Circuit Training Marathon 2012

Sunday 11th March 2012, 10:00am – 14:00pm

This year we’re raising money for the Stroke Association.

What made us choose the Stroke Association?

Last year a good friend of ours suffered a stroke. It was totally unexpected, he was fit and healthy and had no reason to suspect he was at risk.

Luckily enough someone realised what was happening to him (she had seen the adverts about recognising a stroke) and she called an ambulance.

More luck came his way at the hospital where the doctor that attended him felt he was fit enough to use a new treatment on him. Within a few hours he began to recover.

Without that advert and without the treatment things could easily have taken a very different turn…

We’re grateful that luck was on his side, he’s alive and well without any serious after effects, and he’s back at circuits and keeping as fit and healthy as ever!

It’s an amazing personal story and we felt we should do our bit to support the charity that helped make it happen.

About the Event

We’re holding the event at North Bromsgrove High School in the Main Sports Hall, follow the link to find a map and a full address.

The event is made up of three back-to-back circuit training classes starting at 10:15am, 11:30am and 12:45pm. Attend as many classes as you can stand!

One class is £5, two classes £8 and all three classes £10.

The school and the facilities management company have allowed us to use the hall for FREE so all the money raised on the day will go directly to The Stroke Association.

We’re aiming to make at least £300 so we’ll need plenty of people to hit our target. Please bring family and friends and introduce them to circuit training too, we promise we’ll be gentle with them!

We’re looking forward to a great day. Please support us in any way you can. We’ll look forward to seeing you there!

Chris & Sharron

The clocks have gone back and the dark nights and mornings have arrived, yuck… there must be something we can do to improve our mood and chase the winter blues away?

Of course there is! Our regular circuit trainers know that an hour of exercise is just the thing to raise your energy and make you feel great!

If you need a bit of extra help to stay motivated then read Sharron’s article on How To Stay Motivated To Exercise and get some great tips to keep you going despite the winter weather!

I recently had a conversation with a friend who I was trying to recruit (gently) to our Boxercise classes and was rather stunned when she said “I don’t want to exercise, I just want to lose weight and building muscle will make me heavy”, I was speechless.

Sharron (as I’m sure you can imagine) was anything but speechless and you can read her rant in this article Building Muscle Will Help You Lose Weight…. enjoy!

The Last Word

We hope you’re enjoying your regular circuit training sessions, we certainly do! If we haven’t seen you for a while then maybe it’s time to get a few sessions in before Christmas? See you at circuits, Thursday nights at 7:00pm, North Bromsgrove School.

Best Regards,
Chris + Sharron,
Bromsgrove Fitness Classes

It’s an unfortunate statistic, but health-conscious individuals like us who exercise regularly, are very likely to suffer some form of injury at some point of our health regime.

Exercise injuries can be minor or severe depending on the range of activities you engage in. Sprains, tears, inflammation and fractures often occur due to carelessness, over-training or accidents.

If you do injure yourself we obviously recommend that you see your GP as soon as possible but you can also click the link and read this article on common exercise injuries you might encounter. We would love to hear what you think and about the injuries you’ve experienced, so remember to leave a comment at the end of the article.

What the NHS has to say about sports injuries.

It’s great that the NHS recognise the value of exercise in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but they also realise that it can occasionally result in a sports injury, the NHS choices website has a comprehensive list of sports related complaints!

Summer Circuits

We’re glad to be back at our normal venue at North Bromsgrove High School, we’ve done our best to make sure that when the main hall isn’t available in future we will be able to use the gym as an alternative!

Is it Hot in Here?

Circuit Training is a physically demanding exercise regime and when the weather is warm you will experience rapid dehydration during the class. Make sure you come prepared with plenty of water to drink and a towel to catch the sweat!

The Last Word

Please click here to read Sharron’s article and leave a comment, we like to hear your thoughts on common exercise injuries!

Best Regards
Chris + Sharron
Bromsgrove Fitness Classes

For many of us our image of strength and fitness includes a well toned six-pack, and we have learnt that the way to achieve a six-pack is with loads of sit ups. Sadly, most of us soon find this is excruciatingly boring, and that it doesn’t work either!

Sit ups specifically target the Rectus Abdominis our front abdominal muscles, which for most of us mortals are hidden under a (thin!) layer of body fat, so our longed for six-pack remains unseen anyway. Worse still, sit ups performed incorrectly, can cause protrusion of the abdominal muscles and create a pot belly!

The answer lies in what we focus on, we need to replace our six-pack fixation! Experienced physical trainers know that it makes more sense to take a holistic view and focus on developing strong core abominal muscles…. Click this link to read Sharron’s article "Why sit ups don’t work and what to do instead" and please leave a comment!

More about core abdominals

Here’s a link to short video by Martin Haley our Kettlebell Trainer in which he also talks about alternative exercises to sit ups, listen carefully at 2m18s!! You will recognise Martin’s "Mountain Climbers" as our Split Thrusts.

What Do You Think?

We know that new exercises and small changes to routine never go unnoticed because circuit trainers are an observant lot! We’d like to hear your comments, click the link to tell us what you think.

Back to Normal!

From Thursday 30th June, circuit training returns to our usual venue at North Bromsgrove High School. Thanks to everyone who turned up to the classes at Catshill Middle School, space was a real challenge especially when the weather was poor, but I we succeeded despite the limitations!

Text Messages…

You might have received the occasional text from us? We have discovered that it’s a really effective way to remind you about circuits and highlight any changes to the usual program. If you’re not getting reminders texts and would like to please click reply and send us your mobile phone number.

The Last Word

Please read Sharron’s article and leave a comment, we like to hear your thoughts on sit ups! See you next Thursday back at North Bromsgrove!

Best Regards
Chris + Sharron
Bromsgrove Fitness Classes

A Letter of Thanks from Help for Heroes

A letter of thanks from the Help for Heroes organisation in recognition of the fundraising effort made by circuit trainers who took part in the Marathon Circuit Training event.

It turned out to be a really excellent event. Of the three back-to-back 1 hour classes the first class was attended by over 40 people. It was great to see so many people from so many different places, turn up and give it a go. There’s no doubt that everyone got a good workout especially those hardy souls who took on all three classes.

We’re proud to support Help for Heroes and looking forward to further fundraising for them in the future!

Circuit Training Marathon Event

It’s been a very long time but at last we’ve organised another Circuit Training Marathon Event!

We’re raising funds in support of the Help for Heroes organisation which raises money to support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded in the service of their country.

We’re holding the event at Parkside Middle School in the Assembly Hall, follow the link to find a map and a full address.

The event is made up of three back-to-back circuit training classes starting at 11:00am, 12:00pm and 1:00pm

Attend as many classes as you can stand! One class is £5, two classes £8 and all three classes £10.

All the profit from the event will go directly to Help for Heroes, we’re aiming to make at least £200 so we’ll need plenty of people to hit our target. Please bring family and friends and introduce them to circuit training too, we promise we’ll be gentle with them!

We’re negotiating with the school and the facilities management company to try and get the hall for free, if we’re successful then ALL of the revenue for the day can go directly to the charity.

We’re looking forward to a great day. Please support us in any way you can. We’ll look forward to seeing you there!

Chris & Sharron