Well, obviously we both think exercise classes are a pretty good idea. However, perhaps not for the reason you hope. We have many clients come to our classes to make up for a naughty weekend or a guilty splurge in the hope that our workouts will cancel out the calories. Now, we know on a lot of the exercise equipment at the gym it will list your calories burned, and as you watch the numbers get higher, you start to feel that you can exorcise all of the calories you have eaten.
Sadly, this is not the case – exercise does not exorcise the calories. ‘So what on earth is the point?’, I hear you cry. Well, we want you to think of exercise as a total separate entity to burning calories. It is a hugely powerful tool – offering you 45 minutes to an hour that you can dedicate solely to yourself. You can clear your head – forget about the kids, cleaning and all whilst working on strengthening your body, increasing your fitness levels and general overall health.
By creating and building muscles (and no.. we aren’t going to turn you into body- builders, we are talking long-lean muscle) your body will burn more calories then normal increasing your metabolism. So what does that mean? You’ll be able to eat more food before your body starts storing any excess calories as fat. Great, eh?!
That’s not it though! When you exercise your body releases a chemical called endorphins. These endorphins trigger a happy, positive feeling in our body which is why we feel great after a workout.
This is is why, especially for those newbies who perhaps are a little bit nervous about our high intensity training (aceHIIT – see blog for the science!), we really would recommend trying our new dynamic yoga class, aceFLOW. Led by our awesome instructor, Zara (with a musical background, she has been known to break out into song during the class!), in the Free Church Hall, in Hampstead Garden Suburb.
The class will leave you feeling taller, stronger, clearer, and able to breathe far easier. Scheduled at, what we hope, is the perfect time of 9.30 on a Thursday morning – just after the mania of getting the kids out of the house looking somewhat presentable and the interminable school rota, it is a really great start to the day. Not only that, but it also complements our other classes – so if you were really keen you could go to Thursday morning yoga as well as our Thursday evening circuit training which is at Hendon Leisure Centre, right near Tesco Brent Cross.
Our evening classes offer all the same benefits of yoga – they will help you feel stronger, fitter, and far more confident. In fact, we are always amazed by the difference we see in women from their first class when they come and hide in the back, scared to be seen, nervous of doing something wrong to their fourth or fifth when they are exercising like nobody’s watching – which let me assure you they aren’t.
Of course, there are also those who come once and don’t come back again. We get it – the first time you come to a class it can feel somewhat overwhelming and as if everyone is far better equipped than you. However, we really would encourage every person who is motivated to come to one class to come to a second because practice really does make perfect. And we hope that the following few suggestions should make the first few times a bit easier:
All our classes are for women only, meaning you should feel completely comfortable during our sessions and like we said we really are here to help. So please do give us a call on 07815 209 112 or email us on info@ace-lifestyle.co.uk if you have any questions or simply want us to keep a look out for you at our next class. Don’t forget to book for aceFLOW by clicking HERE.
Zara started gymnastics at the age of eight and moved in to ballet, jazz and contemporary dance. She went on to train professionally at the Guildford School of Acting gaining a degree in Musical Theatre.
She worked within the theatre industry for five years before moving in to fitness.
Currently she teaches Les Mills Body Balance, Body Pump and Body Attack as well as Spin and Flexible Strength. She was fortunate enough to be invited to Presenter Bootcamp for Les Mills where she was offered the opportunity to work towards being an international trainer.
Having always worked on flexibility through gymnastics, dance and now yoga, she enjoys developing her own stretches and sequences to enable clients to reach their goals. She enjoys strength training, running and cross fit and has found flexibility to be beneficial across all workouts.
Flexibility undoubtedly leads to less injuries; and her mantra is “I bend so I don’t break!”