YOGA: My name is Alan Haines and I have been a Kripalu certified Yoga instructor since August of 2006. I came to the practice of yoga in the fall of 2000 to heal an injury. Along with my Kripalu certification I have also completed the David Swenson Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training in January of 2003. I have also attended Ashtanga workshops with the following internationally acclaimed yoga teachers David Williams, David Swenson, Tim Miller, Manju Jois and Nancy Gilgoff. I recently completed the Yoga Ed K-8 Instructor workshop in July 2008 at the Kripalu Yoga Center. I will be teaching your children a combination of Ashtanga and Kripalu yoga concentrating on the union of breath and movement. Kripalu teaches one how to listen to the wisdom of the body and has been described as meditation in motion. Ashtanga is a more vigorous practice and the posture flow was specifically put together with teenagers in mind. It’s a continuous flow that helps build muscle awareness and strength and helps with focus and balance. In the Kripalu classes we will start with a centering, concentrating and lengthening the breath. The benefits of which allow each student to control and have better understanding of their own breath’s flow. An even controlled breath can help calm them before an event while a lengthened breath allows more oxygen into the body. In Ashtanga we start of with a series of postures called sun salutations that warm up and at the same time stretch out basically all the muscles of the body. Last year some of the team members performed sun salutations before several of their competitions. One of the benefits to training that I think Ashtanga helps with is its sameness. As a result the student stops saying what am I doing now to automatically moving into the next posture without a conscious thought of what’s next. It creates a rhythm and a continuous flow that is much like swimming, leaving the mind clear without distractions concentrating only on the task at hand. While the standing postures help with leg strength and balance the seated postures work with the core and in some cases upper body flexibility. All the postures help with increased overall muscle development without creating the bulkiness and tightness that can sometimes occur with basic weight training. Should you have any questions at all you can contact me through e-mail at bigguyyoga @ yahoo.com.

FITLINXX: Fitlinxx is a revolutionary, multi-functional training partner that gives members a superior workout experience unlike any offered at any other area facility. Each piece of our Cybex selectorized resistance equipment (23 in all) has a Fitlinxx training partner attached to it that monitors your workout! The training partner is a LCD screen which recognizes you by a four digit code. The training partner will remind you of your seat settings, your weight settings, sets and repetitions. It will count your reps, assist you range of motion, monitor your positive and negative phases and record everything for you. Your entire workout history will then be available to you online! You can track your own progress or you can compare yourself to people all over the world from other facilities that have Fitnlinxx training partners. Additionally, we have 13 pieces of Cardio equipment hooked into Fitlinxx, plus a few weight partner and aerobic partner. That way, you can enter other aspects of your workout either in the gym or from home. When you are a Fitlinxx user, your workouts are also monitored by our fitness staff. If your program needs to be revised, a member of the staff will automatically contact you via email to set up an appointment. These are just some of the many features that Fitlinxx can offer.

PLYOMETRIC TRAINING Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in a specific sport. Plyometric movements, in which a muscle is loaded and then contracted in rapid sequence, uses the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and surrounding tissues to perform better, depending on the desired training goal. Plyometric training involves practicing plyometric movements to toughen tissues and train nerve cells to stimulate a specific pattern of muscle contraction so the muscle generates as strong a contraction as possible in the shortest amount of time. A plyometric contraction involves first a rapid muscle lengthening movement, followed by a short resting phase, then an explosive muscle shortening movement, which enables the myotatic-reflex, which is the automatic contraction of muscle when their stretch nerve receptors are stimulated. Plyometric exercises use explosive movements to develop muscular power, the ability to generate a large amount of force quickly. Plyometric training acts on the nerves, muscles, and tendons to increase an athlete’s power output without necessarily increasing their maximum strength. Also, by strengthening tissue around the muscle, plyometric training plays a huge role in INJURY PREVENTION.