Fitness Spot
Is Personal Training for you?
Everyone has their own fitness goals and most of us want to reach them effectively and safely but as quickly as possible. Working with a highly qualified, certified personal trainer can help. If you have never worked with a trainer before, get that image of a super huge, scary drill sergeant yelling in your face and shaming you into that last sit-up out of your head.
Even though you may have seen that on television, a good trainer shouldn’t scare you into achieving your goals but work with you providing support, education and inspiration to help you improve. A trainer’s expertise will keep you challenged and motivated with customized, progressive workouts. By simply learning correct exercise techniques you can improve your endurance, stamina, muscle strength and tone. Combined with positive tweaks with nutrition and healthy habits and you’ll be on your way.
There’s no long term commitment, purchase as many sessions as you’d like.
Beat stress with meditation
Stress can be sneaky. Sometimes you don’t realize how stressed you are until the feelings of anxiety are overwhelming and too intense to ignore. We now know stress is ideal in balance. Some stress, called “eustress,” can be positive, helping motivate us with goals. Chronic stress, however, can wreak havoc on your hormones, contribute to weight gave and increase susceptibility to illness and disease.
Most of us were never taught how to manage day-to-day stress. In fact, a common expectation is to “walk it off” or “toughen up” as through stress could magically disappear. The good news, however, is that meditation is an effective stress management tool that’s quick, easy and absolutely free!
Meditation is a focusing technique that allows the individual to bring awareness to their thoughts and feelings to achieve mental and physical clarity. It’s slowing down the outside world to bring clam to the inside. John Hopkins University confirmed “that mindful meditation can help ease psychological stresses like anxiety, depression, and pain.”
Meditation can take on many forms or styles. Mindfulness meditation focuses on the present moment and connecting your thoughts, feelings and emotions to release anxiety and bring you peace. You can start your own meditative practice without having to get caught up in a specific technique by using these simple steps:
- Find a quiet space in your home
- Sit with your hands resting comfortably on your thighs
- Breathe deeply for two minutes; eyes closed and focus on breathing in and out deeply
If you mind wanders, it’s common and okay. Avoid criticising yourself. Simply acknowledge it and then return your focus to your breathing.
Once you have meditated for two weeks consistently, start adding one to two minutes to your practice until you’re meditating for 10 minutes. Another option is to use an app. “Clam” and “Headspace” are two popular apps that offer guided meditations to help you get started.
Over time, stress can become a habit that starts to feel normal. Although meditation sounds very simple, it is a powerful tool that can add balance and build resiliency to life’s challenges. It can help to reduce anxiety, decrease the symptoms of stress; heal the heart and the mind.
Remember, there is no right or wrong way to meditate. Find a practice that works best for you and get started. Consistency is the key to developing a successful practice and to seeing results.
Sophie Byfield
Fitness Supervisor, Carmen Corbasson/Clarkson
Certified Fitness Instructor & Personal Trainer
Precision Nutrition L2 Coach
Trainer: Jaime Palacios
With The City of Mississauga since 2017
Credentials
- Honours Fitness & Health Promotion Diploma from Humber College
- Certified Registered Health & Exercise Practitioner in Group Exercise, Resistance Training, and Personal Trainer with Ontario Fitness Council
- Boxing Instructor
Specialty
- Tigger Point Foam Rolling
- Boxing Training
- Lifestyle Management
Throughout his years working with the city, “seeing people gain self-confidence in a training session, fitness class, or outside of a fitness setting, makes the journey worth it,” Jaime says. “Whether it’s picking up a challenging weight on their own or deciding to be in the front of the class, we’re all taking a step forward…and I can’t help but celebrate with them.”
Jaime can be seen training and teaching classes at various community centres such as the Malton Community Centre and Huron Park Community Centre.