Archive for December 2021
Fight & Flow: A Yoga and Kickboxing Workout That Benefits Everyone
Are you looking for a full-body workout that builds strength and flexibility? No matter your personal fitness goal, whether it’s to lose weight, build lean muscle, increase your flexibility, improve your mobility, get healthier or even just “start exercising,” there’s one class that can help you knock a lot of those off your list: Fight & Flow at X3 Sports, which meshes elements of yoga and kickboxing.
Fight & Flow combines bodyweight calisthenics with basic martial arts, marrying some of our favorite sequences from yoga and kickboxing. By integrating movements from Mixed Martial Arts and yoga poses, you’ll learn tools that help you manage stress, improve your mood, increase flexibility, boost endurance and get stronger.
Our Fight & Flow class incorporates the anaerobic and aerobic intensity of kickboxing but with the breath and deep stretching of yoga. It provides a variety of health benefits, such as bringing your attention to your breathing. Did you know that mindfulness and breathing can slow down your breath and your mind, helping to relieve stress and stabilize your blood pressure?
Imagine a fitness class that intentionally keeps your mind from wandering, your state calm, and your attention focused, all while you’re leaping toward your workout goals and discovering new tools to better navigate the ups and downs of life. This is Fight & Flow.
WORKOUT ROUTINE FOR ANY FITNESS LEVEL
Whether you’re a beginner who’s just getting into fitness or a seasoned athlete looking to diversify your workout, this combination of yoga and kickboxing is for you.
Fight & Flow has something for everyone. For beginners, finding a new workout routine can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps you want a cardio workout or to build lean muscle. Or maybe you really want to stretch and focus on mindfulness. Since our Fight & Flow class incorporates both yoga and kickboxing fundamentals, you’ll be able to dip into both words at the same time.
If you’re just setting out on your fitness journey, you will be able to explore the intensity of exercise, while maintaining ample time for ease through stretching and breathing. You’ll learn new yoga and kickboxing techniques with Fight & Flow, and even discover what kind of exercises you enjoy, whether it’s the bang of intensity that kickboxing or another kind of martial arts offers, or the ease and flow of yoga and meditation.
If you’re a more seasoned athlete or fitness class regular, Fight & Flow can help you fine-tune your yoga and kickboxing techniques and pay attention to the foundational elements of your fitness, like flexibility and mobility.
FULL BODY WORKOUT AT HOME WITHOUT EQUIPMENT
One of the great things about this unique class is that it’s accessible to anyone and everyone. When you come try our yoga and kickboxing mesh at X3 Sports, we’ll provide everything you need so all you have to do is show up. The only thing you need to bring to your Fight & Flow class is your body and a willingness to learn. The simplicity of this class alone is a great stress reliever if you’ve had a rough day, but it also means that you can incorporate some of what you learn in this intentional practice into your lifestyle outside of the gym.
Check out all our virtual classes at our X3 Sports Virtual Studio.
IMPROVE EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR FITNESS ROUTINE
Fight & Flow weaves together poses, movements, and exercises from yoga and kickboxing that are designed to help you get more flexible while improving cardio and strength. During the 45 minute session, you will focus on mobility to keep you balanced and learn how focusing on your breath can help push through even the hardest challenges of life, whether it be upsetting personal news or a physically demanding activity, such as hiking or taking a new kind of fitness class out of your comfort zone.
By going inward and focusing on your breath while undergoing physical challenges, you’ll gain critical tools to help improve your fitness routine and your life in general.
INTRODUCTION TO NEW CLASSES WHEN GETTING STARTED
Fight & Flow combines exercises and moves from other types of workouts and classes, such as boxing, yoga and kickboxing. In that sense, Fight & Flow serves as a great petri dish of discovery, where you will explore a variety of maneuvers and tools, some that you might really enjoy. As an X3 Sports member, you’ll have access to a wide range of classes with a diverse set of mental and physical health benefits. Before you know it, you may have 2 or 3 other workouts added to your exercise routine and health plan. Or, perhaps you’ll decide that you want to dive into yoga and kickboxing individually.
WARM UP CLASS OR A COOL DOWN ROUTINE
Another great benefit of Fight & Flow is it can serve as an excellent warm-up or cool-down class before or after another class at X3 Sports. It’s so easy to adjust the level of intensity of your Fight & Flow workout, which means that you can treat it as your workout for the day or use it as a way to prepare for or recover from another class.
Fight and flow does not focus on a single muscle group so you can take the class as a standalone full-body workout if you choose to up your own personal intensity. Or, you can relax into the yoga and kickboxing moves and simmer your effort.
Since you control the reins of your workout at Fight & Flow, the calories you can burn in a single session vary widely between 250 and 750 calories. If you want to shoot for the higher range, you can give each move your all with greater intensity and weight. If you want to supplement another workout, you can practice the yoga and kickboxing moves with ease so that you keep your energy output low while still benefiting from stretching and intentional breathing.
MINDFUL BREATHING AND MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS
As you begin to explore Fight and Flow, you’ll find that we use guided imagery through a combination of elements of Tai Chi and other breathing exercises. As you become more accustomed to the class, you will be able to focus on your breathing, meticulously inhaling and exhaling to effectively perform each yoga and kickboxing technique.
Mental Health is such an important aspect of our daily life that it is vital we try to remember life is all about balance.
X3 SPORTS FULL BODY FITNESS CENTER
In addition to Fight & Flow, we offer a variety of other full body workout classes designed for people at all fitness levels. Dive into our website to check out our full lineup of class offerings. If you’re still not sure where to start, consider working with one of our personal trainers. All of our members receive a free body assessment that can determine your current fitness level so that you can set a baseline from which you can achieve your personal goals. A trainer will work with you based on your current fitness levels to develop a custom training plan. To learn more about the benefits of personal training, read our tips for hiring a personal trainer.
Follow the Instagrams of our Fight & Flow class and of instructor Matt Thomas to learn more about all the health benefits of this unique yoga and kickboxing class. Take your first class for free at any of our five locations to learn if Fight & Flow and the vibrant fitness community at X3 Sports are right for you!
5 Easy Steps to Get Started at the Gym
Whether you’re looking to start exercising after an extended hiatus or begin for the very first time, it can be difficult to get started at the gym. Yet, exercise has so many scientifically proven physical and mental benefits that can really enhance your life.
One great way to get on track toward reaching your health and wellness goals is to assess your current fitness level and set realistic and reach goals. By getting real with yourself about where you are and where you would like to go, you’ll light up a path that makes it easier to get started at the gym.
In this article, we offer five easy steps that can kickstart your fitness journey and help you keep up with it long term. Are you ready to start looking and feeling amazing? Do you want to boost your confidence and improve your life overall? Let’s get started!
1. Assess Your Personal Fitness Level
To get started at the gym, begin by assessing your current fitness level. You will want to break this down into four key areas of focus: cardio, strength, flexibility and body composition. We’ll go into a little more detail about each to help you understand why this process is so important.
Cardio
You can assess your cardio by recording your pulse immediately before and after you walk or run a mile. These are your baseline cardio numbers. You can also gauge your cardio by doing another aerobic activity for a set amount of time, such as jumping jacks or jogging in place for 60 seconds, and recording your pulse immediately before and after you do the activity. This will help you understand where your current heart rate is during cardio so that you can see where you need to improve based on your target heart rate.
A trick to find your target heart rate is to subtract your age from 220. Generally speaking, the lower your heart rate is at resting the more efficiently your heart is working. If you find that your resting heart rate is not optimal and you’re way off your target heart rate, you’ll have motivation to improve your cardiovascular health.
Strength
Calisthenic exercises, such as pushups, use your own body weight and gravity to build muscle. These are the easiest way to assess your strength because they only require one piece of equipment: you.
Pushups (standard or modified), situps, squats, and lunges (alternating, single leg) are a great combo because they can help you determine the strength of your upper, middle, and lower body. To complete your strength assessment, simply do as many of each exercise as you can at one time before failure. When you’re done, write those numbers down so you have a foundation to build upon. If you can only do two pushups, not to worry! That’s a great motivator to get started at the gym. After a consistent exercise regimen, you’ll look back at those numbers and feel proud of the progress you’ve made.
Flexibility
To assess your flexibility, first select one or two standard stretching exercises, such as bending over to touch your toes from either a seated or standing position. Write down in detail how far you were able to comfortably reach your arms, lean forward, extend your body and stretch your limbs. This will show you which of your muscles are tight and serve as your baseline flexibility record.
Body Composition
Notice we didn’t just say body “weight.” That’s because what your scale weight says is only one slice of a much bigger, more informative picture. Sure, feeling overweight can be a motivator alone to get started at the gym. But your body is composed of fat, bone, and muscle, the latter two of which are even heavier than fat. Therefore, percentages of each are much more telling when it comes to determining your current fitness level.
Unfortunately, assessing your body composition can be challenging because standard tests, like the Body Mass Index (BMI), can be misleading. The best way to establish a general baseline is to record your body weight and then use a measuring tape to track the size of specific areas of your body, such as your waist, chest and thighs (as though you’re getting fitted for an outfit at the tailor). With these measurements of weight and composition, you’ll have a solid base of understanding of where you currently are so that you can more accurately track your progress when you get started at the gym.
2. Set Your Long-Term Fitness Goals
Fitness goals are one of the biggest tools to help you get started at the gym. However, it’s important that you make them specific and measurable. Instead of generically jotting down “weight loss,” for example, detail the amount you’d like to lose. Instead of “improve my cardio,” go with “run a 10k with my family.” In addition to providing you with a specific target, you’ll have a better understanding of when you’ve reached a goal, which helps to release feel-good chemicals in your brain and gets you excited about moving on to your next fitness goal.
Be sure to set goals that will inspire, not overwhelm, you. For example, if you’ve never been a runner, but your goal is to complete a marathon, start by aiming for small goals (like running a 5k) that will get you there. To get started at the gym, it’s important to have reachable milestones.
3. Lean on Tools at the Gym to Stay Motivated
When looking to get started at the gym and form a consistent practice, lean heavily on all the tools available to you at the gym. These tools can include personal trainers, who can provide you with targeted exercises based on your specific fitness goals and hold you accountable, to cardio equipment and group classes. It’s always helpful to incorporate yourself within the gym community so you feel motivated and inspired.
For many, becoming part of a fitness community, like X3 Sports, is a great way to stay motivated. Experiment to see if you like exercising alone, with a friend, in a small group or larger class. Oftentimes, you’ll find the energy that you receive from your interactions in a group or one-on-one with a trainer will give you the support you need to keep your fitness journey on track.
While not gym-provided, fitness apps and activity monitoring devices can vastly aid in your process. These not only log your activity, but also display and record stats like heart rate, duration and calories burned, so that you can better track your short- and long-term progress based on actual data. It’s much easier to get started at the gym when you are able to see the results in number form.
4. Create a Fitness Plan
The best way to get started at the gym and to hold yourself accountable is to create a fitness plan, which is a roadmap that helps you set and achieve goals along your fitness journey. When creating this plan, it’s important to be both thoughtful and thorough, realistic and goals-oriented, if you want to fast track achieving your fitness goals.
Write down the specific types of exercise that you want to include in your plan, whether it’s hiking, jogging, biking, taking group glasses or lifting weights. Maybe you’re interested in learning a new sport, like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, muay thai, boxing, kickboxing, or mixed martial arts (MMA). Get creative so you have a variety of activities to choose from. This will help you stay motivated, interested, and engaged.
Once you know what workouts you want to do, it’s time to make a training schedule. Take an objective look at your schedule and determine where they fit into your weekly routine. If you’re particularly busy, you may need to do some rearranging to create space for exercise. If this feels overwhelming, start small. Remember, the most effective way to get started at the gym is to create reachable goals that you can hit and then keep hitting – baby steps style – until you’re finally summiting the mountain.
To begin, it’s helpful to carve out dedicated time each day for even just a 10- to 15-minute workout. For days when you can’t get out and about, consider doing an online class at home, such as those offered through X3 Sport’s Virtual Studio.
Remember, the important thing is to just get started. Once you build some momentum and get to know your “exercising” self better, you’ll be able to continue to make adjustments until exercise becomes part of your everyday life.
5. Track Your Fitness Goals and Progress
About six weeks after you set your fitness plan in motion, repeat the assessment you did in step one. Compare your new results to your initial ones. Then, based on what you see, make any adjustments you need.
Continue to check in like this every few months. And, as you do, you may want or need to repeat steps 2 through 4. Remember, your fitness plan will evolve as you do, in terms of the goals you have, the workouts you enjoy, and the milestones you achieve.
Now if you’ve read all of this and thought, “This is great but is there an even easier way to get started?” The answer is yes. Working with certified personal trainers is one of the easiest ways to establish, begin, and maintain a fitness plan.
Not only are they there to help you through every step, their expert knowledge of health and fitness is hugely beneficial.
Dive Into a Fitness Routine at X3 Sports
Are you ready to get started at the gym and begin working toward the body of your dreams? At X3 Sports, we specialize in helping people at every fitness level develop personalized training programs to help them stay focused, motivated and committed. With five convenient locations in Atlanta, Marietta and Athens, as well as an assortment of class times and gym hours, you’ll have every reason to get started on the path toward a newer, more confident, and healthy you.
Book your first class with X3 Sports for free today to see if a membership is right for you!