Mind-Body-Spirit Articles

Shaka Fitness® in Cleveland puts a new twist on an old favorite with SUP Pool Yoga. While yoga on a standup paddleboard is not a new idea—especially in locations where people have access to ocean or lakes—this offering utilizes an indoor pool. This allows participants to experience the core-strengthening and balance-training benefits of yoga on the water year-round. Even better, the predictability of indoor weather conditions allows the facility to maintain a consistent schedule.

Node Features: Hide Open Image

At several City Surf Fitness locations in Texas and Louisiana, City Surf offers participants the benefits of surfing—even though there aren’t any waves nearby. According to the website, the class is taught on SURFSET® RipSurfer X boards and features “fun surf-inspired movements, utilizing surfer-specific muscle groups.” Classes are open to every fitness level, and instructors provide modifications for more or less intensity.

While not exclusive to men, Yo-Bro YOGA at RIO Pilates & Yoga Studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a high-energy class that allows practitioners to explore their physical limits. Catering to the masculine energies of both men and women, the program offers techniques for strength building and endurance—as well as opportunities for arm balances and inversions. Participants are rewarded for their efforts with craft beer at the end of class.

At multiple locations throughout the country, Equinox offers The Pursuit, an indoor cycling experience that combines video game technology and visuals to create a competitive and interactive ride. There are two class options available— Burn, which aims for maximum calorie expenditure, and Build, suited for cyclists who focus on distance and endurance.

Sport psychology is dubbed the “science of success” because it studies the four mental toughness skills—motivation, confidence, concentration, and emotional and physiological control—that athletes use consistently, in conjunction with training and nutrition, to give them the ultimate performance edge. Whether you are a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, coach or mind-body wellness professional, the information, tools and techniques discussed here will help your clients to enhance their performance and give them the best shot at realizing their true potential.

New research is shedding light on a potential relationship between insomnia and chronic pain. Norwegian Institute of Public Health researchers were motivated to determine whether any association exists between sleep difficulties and higher levels of pain sensi- tivity, since both sleep problems and chronic pain are public health issues. They conducted a study with more than 10,400 adults from a large ongoing Norwegian general-popu- lation health study and found that people with insomnia had a height- ened reaction to pain.

If you’re suffering from chronic pain, you may want to begin a yoga or meditation practice. In addition to increasing the risk of depression and anxiety, chronic pain changes brain anatomy by reducing gray matter and adversely affecting white matter, according to the American Pain Society (APS). As many as 19% of adult Americans suffer from chronic pain. At the APS 2015 annual meeting in Palm Springs, California, M. Catherine Bushnell, PhD, presented research showing that mind-body practices may be helpful to this population.

After working with an older adult (aged 82–92) for 10 years, I was troubled to discover that she had begun having difficulty getting out of the waiting room chair before embarking on our weekly Pilates session. What was I missing? She had faithfully completed Reformer Footwork, Eve’s Lunge and Side Splits, as well as Standing Leg Pumps on the Wunda chair, each week. Why was she continuing to lose leg strength?

When Tanya Colucci, MS, trains clients, she pulls from many different resources to offer the best results possible. Owner of Tanya Colucci Myofascial Release Therapy in Bluffton, South Carolina, Colucci believes in an integrative mind-body approach, which appears to resonate with many people. Case in point: client Aileen Worthington, age 71, who has osteoporosis.