National Senior Health & Fitness Day
May 15, 2015
Essex Meadows Celebrates National
Senior Health & Fitness Day®
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
The Nation’s Largest Older Adult Health Promotion Event
National Senior Health & Fitness Day is a nationwide health and fitness event for older adults, always held the last Wednesday in May during Older Americans Month. 2015 will mark the 22nd year of the program, and more than 100,000 older adults will participate at local events at more than 1,000 locations across the country on the same day. The event’s goals are to promote the importance of regular physical activity, and to showcase what local organizations are doing to improve the health and fitness of older adults in their communities. In lieu of celebrating for just one day, Essex Meadows is going to celebrate all month by introducing some brand new fitness programs! Throughout the month of May, look for these new programs every Friday at 9 a.m.
May 1 Circuit Class with Gwen – Hamilton Hall
May 8 Zumba with Gwen & Stacie – Hamilton Hall
May 15 Chair Yoga with Gwen – Billiards Room
May 22 Circuit Class with Gwen – Hamilton Hall
May 29 Zumba with Gwen & Stacie – Hamilton Hall
Circuit training is a fast-paced class in which you do one exercise for 30 seconds to 5 minutes and then move on to another exercise. Circuit training increases your strength and aerobic fitness and burns lots of calories. Circuit training tends to be intense, but it’s completely adaptable to the individual. Beginners use less weight and perform simpler moves than more-experienced exercisers, but everyone gets a good workout.
Chair Yoga is approved by the Arthritis Foundation to ease the aches and pains of arthritis sufferers. Scared you will fall over and lose your balance trying yoga? Seniors find they can balance, strengthen and stretch more when using a chair for support. That’s why Chair Yoga has become so popular. It is an easy and affective way to get all the benefits from yoga without leaving your seat or comfortable chair.
Zumba is a popular fitness program inspired by Latin dance. The word “Zumba” comes from a Colombian word that means to move fast and have fun, which is just how people describe the routine. Using upbeat Latin music together with cardiovascular exercise, Zumba is aerobic dancing that is lots of fun and easy to learn. Zumba seems to be an optimal fitness choice, mixing cardio intervals with resistance training. Many experts believe that an interval/resistance combination maximizes caloric output, fat burning, and total body toning. Zumba mixes effective body sculpting movements with easy-to-follow, fun dance steps. People seem to forget about working out during a Zumba session, allowing them to exercise longer, and burn even more calories. A typical Zumba session lasts about an hour and incorporates several dance styles, including cumbia, merengue, salsa, reggaeton, mambo, rumba, flamenco, calypso, and Salsaton. The Latin music includes both fast and slow rhythms, allowing for a great cardio workout as well as body sculpting exercises.
We hope you will give one or more of these new classes a try! Balance Class with Susan will resume in June in the Friday 9 a.m. time slot. We will continue to offer our very popular Balance Class every Friday in May at 11:15 a.m., as well as Abs, Arthritis Class, and Aquacise to give you lots of choices to vary your workout and achieve your wellness goals!