by Lisa Quigley, MFA
TabataRide, offered at various JoyRide® locations and based on Tabata™ workouts, is an indoor cycling class that offers high-intensity interval drills that include 20 seconds of top effort and 10 seconds of recovery, repeated for 4 minutes. This is followed by 1 minute of rest before repeating the cycle. The high-energy, super-athletic classes at this studio are designed to “torch calories and boost endorphins.” In addition, the instructors strive to provide authenticity, joy, humor and positivity.
by Amy Ashmore, PhD
In today’s marketplace, knowing how to offer combined training is a must-have skill. People want it all—cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training—in just 50 minutes.
by Lynne Skilton-Hayes
The high-intensity interval training wave is still cresting, thanks to its positive metabolic effects and its ability to elicit results. HIIT raises the anaerobic threshold and creates excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), or oxygen debt. Simply put, metabolism stays elevated for longer after an intense workout than it does after low-intensity exercise.
by Lisa Quigley
Cardio Sweat Party, at Power Studios in New York City, was designed by Michele Gordon. It combines kickboxing with dance, athletic drills and upbeat music for a 55-minute, high-energy experience. Classes are open to all fitness levels, and each class begins with a dynamic, kickboxing- based warmup before moving into three to four segments of choreography. In between the choreographed moves, rounds of squats, lunges, jacks, burpees, mountain climbers and other athletic drills round out the experience.
by Justin Ochoa
When was the last time you taught a class based solely on using the body as a "machine"? Body–weight exercises are often undervalued and underused. Many people want to advance rapidly, and they end up neglecting important functional (and foundational) movement patterns. Body–Weight Barrage blends popular strength training moves with cutting–edge training methods in a way that challenges clients at any fitness level without using barbells, dumbbells or any other equipment.
by Debra Orringer, MS
Participants rarely think about injuries until after they happen (hopefully not in your class!). But someone who needs rehabilitation may face a delay in meeting fitness goals. Another issue: Our group fitness studios are filling with people of many different ages and abilities.
by Lisa Druxman, MA
Finding Locations
On any given day, you can find an outdoor fitness class operating at your local park. But it wasn’t always this way.
by Cathie Ericson
According to Greg Justice of AYC Health & Fitness in Kansas City, Kansas, “the key to metabolic resistance training—or boot-camp workouts—is that it uses a perfect blend of both anaerobic and aerobic exercises to build muscle and burn fat as efficiently as possible.”
In broad terms, according to Justice, a successful boot-camp instructor can implement four basic types of interval/circuit training methods:
by Cathie Ericson
Why do people come to your boot-camp classes instead of booting up their Blu- rayTM disks? There are a lot of reasons: Variety, camaraderie, encouragement and motivating music are all essential elements of a perfect experience. There’s nothing worse than a bummer boot camp, and you work hard to keep participants motivated and on track to reach their fitness goals.
by Jessica L Cline
Over the past few years, boot camps and outdoor exercise classes have been gaining popularity. According to the “Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2013,” published in ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal (2012; 16 [6], 8–17), boot camps ranked number 16 in popularity for 2013. Outdoor activities also showed up in the top trends, ranking 13.
