Saturday - 8/1 - Interval Circuit Training

Are you ready to sweat? We hope so because this Saturday Donna M. will be leading everyone through a fun and challenging circuit of calisthenics, plyometrics and good old-fashioned cardio work that will help to get you fit and trim. Donna said she wants to show everyone that you don't need fancy equipment or an expensive gym membership in order to get a good workout. All you need is a positive and willing attitude, your own body weight and the desire to push yourself.

As usual, we'll all meet at 8:00 at the football field at the Williamson County Regional Park. Anyone who would like to come early or stay after the group session for additional exercise of your choosing is both welcomed and encouraged to do so. Get someone to join you!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED FOR SATURDAY

- An exercise mat or large towel
- Water

As a reminder, all of our group workouts are designed so that people of all ages and all fitness levels can participate. Whether you can run marathons in your sleep or you lose your breath just getting up off the couch, we want you to be part of our group and we welcome everyone with open arms.

See you Saturday!

Saturday 7/25 - Pilates!!

This coming Saturday we will be hosting the second meeting of the Westside Fitness Group and it promises to be a good one. Danielle Robinson will be leading all of us in a fun and challenging Pilates session!

If you've never done Pilates before now is a great time to start. With the help and guidance of Danielle, everyone will be able to walk away Saturday feeling stronger, leaner and more flexible than you were before. And contrary to popular belief, Pilates isn't just for women. Everyone...male and female...young and old...can benefit from Pilates. So come on out on Saturday and join us as we all strive for better health and fitness.

What You Need:

Exercise mat or large towel.

What You Do NOT Need:

Shoes!!

Want to know more about Pilates? Below is an excerpt from About.com that explains a little bit about what it is and why it will benefit you:

"Pilates is a form of exercise, developed by Joseph Pilates, which emphasizes the balanced development of the body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness in order to support efficient, graceful movement. One of the best things about the Pilates method is that it works so well for a wide range of people. The top benefits doing of Pilates exercise that people report are that they become stronger, longer, leaner, and more able to do anything with grace and ease.

Core strength is the foundation of Pilates exercise. The core muscles are the deep, internal muscles of the abdomen and back. When the core muscles are strong and doing their job, as they are trained to do in Pilates, they work in tandem with the more superficial muscles of the trunk to support the spine and movement. As you develop your core strength you develop stability throughout your entire torso. Pilates exercises do not include a lot of repetitions for each move. Instead, doing each exercise fully, with precision, yields significant results in a shorter time than one would ever imagine."

See you Saturday!

5K for Clay - August 15th

Last year several folks in the Westside Run Group ran the 5K for Clay in Round Rock. For those of you not familiar with this race, it benefits the Clay Madsen Recreation Center in Round Rock "which strives to be a safe place where children and adults can learn leadership and sportsmanship qualities."

Running is a great way to develop physical fitness and build up your cardio endurance. If you have never walked or ran in a race like this before, those of us who participated in this race last year will tell you that it feels great to finish the race and also know that the registration fees are going to a good cause. It's fun too!

For anyone interested in learning more about this event or registering, please visit the following website: 5K for Clay

It will be great if we can have a good group of folks representing Westside in this race!!

Going Live This Saturday - Core & Abs

That's right...this coming Saturday (7/18) will be the first official workout of the newly-formed Westside Fitness Group. If you're not excited then you must not have a pulse! Everyone plan to meet at the west entrance to the football field at Williamson County Regional Park at 8:00 sharp for our first workout.

Speaking of our first workout, I'm happy to announce that this week our very own Danielle Hinson will be leading the group in a gut wrenching core and ab workout. Having a strong core is an essential part of fitness that helps in almost every physical aspect of our lives. It also helps to prevent injuries while performing other workouts as well as your normal everyday activities. Danielle is going to lead you through a series of exercises that will help you to build strength not only in your upper and lower abs, but also in your obliques, transverse abs and the lower back muscles that help to make up the "core" of your body.

If you're not in the habit of doing core and ab exercises then don't let it intimidate you. Now is a great time to start! Just come out on Saturday and do your best. Then when you're done, go ahead and take a stroll, jog or ride around the nice trails at the park while you're there. You won't regret it!

I'm working to get a schedule together for the rest of July as well as the month of August. That should be coming soon, so check back here often.

Saturday - July 11th - Not Yet!!

Howdy!!

The fitness group is technically not starting yet since this whole thing kind of just happened yesterday, but I will be at the park tomorrow (Saturday) at 8 AM to walk or run with anyone that shows up.

Don't feel like you have to show up for my sake though as I will have already completed my workout by 8 AM and my presence there will mostly be for the purposes of making sure that anyone who goes doesn't have to go alone.

I hope to post an actual schedule of some sort soon. Though I will be out of town, I don't think this is officially going to kick off until next weekend (the 18th).

Have a great weekend!

Coming Soon!!

Things are about to get exciting for our new group! To be honest, it's all falling into place better than I could have hoped. I've been sort of tossing around the idea for a while now of converting the Westside Run Group to a fitness group so we could get more involvement, but I never really did anything with those thoughts until today.

As I was at the gym this morning sweating away the pounds, I started thinking about this again and ideas started formulating in my head. By 6:45 AM I managed to recruit a boot camp instructor. Later in the morning this website was created along with a new email address and a Facebook group. This afternoon we got lucky enough to snag a Pilates instructor. If I wasn't excited before, I'm VERY excited now! I'm not yet going to reveal who these top notch ladies are, but I'm grateful for their willingness to help out and I look forward to the opportunities for health and fitness that they'll bring to the table.

The details are still in the works, but at this point here is the vision I have for our weekly meetings:

• One Saturday a month we'll have a boot camp session.
• One Saturday a month we'll have a Pilates session.
• Two to three Saturdays a month will be walk/run/bike Saturdays (or whatever else we can come up with).

If the boot camp and Pilates sessions become very popular we may explore the possibilities of doing them more frequently (perhaps with different instructors so that we don't place too much of a burden on the two we have now).

I plan to send out weekly emails letting everyone know what the next Saturday's workout will be and also sharing articles related to fitness and/or nutrition. Feel free to send your favorite articles to the group email if you find one you want to share.

So, this whole thing is still evolving and developing, but that's where it's at right now.

Stay tuned for more!! I hope to have a schedule posted soon so that everyone can see what's coming up.

God is good! Spread the word!