities offer their students. They are being projected as one stop station catering to all the fitness, recreational, and sporting needs of students.

The Ultraflex Fitness Exercise system claims to help you get the body you want in the time you’ve got, and the UltraFlex Exercise and Lifestyle Programme offers several amazing different workouts to work every major muscle group for muscle sculpting and toning and increased calorie burn.
This new piece of equipment offers exclusive TPR (target perfect resistance), which means that just by changing the position of the bar or your body you can target any muscle from different angles, and the resistance of the UltraFlex changes as you bend it, causing the muscle to work both on squeezing the bar and also on releasing it. This is a very efficient way of isolating and exercising different muscle groups, which will give excellent toning results in an amazingly short time.
You can perform at least four different workouts in eight straightforward moves with the UltraFlex isolating and targeting in turn your pecs, back and front of arm (always trouble spots in women!), shoulder and back muscles, with ab and leg toning exercises as well.
The amazing UltraFlex exercise system is very simple and very effective, like most of the best inventions. It is shaped like a long cane that bends when you bring the ends towards each other, offering resistance to any muscle you are targeting. It also has wrist loops to ensure safety if you let go one end by mistake, and these can also be used when the UltraFlex is bent to make it portable for storage when travelling.
The UltraFlex comes with an instructional DVD as well as a booklet depicting clearly, with both written instruction and illustrations, how to use the UltraFlex and giving all the usual safety advice including don’t let go of the ends or youre liable to knock your teeth out!
With the UltraFlex, as your muscles become stronger you can change the resistance by varying the position of your grip, so that you can continue to challenge yourself. You won’t need a special room in your house to use the UltraFlex as all you need is standing or sitting space; imagine being able to do your workouts at the same time as watching television!
The user guide also recommends adding a regular cardiovascular programme to your UltraFlex workout regime, such as swimming, walking or cycling, always warming up and cooling down after exercise, and making sure to keep properly hydrated.
The UltraFlex means you will never have to go to the gym and queue for all the different machines ever again, and your workouts wont be nearly as long as you wont have to move from machine to machine, having to waste time changing the weights and pulleys before you can even get started on your reps and sets. The manufacturers claim that using the UltraFlex can burn up to 50% more calories for a women and 70% more calories for a man, making it an ideal addition to your home fitness equipment.
For more information on the Ultraflex System and to read more Ultraflex Fitness Reviews please visit my At Home Exercises Blog.

Designing the layout for commercial fitness equipment in a Health Club can be difficult if you havent done it before. Knowing a few tips beforehand or seeking advice from a commercial fitness equipment dealer is a good idea since theyll have previous experience and knowledge about the optimal layout for the fitness equipment. Here are five tips to keep in mind when setting up a Health Club.
1 Make sure to have enough Cardiovascular Equipment in a convenient location within the facility.
For a lot of gym users the cardiovascular equipment is the most important and the fitness equipment that they will use most often. Make sure you have enough equipment to accommodate multiple users at a time. A medium sized club should have 3-5 Treadmills, 2-3 Elliptical Trainers, 2-3 Exercise Bikes and 1 Stair Climber and/or Rowing Machine. Ensure that there is enough space around the equipment so that users can comfortably get on and off the machine without impeding users on other machines. Cardio Equipment should be facing an open space and not a wall. All the cardio equipment should also be kept in the same general area and preferable with easy access so members dont have to trek though the strength equipment or weight lifting stations to get to it, as that can be pretty intimidating for some members.
2 Space is key for Strength Equipment and Free Weights.
When clients are lifting weights or working on strength machines they need to have enough space to use the full range of motion. If space is limited in your facility than choosing multi-station gyms is a good option. They allow users to work on different muscle groups all on one piece of equipment. For safety reasons there should be a rubber floor in the strength area of the club with enough space in between machines or stations that if a weight is drop it will not hit a user nearby. There should also be an area for free weights and benches, preferably near a wall so the weights can be put away safely. Gym users also like a mirrored wall in the strength area so they can check on their form.
3 Dont forget about stretching.
Its important to remember a cool down, stretching or sit up area for clients as well. This area should be away from the dangers of the strength equipment in a relatively quiet part of the facility. Mats should be provided for floor exercises and a few yoga and Pilates balls are great too. There must be enough floor space for members to lay down and stretch out without hitting walls, equipment or other members.
4 Classes should be held in a separate room
Whether its a yoga class, step class or strength class any instructional classes need their own space and one with a closed door is best. Members who partake in classes dont like being watched by the members who arent taking part. Not only is it a distraction to other users but when classes are held in the open area of the gym, clients in the class will not be working to their full potential usually due to embarrassment. There is also the potential for injury on other pieces of fitness equipment if the class isnt held in its own dedicated closed space.
5 A womens only area is hugely beneficial.
There is a large number of women who will not join or use a Health Club purely because they are intimidated by the idea of working out amongst men. Men lift heavier weights, make more noise and often sweat more than women and this can put people off joining. Having an area dedicated only for women is a huge selling factor to a lot of female club users. The womens only area should have one or two pieces of cardio equipment and a circuit of resistance machines that cover all areas of the body. This area should be convenient to get to from the changing rooms and the women should not have to parade past the weight lifting area to get to it.
Following these simple tips will help create an optimal layout of commercial fitness equipment in a Health Club. Although its not an exact science there are certain things that can be done to make your club more appealing to the users. More knowledge can be gained by speaking with your fitness equipment representative or other gym owners. As they say knowledge is Power.

Kickboxing Classes in National City, CA

Kickboxing in National City, CA, often defined as the martial art and sport of kicking and punching. A strong, dominate activity in which an individual is able to increase their level of health and fitness to great measures. Kickboxing; mainly practiced for self-defense, general fitness, and full-contact, has the ability to give an individuals confidence, strength, and stamina in National City, CA. As an individual steps into a kickboxing class they then have the power to let out all the anger and frustration that has been building up inside of them. While doing this they will be losing weight and getting fit!

Kickboxing routines in San Diego train the entire body and burn large amounts of calories in a short amount of time. Individuals taking the class will develop proper form, technique, and will learn to focus entirely on the work out. Boot camp kickboxing exercises in San Diego are very common in class and involve the use of body weights that will train your bodys balancing mechanisms. These specific routines will get your heart racing and your adrenaline pumping. You will be at a level in which you have all the energy in the world. You will overcome challenges and will fight towards succeeding in National City!

Health and Fitness is a huge role in an individuals life and its very important to be able to really control the health of your body. Going to the gym is just one of the things people tend to choose to do. However, the gym gets boring and repetitive. Kickboxing classes in National City on the other hand has a totally different outlook on working out. It is a high energy, defensive, confident, class in which one has complete control in his or her body. Kickboxing in National City gives you the ability to have fun and lose weight at the same time.

To be able to be in a kickboxing class in National City, CA and know that you are accomplishing many different aspects of life is just amazing. You will be taking care of your health and fitness by losing weight and staying fit. You will automatically be a healthier person while taking such classes in National City. You will never have to go to the boring gym ever again. Lastly, and most importantly you will experience the most talked about class and will realize just why more and more people enroll in kickboxing each and every day! Start feeling good about yourself and LOVE the way you look, join kickboxing classes in National City, CA right away!

In recent years, people have started to focus more on health and overall well being. Diets, slimming products and different new age regimens are now flooding the health and wellness industry that it is now being considered as a multimillion giant, instead of the obscure field that it was a couple of decades back. And because there are new researches each year pointing to the strong relationship between fitness and nutrition, it simply cannot be ignored anymore. Here are some important points that you should remember on why it would be impossible to separate the two.

We judge the value of the food we eat each day for its taste value and nutritional significance. Since there are more people who value the taste factor over the nutrition factor, this has contributed greatly to the gradual rise on the obesity rate. We all know just how important good food is for our general well being and health, so its important for us to take note of the nutritional value of the food we consume. Whether we would like to admit it or not, calorie content, vitamins and minerals are things that we need to look into if we want our bodies to function properly. Knowing which types of food to eat is just one of the important things we need to be aware of if we want to be healthy.

Any health expert will tell you that a body will not be able to function on consuming healthy food alone, but it should also be trained and stimulated with regular physical activity. Fitness pertains to the activities which will be able to regularly work the muscles and get the heart rate pumping. It is as important as nutrition in the sense that it is also a vital part in having a healthy lifestyle, for without it, the body will not be able to know or feel the ultimate strength of its capabilities. And because nutrition can have an effect on your fitness levels, you need to make sure that you eat the right types of food so that you can manage your daily tasks.

Knowing just how fitness and nutrition play equal parts in the well being of the body is key, especially for those people who are in the constant struggle to lose weight. Just by choosing the right types of foods to eat, it will become easier to cut back on the calories that do not turn into energy, that energy that is not being spent by the body through a fitness routine. Nutrition and fitness also play a big part in slowing down or stimulating a persons metabolism rate.

If you want to have a healthy lifestyle and be able to cope with stress and sicknesses more effectively, then always keep in mind why fitness and nutrition is important in our lives. They are both important factors for us to keep and maintain our bodies in the prime of health. Dont allow yourself to have one without the other.