Strength and balance play into daily activities such as picking up groceries or children and performing daily chores, yet exercises to improve them are sometimes left out of our fitness regimens.
In reviewing member assessments, the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany’s fitness center found that many need to focus on strength training and balance improvement, and it has designed classes accordingly.
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“These are really good classes for all our members in particular,” says Danielle Novotny, group exercise coordinator for The Ohio University Wexner Medical Center’s Health and Fitness Center.
While taking their physical assessments, members who were physically fit were sometimes frustrated to find they struggled with the balance test, Novotny says. It is, however, nearly impossible to earn a perfect score in balance and strength. Instead, the fitness center bases its evaluations on benchmarks for age, gender and fitness level. During the balance portion of the assessment, evaluators look for symmetry so that body weight is distributed evenly.
“None of our members have gotten a perfect score,” she says.
The two classes, Fit for Life and Functional Fitness, address poor habits that people often develop, which result in using the wrong muscles for lifting or even getting up off the floor.
“These classes are trying to tackle those things,” she says.
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Instead of focusing on cardiovascular activity, sessions serve as an introduction to strength training. This, in turn, will help members learn how to properly use equipment when they are working out alone, Novotny says.
Functional Fitness is designed as a basic strength class, Novotny says, for those who have not used weights before. The instructor is a physical therapist. Hand weights are primarily featured in exercises, though equipment may also include mats, stability balls and resistance bands. While the Fit for Life class incorporates the same type of equipment, exercises are a bit more advanced than those featured in Functional Fitness.
Sarah Sole is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
