March Newsletter

Debbie Saunders
Workouts


Yay -the sun is starting to shine, a lovely reminder that spring is
just round the corner. I am so excited for this summer, all the new conditioning moves will pay off when the winters clothes are put away and we get our t shirts and summer dresses back out. Keep up the hard work, not long to go and lets have the best bodies we can for this summer. Talking of bodies, we have been commenting in class what it is that keeps you working out, and we all seem to think the same thing, while you start exercise to fit your clothes better, you keep coming to my classes for how it makes you feel. The de-stress and endorphin effect (the happy hormone) works wonders for our state of mind. I have lost track of how many people tell me at the end of class, that they were really tired and grumpy before class, but feel great at the end of class.
I asked some of my class members for any questions they might have about health and fitness, I had some superb questions and the answers to some of these are further down.

Thank you for all our good wishes and cards for our 30th wedding anniversary, I am still in shock about it all really. We had a lovely day in Bath, with four hours at Bath Spa and a meal at Jamie Olivers, the sun shone on us all day.

Class of the month is my superb friday evening Pilates class, who not only are my test class for all my new Pilates ideas and moves, but who were all brave/foolish enough to test run the Aloe Vera juice. I have already given my views on it, many many times, so will not bore you with what it tastes like. I do have some left if anyone else would like to test it out!
Client of the month is Sara Fryer, who ALWAYS does full push ups, and does them very well too, but has never been given a coveted gold star for them, I hope this makes up for that :)

Quick Healthy Tips
1. Eat about an hour before class, as working out on an empty stomach may leave you feeling lightheaded and unable to get the most out of your class
2. Feeling tense, a moments yoga or deep breathing will help you relax and cope with tension
3. Research has shown that eating plenty of fruit and veg, will give us better skin colour and tone.
4. 12 years is the amount by which you can delay the ageing process if you stay aerobically fit during middle age.
The gym club are running the annual Easter Raffle to raise funds for international competitions, speak to me for tickets soon, as the hampers are always superb, and well worth winning, make sure you dont miss your chance to win one.
Soapbox moment
Before starting a class last week, one of you said to me "I am feeling really tense across my shoulders, can we finish with your lovely yoga sequence for neck, shoulders and back" No problem at all.
That is totally why I don’t teach, zumba, bodybalance, bodypump or any of the other franchised fitness classes, why do I want to pay my good money for someone somewhere else to tell me what to teach, and how to teach it to you. I have known most of you years, why on earth would I feel that someone who has never met you, and never will, decided what, how and when you should do it! Rant over :)
On that subject I also love the fact that you are all happy to modify exercises to suit you. There is no one size fits all, and between you and me we can make any number of modifications so that each exercise is perfect for you. After all you have a different body and have had a different day to everyone else in class. This is your workout, no one elses.

From April 1st we will have three offices available to rent on a full or occasional basis. Each office is fully locking and self contained, the upstairs offices have their own kitchen. The building is CCTV monitored and fully alarmed, please contact me 07779 802110 for details or to view

Questions you asked me
• Why do we spend the last part of the class stretching? Several reasons, this is the best time to improve our mobility and flexibility, which means we move better, get less pain and injuries, it means we have great posture, if our hamstrings are overtight this will pull the pelvis out of line and give us back pain, stretching is essential to maintaining a healthy body. at this point it also this relaxes and realigns muscle fibres after a tough workout. It helps the body recover from the effect of the class, and possibly removes chemical by products of a tough workout.
• How long do we have to come to class before it becomes easy? within six weeks you will be finding things easier, but as you get fitter and stronger you will work progressively harder, so will always be challenging yourself.
• My muffin top is a full loaf, help! Well the sad thing is that several things contribute towards this, firstly we cannot out-train a bad diet, so if you put too many toxins in your body regularly you are not helping things. Also stress causes cortisol to rise, meaning we are more likely to store fat and being female means that our hormones store fat around our middles. But ways to help are try to deal with stress with breathing exercises, eat less toxic food, do more cardio work and pilates to improve your core


• Which class burns the most calories and which tones the best? Biggest calorie burner is easily the Tuesday 8pm dance class, we can kill up to 500 in a session, best tone up class is the wed 8pm body tone class, a real blast for hips, waist, belly and thighs. But all the classes will work to burn hundreds of calories and tone the whole body.
• I want a healthy alternative to chocolate. My best advice is not to ban it, that makes the craving worse, its about portion control. Eating slow release energy food, pasta, beans on toast etc and making sure that you dont need the sugar boost will help.
Days off, as it is my birthday on Friday 23rd March, I am teaching in the morning but not the evening session, going to be cooking in my lovely new kitchen,

We still have beautiful handmade cards available for sale by the stereo, Kath has done us some lovely special Mothers day cards,
I am looking forward to seeing you in class, join me on FB and check the website www.debbiesaunders.co.uk

Debsxx