Tag Archives: summer

Beach Ready Summer Circuits

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Summer CircuitsFor some, summer conjures up thoughts hot sticky days and lazy warm summer evenings, relaxing times with lots of happiness and laughter. With summer 2011 just around the corner, I’m sure there are lots of you getting excited about planning your beach holiday, purchasing your new summer wardrobe and buying some fabulous new beachwear!

Yet for others, the thought of summer brings on nothing but stress and the whole “showing that little bit of extra flesh” can be quite daunting. I believe the main trigger for this is linked to how we view ourselves, internally and externally. How confident are we with the way we look? But, most importantly, it could just simply be that you just don’t feel “beach ready” and this is where I can help.

Every Saturday morning, throughout the summer months, I’ll be at Caversham Health and Fitness teaching a “Beach Ready Summer Circuits” class. This is a class specifically designed to get your body beach ready. The most important way to achieve this beach ready body is by changing your workout routine, this will prevent that weight loss plateau we all suffer from. Beach Ready Summer Circuits is one hour long and designed to help you reach your goals and target those problem areas. But, I’m a great believer in making my classes entertaining, hard work yet fun, as well as being a support for you to understand your needs and your own personal goals.

Circuit training is a total body workout that involves performing a series of different exercises for a set amount of time. With a mixture of both strength, and cardiovascular exercises, you can realise the benefits from both types of training.

The benefits of circuit training are:

  • Adapted to all fitness levels
  • Total overall body sculpting
  • Faster metabolism – resulting in more calories burned each day
  • Increased muscular strength
  • Increased cardiovascular fitness levels
  • Time efficient
  • Very sociable
  • Brilliant fun with lots of smiles, entertainment and laughter

Adding cardiovascular exercises between strength training, rather than resting, increases lean body mass (less fat = more lean muscle) which in turn creates a higher resting metabolism. This means that more calories are burned each day.

With the quick pace of the class, the constantly changing exercises, and a stress placed on the body, which is totally unique to circuit training, this is like no other training programme.

It is really important to remember that a circuits class can be personalised to your fitness levels. Whether you are a beginner or an athlete, it is adaptable on all levels.

For circuit class times see the CHF studio timetable

I hope to see you in the class soon.

Natalie Dance
CHF Instructor

Keeping the summer feeling: Spray Tanning

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Summer may be slowly fading but at CHF we're still smiling

Where has the sunshine gone! It’s a proven fact that having a natural tan can boost energy levels and make your skin look and feel healthier! But the weather around Reading has taken a serious turn for the worst!

We need to keep those energetic sun-kissed-skin vibes going. So, with this in mind, for one week only we are offering our SiennaX professional tanning for just £15 so everyone gets the chance to feel amazing!

Even celebrities swear by this product: It saves your skin from those nasty UV Rays which can cause damage to otherwise healthy skin and keeps you smiling from the inside – even without Mr Sunshine beaming on us from the heavens!

We’re offering our spary tans for £15 only until 11th September, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Essential facials for the summer

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With the summer holidays now in full swing, it can be difficult if you have children to always feel fresh-faced and full of energy.  So why not take advantage of the opening of CHF Kids, and whilst the kids are enjoying themselves, you can indulge in the perfect pick-me-up treatment in our beauty department.

Essential facials at Club CHF – This refreshing pick me up facial is available here at Club CHF, it offers a cleansing of face neck and shoulders to remove unwanted oils followed by a gentle exfoliation to buff away any dead skin cells before applying a soothing ten minute mask which is removed to reveal a brand new you.

Finishing off with a light moisturising serum, your skin will feel soft, fresh and invigorated.  Using the Collin Paris product range I have found this product range to be one of a limited range that actually works. Collin Paris is a specialist brand offering the best in cosmetology and together with the expertise of our therapists you are guaranteed visible results!

The perfect quick getaway from the kids this summer.

Amy, Beauty Manager

5 Tips to make this your best Summer ever!

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So the skies are clearer, the weather is warmer, and you’re thinking about cracking out your swimsuit, and this isn’t always a pleasant experience, and with the World Cup and Wimbledon it’s often easier to watch other people exercising than taking the plunge yourself.

Don’t forget that up until June 30th you can work towards getting yourself Beach Fit with Caversham Health and Fitness with our special programme -  and at CHF we’re committed to helping you maintain a healthier, more active lifestyle through out the year, and so here we’ve compiled 5 top tips that could reinvigorate your training and the rest of your summer!

5 Tips to make this your best Summer ever!

1.    Use compound movements – that is those that  work several muscle groups at once,  the more muscles you work the more calories you’ll burn. It also means that you can work more in less time – so you still have time to fit in a gym session and get back to watch the World Cup.

Use these big, muscle-building exercises to really torch those calories:
Chest:  Press Ups, Bench Press, Dips
Back:  Deadlifts, High Pulls, Chin Ups ( if you’re not quite ready to face the chin up bar just yet then you could use the Incline Pull instead)
Legs:  Squats, Lunges, Step Ups

2.    Select the right weight – most gym goers programs would be a great deal more beneficial if they selected the right weight. That is one that on the last few repetitions it’s getting progressively harder to maintain that perfect form Frazer, Vee, Mel or Rob demonstrated in your ‘Start to Train’.  If you get to the end of your set number of repetitions and you could have done more than you need to take that weight up again next set.

3.    Up the intensity, lessen the duration – most of us are time poor, leading busy lives and sometimes it can be hard to figure out how you can find that hour to make it to the gym. Here’s the good news – you don’t have to! Only got 40 minutes? Fine. Only got 30? That’s okay. 20 all you can manage. Come on in. 15? Now you’re pushing it! Whatever time you have –use it. But use it effectively. If you’re only doing half of your program, double the intensity. Something is always better than nothing and you’ll always feel better afterwards.

4.    Do things you enjoy – every piece of state of the art kit at Caversham Health and Fitness has the ability to help you achieve what you joined here to accomplish. Some you’ll like, some you won’t.  Just because someone in a fitness magazine lost two stone by running doesn’t mean you have to slave away on the running belt if you it doesn’t motivate you. Your body doesn’t really care how you move – as long as you move. Don’t like working out in the gym? Take part in classes. There is no right or wrong way to get healthy – just the right one for you. Let us help you find it and away you go!

5.    Follow the 80/20 rule – you don’t have to suddenly become hermit once you embark on your healthier lifestyle.  ‘Everything in moderation, including moderation’ somebody said whose name escapes me. For 80% of the time stick to your gym plan, make those healthier food choices, get the amount of sleep you know you need to function properly but 20% of the time let yourself off of the hook now and again to reap the rewards of all your hard work and effort.  That could mean having one day a week when you eat what you want, having that pudding at the restaurant. You’ve earned it. Then back to that 80%, don’t let that one day become a bad week or a bad month. Celebrate!