Swimming is not only a popular sport but a great way to stay active, healthy and have fun! It’s a healthy, low-impact activity that’s beneficial for all ages. An hour of swimming can be just as helpful as running and easier on the bones and joints.
Swimming is an exercise that activates the whole body! As you move through the water, you’re able to build endurance, muscle strength, and cardiovascular resistance- without stressing the body. This is a great all-around workout also to maintain a healthy weight, heart, and lungs. With almost all of your muscles being activated during swimming, this workout is beneficial for everyone.
By using different types of strokes during your swimming workout, you can focus on other muscle groups. Some basic strokes you can use include:
However, no matter what stroke you choose, the water resistance will still push your body for a full-body workout.
Going for a swim has tremendous physical benefits, but it also has mental and preventative benefits. Scheduling in a few laps can be a great way to unwind and is a great way to find peace and alleviate stress. The resistance against the water trains the body to improve coordination, balance, posture, and flexibility. It’s also a type of exercise that’s low impact, meaning no hard pressure on joints, which can provide great intense impact therapy for injuries. Finally, swimming is accessible in many places! This exercise is a great way to cool down on a hot day, from swimming pools to beaches.
Swimming is an exercise that can be safe for everyone. People who have arthritis, asthma, or other physical injuries can benefit and improve their health. In addition, swimming is a great aerobic workout for women who are pregnant and children. Remember to talk to your doctor before starting any new exercise programs with your related condition or are pregnant.
Try your next swimming workout at Fit! All of our locations have premium amenities and water access for you to practice your swimming strokes. With our Little Italy and East Village locations, you can experience an elevated pool with cabanas for lounging in aftward. Fit Solana Beach has beach access for members to share ocean swimming. In addition, Fit Carmel Mountain and Mission Beach include an Olympic-sized swimming pool for swimming exercises, swimming lessons, and pool parties for kids!
Swimming is easy to incorporate into your workout routine at Fit. Sign up for your membership here to experience the benefits of swimmings!
There’s a unique relaxing element to sitting in a sauna to unwind from the day or a workout! A sauna is a heated room between 158 and 212 degrees. This heated room is a great way to release toxins and a type of therapy that has been used for centuries. With over a million saunas in the United States alone, people gravitate towards this therapy for relaxation, cardiovascular health, and overall wellness for many reasons!
Traditionally, people use saunas to unwind, reflect and promote relaxation. The way your body relaxes in the sauna is due to increased heart rate, making the blood vessels dilate, ultimately increasing blood flow to the skin—improving skin circulation overall.
While experiencing the increased heat, your body’s response is to– sweat! Within this, the sympathetic nervous system becomes more active to regulate body temperature. This experience can make you less perceptive to pain and more alert. In addition, the heat physically relaxes the muscles, which creates an elation of relaxation after a long day or intense training session.
Relaxation is one of the most popular benefits of using a sauna. When you relax your body physically, a relaxed mindset will soon follow. A mental relaxation tip could be to try practicing meditation or intentional breathing exercises.
Pain relief is another benefit to why people incorporate saunas into their daily routine. When entering the sauna, pain relief occurs when your blood vessels relax and dilate in a sauna, blood flow increases. This therapeutic process help alleviates tension in the joints and relieves sore muscles. In addition, the blood flow can help ease the pain with arthritis and chronic pain.
Although long-term weight loss stems from burning more calories and increasing exercise– many people find that saunas help with weight loss. Losing weight directly in the sauna is more due to water weight; however, the heat in the sauna boosts metabolism, and essentials burn more calories than sitting stationary at room temperature.
Spending time in the sauna can have skin-clearing benefits. The heat from the room makes skin sweat and opens pores. The water in the air can then help bacteria in the skin wash away. If your skin is sensitive due to hormones or medications, saunas might not be suitable for you.
Having high blood pressure creates strain on the heart and can increase heart attack or stroke. Often, medical professionals will prescribe patients who have high blood pressure to use saunas to improve the function and mobility of blood vessels. However, it’s always important to talk to your doctor for treatments with your medical treatments.
At Fit, we are leading the way for an all-encompassing gym experience for over 13 years. Our gyms include premium amenities such as saunas and steams steam rooms! You can experience the excellent benefits of a sauna at the convenience of your Fit location.
For more information about Fit Athletic and memberships visit our website.
Breathe in, breathe out. Meditation and breathwork are simple practices with great benefits. Both are great to practice mindfulness, as well as promote long-term wellness. Here are the best ways to incorporate these practices into your lifestyle to relay mindfulness every day.
Meditation and breathwork work seamlessly together. Mediation is a technique used for mindfulness, where breathwork helps by calming the body down physically. Together, you can use these elements to elevate your daily wellness routine.
Mediation is commonly known as a set of techniques to raise awareness and attention. Some people think of mediation by thinking about one object in particular to focus the mind. But meditation is much larger than a singular act; it’s about focusing your thoughts on living in the present moment and remaining grounded. Meditation can be used to make revelations of the heart through the mind.
It’s important to note that meditation has been practiced and valued in cultures worldwide for centuries. Many religions have traditions of using meditative exercises. While this is how mediation started- the technique has grown to many different types of practices.
Many people start to meditate by focusing on breathing as their “anchor” and letting the mind wander to let it clear and feel present ultimately. Meditation is more directed to feeling, healing, and manifesting.
Breathwork is the process of incorporating breathing techniques to change your breathing pattern intentionally. People practice breathwork for many different reasons– from improving your emotional state to lowering the body’s stress. In general, meditation breathwork refers to various breathing techniques, exercises, and programs to focus on the awareness of breathing for a certain amount of time.
There are plenty of different types of breathwork exercises ranging from gentle guided practices to trauma-healing exercises. Many people experience breathwork practices in a yoga class or right before bed to clear their minds.
Practicing meditation can have mental and physical benefits. It can provide peace and balance that boosts your overall wellness. Performing meditation throughout the week can help you manage emotional conditions, translating to physical benefits by being less stressed!
Specifically, the emotional benefits of meditation can include:
Meditation is helpful for physical benefits as well, significantly if you are greatly affected by stress. More research is being performed as we learn more about the benefits of meditation; however, recent studies have shown that meditation can help manage the following:
Ways to Practice Meditation Every DayMeditation is a creative practice, with no “right” way to try it. Don’t let this stop you from incorporating this into your daily lifestyle. What matters is that you make it work for you!
At Fit Athletic, we focus on the wellness of the whole body. Each of our locations encompasses premium amenities to help you achieve your goals physically and mentally. Our Group Fitness yoga classes are available for guided meditations at every location, and our new sound bowl healing class available at the East Village location.
For class times, visit our website and Instagram to stay updated on Fit Athletic news.
Fitness is more than the body– it’s the connection between mind, body, and soul. It’s essential to prioritize our mental health, which is why our ‘Your Brain on Fit’ campaign is set to raise awareness and highlight Mental Health Awareness month. We want to take a step towards prioritizing mental health not only this month but into our lifestyles for the long run.
Fit Athletic Club is not only a luxury fitness club, we aim to inspire healthy and inspired living. As we know, this past year faced many challenges. Our lives were transformed in more ways than we expected and mental health was pushed to the forefront. It’s important to prioritize a healthy mind– studies show it drives monumental factors in life including maintaining good relationships, productivity, being physically healthy, coping with stress, and more.
At Fit Athletic Club, we create an inclusive community that prioritizes inspired living and taking time to address mental health.
From preventive stress management to scheduling workouts that you can look forward to, will instantly help you heal and improve your mental health. Try these simple steps to improve your wellbeing throughout the week:
Developing these simple strategies to improve mental health can result in long-lasting wellness. The goal for these tips and campaign is to create small improvements in our life to find long-term balance through wellness.
A large emphasis within the campaign is the importance of setting long-term goals that apply to you. For example, don’t just set a goal to “prioritize working out”, make it a priority to find movement every day that agrees with your body. Feel intuitive about how you want to eat and work out throughout the day to enjoy your wellness journey, as well as maintaining your hard-earned progress (instead of short-term diets).
Mental and physical health are linked. If one is off balance, the other can’t work as well. When both are in good health, you feel a stronger feeling of who you are that translates to all aspects of life.
At Fit Athletic Club, our goal is to achieve a balance between the two. Our gym and high-end amenities are here to help you keep your physical and mental health in check. Check out our saunas, Group Fitness, Certified Personal Trainers and get involved with our fitness community- we are here to promote your mental health long-term wellbeing!
Let us be perfectly clear on this one – yoga was basically designed for calming stress and anxiety. It’s the single biggest benefit of yoga. Yes, yoga is also beneficial for your posture, yoga can promote muscle relaxation, and there are many yoga styles perfect for improving flexibility.
But, again, yoga’s there to make you feel calm, relaxed, and at ease. So, if you’re wondering if practicing yoga in Mission Beach, San Diego can alleviate some stress and anxiety, the answer is a resounding yes, and here’s why.
Would a simple yes do? Would a hundred yesses do? Or a thousand? OK, we’ll be serious. But really, yoga does calm anxiety. It’s what yoga does best. Have you seen all the ooooms in those stereotyped yoga ads?
Well, in this case, the stereotypes are true – yoga is an excellent method for relieving both stress and anxiety, and you should definitely think about trying it out, especially if everything else you’ve tried has failed.
Trust us, even the experts from the California Department of Public Health would agree with us. First try yoga, and if it fails, which we don’t think will happen, you can move on to other methods. But, let’s now see the ways in which yoga helps you battle anxiety.
Now that you know that yoga can actually calm you, let’s see how it does that exactly.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to separate yoga from stretching. When you observe people practicing yoga for some time, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of stretching involved. And it is because of that fact that stretching is also great for reducing anxiety.
However, even though yoga involves stretching, vice versa is not at all true. There’s no yoga in stretching, or, if there is, there’s very little of it. That doesn’t mean that stretching is in any way not suitable for reducing stress and anxiety.
Stretching is only a different way of doing exactly the same thing, and it’s great for that purpose too. Just try to pay attention to your breathing while stretching, make your stretches as slow as possible, and try to keep them for extended periods of time. This will ensure maximum relaxation through stretching.
We understand, there’s little you can do to calm your anxiety in these trying times. You can’t even visit the Gaslamp Quarter and let your mind relax for an hour or two. Times are tough, no question about it.
Even practicing yoga at a gym in Mission Beach is not something you should think about doing right now. However, at Fit, we think about our clients, so you can give us a ring anytime and we’ll save you a spot as soon as the situation improves. Call us now!
Do you want to learn how you should stretch to improve your flexibility and posture? Are you thinking about implementing yoga into your exercising routine? On the one hand, you know that yoga massively improves posture, and you also know that yoga stretches help relax both body and mind, as well as that yoga is great for calming your anxiety.
But does yoga also improve flexibility? Will attending Mission Beach yoga classes make you as bendy as Mr. Fantastic? It will, trust us. But, we know that, and in order to trust us, you need some information first. So, here it goes.
In order to maximize flexibility gains through stretching, you have to apply certain rules to your daily stretching routine. Here are our top tips for flexibility through stretching you won’t learn about from the San Diego Institute for Public Health:
Not every type of training increases flexibility. In fact, some types of strength training do just the opposite – they make our bodies stiffer. More muscular, certainly, but stiffer nonetheless. And that’s not good.
That is why exercises that promote flexibility are paramount for a well-balanced exercise routine. And yoga is the best remedy for a stiff physique around. Yoga was almost made with flexibility in mind.
Virtually every yoga position is a type of static stretch, and, as we’ve learned, it is these types of stretches that work wonders for the flexibility of our body. So yes, yoga will not only make your body a lot more flexible, it’s probably the best method for doing so.
OK, to be completely honest, there is one type of yoga that is the ultimate yoga style for increasing your flexibility. And we’re going to name it, don’t worry. However, we’re also going to tell you about the best-for-beginners style that will make you more flexible, as well as an advanced one.
Although it is not yet time for you to actually start with yoga classes at a gym, it is always prudent to reserve a spot in advance. And, seeing how Fit is the most sought-after yoga place in Mission Beach, you should think about contacting us as soon as possible.
We give it our all to teach you the fundamentals of yoga, and then guide you until you become a yoga master. So, until you’re able to walk freely and visit SeaWorld San Diego again, contact us and let’s see when you can start practicing yoga. We’re waiting.
Yes, stretching really can help you relax. There’s more to stretching than just preparing you for an exercising session. Did you know that stretching can also build muscle mass, and that stretching regularly can improve your posture?
Yes, stretching can do all that, but let’s first see how stretching can be similar to going to a yoga class in Mission Beach. Let’s see how stretching can help you unwind.
Some people find driving a motorbike through several rings of fire in the style of Evel Knievel massively enjoyable and utterly relaxing, while others get their fill or r-n-r from a hammock ,a cool drink and beautiful scenery. It all depends on just what kind of a person you are.
However, stretching seems to be as relaxing as an activity can be for the majority of people who’ve actually tried stretching in this capacity. The slow, precise movements, the holding of a stretch, the deep inhale and a slow exhale… Admit it, you’re becoming more relaxing just reading this.
And that’s exactly what stretching is like, and why it feels so good and so relaxing to simply stretch. San Diego Institute for Public Health advises stretching prior to any exercising, but they really should expand on that a bit and proscribe stretching as a mandatory relaxation technique.
There’s a saying, albeit not a very well-known one, that states “stretch your body, stretch your mind”. It means that performing slow movements that relax your body will also work wonders for relaxing your mind.
For example, excessive stress can cause your muscles to become stiff and tense. OK, why not try a bit of stretching to relieve some of the tension? So, you stretch, relax your muscles, but hey, what’s this – I’m no longer stressed? How can that be?
That’s the power of stretching – you focus on relaxing your muscles, and you end up relaxing your mind as well as your body. It has to do with you giving your mind a break, focusing on the physical aspects of exercising, unconsciously allowing yourself a mental break.
We would like to apologize to begin with, as to explain just how stretching contributes to muscle and mind relaxation demands that we take a deeper dive into the science behind it all. Yes, there’s science involved, biology, to be more precise.
Again, stress – it not only causes your mind to become a crumpled mess of negative emotions, it also causes your body to feel stiff, tense, and sore. You sit, thinking about how you could improve your current state.
Enter stretching. You see, when you stretch, you stimulate the receptors inside your nervous system, receptors that slow down the secretion of stress hormones. However, that’s not all stretching does. The mental benefits of stretching are threefold:
Understandably, the majority of people eager to practice yoga are looking for one of two things, usually both – to relax their minds and to make their bodies more flexible. Normally, they want to know how long before they achieve full-body flexibility.
Now, we have to be honest – the results do not come right away. Many people become discouraged if they do not notice results after a week of practicing yoga. That’s too short a time period for any results to become noticeable.
It takes a bit longer than that – a couple of months. This can sound like a long time, especially in the fast-paced world we live in, but it’s the truth. You will start noticing considerable improvements after a month, but it takes two months for you to become truly comfortable with yoga.
The good news is this – once you’re off, you’re really off. Three months in and you’ll feel like a true yogi, self-confident, content, and happy to be practising yoga each chance you get. And that’s the true power of yoga – once you start doing it right, you’ll fall in love with it!
When the situation the whole world’s facing passes, there’s only one place you should even consider going to – Fit. We’re a gym that places great importance on yoga classes, which is why we’ve got the best instructors out there. Once the Mission Beach Boardwalk starts bustling with life again, stop by our place and see just how great our yoga is!
If you had no idea that stretching can actually improve your body posture, we don’t blame you. It’s not exactly common knowledge. But, it doesn’t hurt to learn just how beneficial stretching actually is. Stretching can even help calm your mind and soul, similar to attending yoga classes in Mission Beach. But, first, let’s see how stretching helps posture, shall we?
As odd as it may sound, since stretches are nowhere near the first thing to pop into your mind when thinking of improving your body posture, yes, stretching definitely can improve your posture drastically.
Now, even though you may not have heard of stretching being recommended for body posture by the California Department of Public Health, it should be. Doing stretches is undemanding, quick, and you can do it basically anywhere, even when queueing.
In a time when we spend the majority of our days hunched behind a computer, stretching is an amazingly quick and easy method for improving your overall fitness, posture, and balance. But, how does stretching actually accomplish that?
The thing about developing poor posture and, consequently, bad balance, is that it happens gradually, without you even noticing it. Enter stretching. You see, when you hunch, you make your muscles weak.
As you perform stretches, you put those muscles to work, strengthening them, making them do their job again and, as a result, you’ll start to notice your posture improving. Couple that with the added benefit of stretches relieving tension from your back, and you’ll be able to stand and sit up straight again in no time.
And, as your posture improves, you’ll become happier, more alert and confident, and you’ll stop feeling down. And all that due to stretching improving your body posture. And, if you’d want to improve your posture, these are the best stretches to do:
When you take a quick look at a yogi exercising, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? What does yoga remind you of? What is yoga virtually identical to? Might it be stretching? Now that you mention it, yoga does look a lot like stretching.
Obviously, there’s more to yoga than just stretching. If stretching and yoga were one and the same, there would only be the one or the other, not both, right? That being said, the fundamentals of the basic yoga styles do rely a lot on stretching.
And that is precisely why yoga can be extremely beneficial to your posture, especially if you stick to slower, more mellow styles of yoga, such as Hatha or Vinyasa. These styles of yoga work wonders for both your posture and your balance. But wait, there’s more.
Hm, not sure exactly what you mean… Are you thinking of the best yoga styles for stretching, or the best yoga positions that will stretch your body to the max? Nevermind, we’ll cover both. Here’s our list of the best yoga styles and yoga positions for stretching.
Speaking about the best yoga styles for stretching, here are our top 5 picks:
Finally, here’s our list with the top 10 yoga positions that are perfect for stretching your body:
No place is great for yoga in these troubling times. We understand that you might even be too take a stroll to Balboa Park… But, there’s one gym in San Diego famous for its yoga classes, and we can’t wait for them to start again – Fit! We boast the best yoga instructors in the business, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve got once all this blows over. Stay safe, and see you soon!
It should come as no surprise that stretching can make you a lot more flexible than you used to be. While it may be astonishing that stretching can really work your muscles, flexibility stemming from stretches is generally common knowledge.
However, not many people know how this happens and what exactly stretching does to your muscles to increase their flexibility. So, before you head to Mission Beach and join one of the professional boot camp classes, learn a bit more about stretching and flexibility.
Of course flexibility can be improved. We understand your fear, we really do, as it is never comfortable beginning to notice your body starting to get less and less flexible with each passing day. But no need to rush off to California Department of Public Health just yet.
If your body is aching as you make the most normal movements, or if you’re no longer able to bend your body to your desire, as you once could, it really is time to start thinking about ways to improve your flexibility.
Even though your body’s not in a state you’d want it to be, or even a state you remember, it is possible to break this vicious circle and get back on the right track. And the solution might even be simpler than you could have ever thought.
And here it is – stretching. As we’ve said, the solution to your problem, the method to improve your flexibility and get your body feeling right again is easy and demands as little effort from your part as possible. But, mind you, you still need to put in some effort.
So yes, stretching really can massively improve your flexibility. Any physical activity can make you more flexible, but stretching especially so. It has to do with the specific movements you perform during stretching.
Let’s say you’re trying to reach your toes with your hands. The mere motion of doing so will work the muscles in your back, legs, and arms, elongating them, making them stronger, which, in turn, strengthens the area around your joints, making them function better.
This is what passive stretching does. Active stretching is also beneficial to your flexibility. When you warm up, for example, your wrists, you turn them around, which improves their function, getting them to, once again, become accustomed to the movements they once could perform.
We’ve just given you a, let’s call it, physical explanation, and now, we’re going to present you with a neurological explanation as to how and why stretching actually improves your flexibility. Don’t worry though, it sounds a lot more scientific than it needs to be.
The nervous system controls all of your muscles. There are sensors around your body called muscle spindles, and they are the centers that detect a change in the length of your muscles and immediately notify the spinal cord. This will cause your muscles to contract in order to resist the stretch.
However, in time, as you continue stretching, these spindles adapt, they start notifying the spinal cord less frequently, which allows your muscles to remain a bit elongated, allowing you greater flexibility.
However, flexibility also stems from your brain, which controls the pain you might be experiencing with reduced flexibility while doing various movements. Regular stretching can also help reprogram the brain, allowing you to increase your range of motion.
We’re going to give you several pointers as to how much and how often you should stretch. The important thing to note first is that you should not overdo it when it comes to stretching.
And that’s it. Follow this pattern and you’ll soon increase your flexibility.
If you’re looking to prepare for those engaging Mission Beach boot camp classes by learning how to stretch, you’re in luck, because you can do both at the same place – Fit! We are a gym that focuses on its clients, and we do all that we can to help them get fit!
So, if you’re ever strolling down to Mission Bay, thinking how you’d like to get back into shape, remember – Fit’s near, and you have a place where you can start working out and quickly get into shape. At our fitness centers, you can also join stretching sessions and work on your flexibility from 15 to 30 minutes. Fit should always be your first option!
Did you have any idea that stretching can actually help strengthen your muscles, increase your muscle mass, and, if need be, make your muscles mean and lean? Stretching can also massively improve your flexibility, but that’s a story for another time…For now, let’s see how regular stretching before a fitness boot camp class in Mission Beach can dramatically improve the state of your muscles.
They stretch. Come on, this was easy. No need to consult the San Diego Institute for Public Health on this one, right? Although the answer seems rather simple and blatantly obvious, the truth is somewhat different. Yes, muscles stretch, but how does that happen exactly?
Contracted muscles produce a large amount of tension at the place where the muscle connects to a tendon. This is the location of the Golgi tendon organ that sends out a message to the spine to trigger the body’s own defense mechanism and relax and elongate contracted muscles.
However, this leaves muscles weakened for a certain amount of time, which is unfavorable. That is why you should do what you can to elongate and relax your muscles by doing stretches. You will spare them becoming weakened, you will not trigger the body’s defense mechanism, and you will take care of your muscles.
When wanting to gain muscle mass, stretching is probably the absolutely last thing on your mind. Stretching serves only as a preparatory activity before exercising, and muscle relaxing activity after “real” exercising, right?
However, not only can stretching, in itself, increase the mass of your muscles, it can also greatly facilitate your muscle gain when practiced regularly in conjunction with other exercising methods.
This is how it works – muscles are encased in connective tissue known as fascia. This tough tissue is what holds your muscles in place. However, it is also what restricts the unhindered growth of your muscles.
And this is where stretching comes in. Stretching your muscles also means stretching your fascia, providing your muscles more room to grow, thus vastly increasing your muscles’ potential to increase in mass. So yes, stretching is a sure way toward increasing your muscle mass for more reasons than one.
Wanting to get fit and build muscles doesn’t mean you’re going for that coveted “Hulk” look. You’d probably want to increase your muscle mass a bit, while still aiming to keep your muscles lean and long as much as possible?
Well, if you’re exercising towards such a result, stretching should definitely be high on your list of priorities. As you already know, stretching elongates your muscles, preventing them from staying contracted for too long. This is especially true for those post-exercising stretches.
And this is exactly what’s going to help your muscles remain lean and long. Stretching returns your muscles into their previous, elongated state, which is exactly what you want when trying to keep your muscles from becoming all bulky.
So, regularly perform stretches such as hand walks, walking spiderman, scapular wall slides, reverse lunges, etc., and they will help you achieve the look you’re aiming for. Stretching is a lot more than just an activity for warming up and cooling down.
Even if you’re a person who likes going to incredibly interesting fitness boot camp classes in Mission Beach, you’d still do well to stretch before and after. And, if it’s stretching you’re eager for, then Fit is what you’ll be needing.
We’re a fitness establishment that goes all out to please our visitors. We’ll show you how to stretch and work towards the goals you’ve set. You can join our stretching sessions and work on this important fitness aspect for up to 30 minutes. Not even diving in Wreck Alley can replace a good stretch here and there. Make Fit your go-to place for keeping fit!
