There have been a lot of advances in our understanding of stretching around workouts in the last decade. It is now understood that the best type of stretching before the workout is dynamic stretching where you move a body part through its full range of motion, such as when doing arm circles. Static stretching is best done after the workout. Doing so will increase flexibility, reduce delayed onset muscle soreness and lessen the chance of injury. Here are seven simple post workout stretches to polish off your training session.

The Pilates Reformer is an extremely effective versatile and safe way to exercise. In this article we find out exactly what a Pilates Reformer is and why it deserves to be a part of your workout routine. 

Sleep deprivation is a chronic problem worldwide. A recent study revealed that one in three people in the United States suffer from chronic lack of sleep. And we’re paying for it with a raft of health problems from weight gain to heart disease. In this article, we focus on how your eating habits can help you to get a good night’s sleep.

If you think you need to invest in a gym membership and a lot of time to get an effective full body workout, we’ve got a body blasting equipment free routine that will convince you otherwise. This bodyweight circuit works every muscle in your body while also turbo charging your metabolism for enhanced fat burning.

Getting in your scheduled workout, week in and week out, can be a real challenge. There are times when, no matter how organized and motivated you are, life gets in the way and you simply cannot dedicate the hour plus to your training session that you normally invest. But that doesn’t mean that you have to miss out on training completely. At FIT we make it easy for you to get in an awesome workout when you happen to be time poor with our condensed time frame classes that will have you in and out of the gym in 35 minutes flat. We’ve got four types of studio classes that are designed for people in a hurry. Check them out.

Breathing is something we’ve all been doing since the moment we entered this world. So, you’d think that we’d have learned to do it right. The reality is that, while we are all able to breathe in order to preserve our lives, there are a number of ways to improve our breathing, especially when it comes to making our meditation and mindfulness practice more impactful. Let’s take a look at a half dozen breathing techniques that will help you to focus your mind and your body.

Over the last few years there have been many foods that have been touted as superfoods. Some of them have a dubious claim to that title but one on which there is no doubt is turmeric. In fact, many people believe that it is the most beneficial nutritional supplement that exists. Let’s dig into the benefits of adding turmeric to your diet.

When you’re thinking about what workout to do for the day, how often do you think about focusing on the muscles in your back? Perhaps your workout goes a little something like, biceps, triceps, abs, glutes, quads and if we take a second to think about it, all of these parts of the body connect to our back. Back exercises can improve your posture, enhance your physique and help protect your back from pain and injury and I’m pretty sure we have all experienced back pain to some degree or another, whether it’s been upper pain, lower pain, chronic or mild it’s not a fun thing to have and can last a very long time. So why not put these exercises to the forefront of your mind and make it a back day!

Your legs are the two lower limbs of your body that connect from the hips and includes your glutes, thighs, knees, shins, ankles and feet. They cover at least 50% of our overall body mass, hold our body up right and provide support and a range of movements.From a scientific point of view, it has been proven that making your legs work with heavy loads enhance the production of growth hormone and testosterone in the body.

Group classes can seem a bit daunting, you probably feel that they're full of people already knowing what they’re doing. There’s no beginners or advanced groups to most of these classes, but with easy routines to follow anyone can simply join. 

If you have been experiencing knots to the back of your neck or to your mid back, chances are the pain is coming from your upper traps. The upper traps are attached from the base of the skull and inserts to the thoracic spine. This triangular muscle extends to the width of the shoulder and is responsible for moving and rotating your shoulder blade, stabilising your arm and extending your neck.

Deadlifts are a form of weight training that will help develop strength to your overall body. Focusing on your hamstrings, glutes, lower back and upper back when standing in position but also relying on your core strength to stabilise your body through the lift, meaning your abdominal muscles, upper torso and arms are also getting a workout.

Heading into summer, I’m sure most of us would like to say goodbye to our friend who sometimes makes an unwanted appearance especially when the weather is hot called Mr or Misses Chafing. I have definitely met them one too many times. Sound familiar?Most of the workouts we do incorporate some sort of leg muscle activation, whether it’s in our calves, hamstrings or the glutes but do you ever focus on your inner thighs? This often-underworked part of our legs is just as important as every other muscle in our legs and body because strengthening them is important for stabilising our hips, knees, lower back and core.

Everyone wants a flat stomach, a six pack, chiseled abs, a stronger core. If you have never been able to achieve this on your body and have been hitting the gym hard, could your current workouts be targeting the wrong muscle groups? Though there is so much more to working out on your core than doing a whole lot of ab crunches. Your core is not just about the abdominal muscles, it’s about your body’s powerhouse.

Short on time but want to achieve maximum results? This is where you need to relook at your current workouts, to see how you can get the most out of your time in the club with your routines and the great thing is, no personal trainer is needed. Say hello to Circuit Training.Circuit training is high intensity, fast paced workouts based on a series of exercises, where you move between workout stations back to back with a short period of rest to no rest in between exercises.

Everyone always has one part of their body that they would like to see toned up and with summer around the corner this means we start seeing more people wearing short sleeves and singlets. So, besides your abs, it’s probably your arm’s that you would like to see have more definition, am I right?

Spin bikes, you either love them or hate them. If you’re not an avid cyclist, then the thought of getting onto a bike at the gym probably won’t interest you at first. But the difference between the two, is one is used by cycling out on the road with probably a lot of traffic around them and the other is used by getting onto a stationary bike at the gym. Keyword here being stationary.

Did you know the oldest documented evidence of the practise of mediation are wall arts in the Indian subcontinent from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE, showing people in meditative postures with half-closed eyes? If people have been doing it, all those years ago and people are still doing it now, then surely there has to be some truth to the benefits of mediation, right?

Functional Fitness Training helps the body move, correcting muscle imbalances and assisting in good health and longevity. It is all about movement and patterns of movements that make daily activities easier to do. A durable and functional body will protect you from injury and help you to stay in good shape for later life, with free and easy movement for years to come.

Booty, butt, buttocks, derrière or whatever you may call it, they are all of the same part of the body… Your glutes.What are your GlutesThe gluteal muscles are a group of three muscles which make up the buttocks: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The gluteus maximus is the largest and most superficial of the three gluteal muscles which makes up a large portion of the shape and appearance of the hips. The function of the muscles includes extension, abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation of the hip joint. Thanks Wikipedia!