Everyone knows about the importance of exercise, but if you exercise regularly
it's easy to fall into a rut. Doing the same mindless routine day after day saps
the joy out of a fitness program, so local gym owners are always looking for new
ways to keep fitness fun.
At Cape Cod Fitness Center in Hyannis, the trainers were all certified in Zumba
in April, and general manager Heather Crosby says that since then she's seen a
lot of new people who wouldn't necessarily join a gym participate.
"Zumba is so much fun, and anybody can do it," she says, adding that people from
their late teens to their 60s have enjoyed the classes. "My mother is
60-something, and I've been trying to get her to exercise for a zillion years
and she's absolutely allergic to it. But once we added this, I finally got her
to the gym to try it. She smiled the whole time and loved it because she loves
to dance."
Zumba is an energetic, hourlong aerobic workout that focuses on easy dance moves
set to Latin music. It's offered at many fitness centers around the Cape. Each
song in the routines has three basic moves so it's easy to learn. Every six
weeks new songs are added to keep things lively.
"Picture an old-school Jane Fonda-type workout with a Latin flair," Crosby says.
"It's like the old days when everybody got up there and did a routine. We kind
of got away from that, but now it's back and it's a lot of fun."
Crosby says Zumba burns a ton of calories and women in her classes have seen the
loss of inches on their waists and hips as well as general weight loss. Even she
has seen benefits from teaching the classes.
"I'm pretty fit, but I wound up tightening up my waist even more," she says. "I
teach different things, like boot camp and spinning, and they take a toll on
your body. This is just a great way to burn calories and you don't feel beat up
afterward."
Fun is the name of the game at the rock wall at Willy's World Wellness &
Conference Center in North Eastham. The 25-foot-tall rock wall is the only one
on the Cape, and general manager Jodi Smith says that on a rainy summer day it
is booked from the time the gym opens until it closes.
"It's a great cardio workout," she says. "It really gets your heart rate going,
and it's working your whole body."
Not only does it strengthen your legs, arms and hands, it's also good for your
brain. Smith says figuring out how to maneuver the course makes rock climbing an
absorbing form of fitness that also helps people gain better equilibrium,
because with every move you are shifting your center of balance.
"It actually made me better at snowboarding," certified belayer (rope holder)
Erin Defeo says.
Rock-wall climbers wear a harness that is attached by a rope and then to a
certified belayer, and Willy's has courses that range from beginner to advanced,
with climbers hanging upside-down like spiders. It is especially popular with
kids, and the feeling of accomplishment when they make it to the top and ring
the bell is an incredible confidence booster.
Parents can even become certified belayers themselves at Willy's, making rock
climbing a fun family activity.
"There's a connection between the belayer and the climber because there has to
be a certain level of trust in it," Defeo says. "As a climber you're putting
your trust, your life in that person's hands. Whether it's a stranger or someone
you know, it's just going to build a relationship."
You don't need to be a member of the gym to use the rock wall. Off-season hours
are 2 to 6 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, or you can
call to make an appointment during the week.
At Balance Health & Fitness in North Falmouth, gym owner Greg Lanoue knows
members love new fitness challenges, so he recently added two classes called
Group Kick and Group Active to the lineup.
The "Group" fitness classes are created by the Body Training Systems (BTS)
company, and Lanoue's instructors were certified to teach Group Power two years
ago.
Group Power is mostly for strength and body sculpting. It is an hourlong
choreographed barbell program set to contemporary music that strengthens all the
major muscle groups.
"Group Kick is a high-energy aerobics class," Lanoue says. "It's a full hour of
aerobics with karate-based moves, Muay Thai (a Thai martial art) and boxing
moves. It's all set to current music, so all the punches and kicks are timed to
music so it's a lot of fun and high energy."
While Group Kick is strenuous and might be something an exercise novice would
need to work toward, Group Active is the perfect starting point.
Group Active is a class that incorporates three elements. The first 20 minutes
are spent doing step aerobics for a cardio workout; the middle section is body
sculpting with dumbbells; and the third portion works on balance and flexibility
with Pilates or tai chi moves.
"The Group Active is a great class for all levels but particularly for
beginners, because you're not doing a full hour of one thing," Lanoue says.
"You're only doing about 20 minutes of each. But the more experienced people can
always get more by how many risers they have in their steps or how much weight
they're lifting so they can get a great workout, too. It really suits a whole
expanse of people."
The classes are all choreographed and set to music and every quarter, BTS
launches a new program so it never gets stale.
For a different twist on fitness, how about trying out a pole?
Stacy Hamilton, owner of Core Motion Pole Fitness in Hyannis, says that even
though a lot of women come to her classes for the fun of it, pole fitness is
also a phenomenal workout, burning more than 400 calories an hour. When Hamilton
started doing it she lost two inches off her waist almost immediately, with no
changes to her diet at all.
"It incorporates a calisthenic workout, which is working off your own body
weight, and then it's aerobic because we do a lot of dance techniques, and once
you learn different movements I teach transitions into the movements, which
helps with sex appeal," Hamilton says.
Pole Fitness offers a vertical dance class for all fitness levels. The class
starts with a group warm-up, and then members of the class works on individual
moves while Hamilton and her business partner Heather Thistle go around the
studio offering one-on-one instruction.
"Anybody can do it," Hamilton says. "When you use the pole you are basically
distributing your own body weight, so anybody at any fitness level can climb a
pole," she says. Beginners use their leg strength to hold themselves up and as
they progress and build up upper body strength they use their arms to put
themselves in the different positions.
Each move is a "pole-gression" from the previous one, and once all the different
moves are mastered, it is even possible to walk on the ceiling. The best thing
about pole fitness is the creativity it allows women as they develop their own
style.
"It's kind of an unconventional means of getting in shape," Hamilton
acknowledges, "but I think as Americans, we are always looking for that next fun
thing instead of running consecutively on a treadmill for a half hour. People
want variety."
