Orangetheory Fitness Salt Lake City

June 9, 2015

I first heard about Orangetheory Fitness when A Lady Goes West, a fellow fitness blogger friend, became an instructor at one of their studios in the Bay Area, California. I went to their website to find out more and was intrigued; I couldn’t really get a clear sense of what the workout involved as it seemed to involve everything! TRX, rowing machine, treadmill and etc. Luckily for me, there is a studio located in Salt Lake City which lets you try out your first class for free.

The Orangetheory

The staff at Orangetheory Salt Lake City were very helpful, which helped make a great first impression! They explained to me that they give everyone a heart rate monitor for the duration of the class to track their heart rate and calorie burn. There are several different heart rate zones that the instructor encourage you to push to.

“The physiological theory behind the Orangetheory workout is known as “Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption,” or EPOC. By providing you with a heart rate monitor and POD, we can monitor your 5 zone interval training sessions that we call the Orange 60. During the 60 minute workout, you will perform multiple intervals designed to produce 12-20 minutes of training at 84% or higher of your maximum heart rate, which translates to Zones 4/5. This program design produces EPOC, which is the workout “after-burn” effect, meaning that our interval training design produces a 200-400 calorie increase to your metabolism 24-36 hours after your workout.” Continue Reading…

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The Yoga Collective & Giveaway

June 7, 2015

Last year, I was so good about doing yoga regularly. I practiced yoga about 3 times a week for about 6 months … and then I stopped. I mean, I did yoga here and there, but I was just so busy with my final year of graduate school that yoga sadly took a back seat. I have resolved to try and incorporate yoga into my weekly routine again and to practice at least once a week. Even if just for 10 minutes.

As such, I was thrilled when I learned about The Yoga Collective and their fantastic array of online yoga videos! Although I love going to yoga studios, sometimes time (and money) issues can make this difficult. Being able to do yoga at home makes it much more realistic for me to practice yoga on a regular basis.

What is it like to take a Yoga Collective class?

The cool thing about The Yoga Collective is that there actually is a physical studio in Venice Beach, CA, where they shoot their yoga videos. I like that each video is shot in the studio because you really feel as if you are getting the full yoga studio experience from an online yoga class; but from home! When you play a yoga video, it starts with the instructor introducing themselves and explaining each of the poses in an easy to understand fashion. I have to say that so far, Shayna Hiller, is my favorite instructor because I think her voice is incredibly soothing and that she explains the poses and eases you into transitions extremely well. Her ‘Birds of a Feather Twist Together‘ class was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

But what if I’ve never done yoga before?

That is totally fine! The Yoga Collective has options for you to choose the level, duration, teacher, style and focus of the yoga class. There are lots of options for beginners and more advanced users alike. There is even a whole page dedicated to helping you perfect the moves called free yoga poses. This page has tons of videos of different yoga poses to help walk you through them and to make sure your form is correct (so important in yoga).

If you are a beginner, it is definitely helpful to get private instruction and/or one on one help from a yoga instruction but to be honest, 95% of all the yoga I have done has been at home. It is just so much more convenient.

Giveaway: 1 Year Membership to The Yoga Collective!

I love using The Yoga Collective and I absolutely want you to have that experience as well! The Yoga Collective were kind enough to offer 2 of my readers a 1 year membership to The Yoga Collective. All you have to do is enter using the widget below and follow the instructions; so easy 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you get to check out The Yoga Collective when you can, and best of luck to all of you that have entered!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Thank you for all of your support! For more Honestly Fitness, check out my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest and don’t forget to subscribe!

Disclaimer: I was given a free 1 year subscription to try out The Yoga Collective and the giveaway was sponsored by The Yoga Collective. My thoughts are always my unbiased and own, and I only showcase what I think will be helpful for your health and fitness journey.

Fitness, Health, Salt Lake City

How to workout in high altitudes

May 31, 2015

Before I moved to Salt Lake City, I had no idea that being in a place with high altitude could affect your workout performance. I mean, I kiiinda knew because I had heard that athletes often went to train in places of high altitude to make themselves perform better. I pretty much ignored thinking about why it would be harder (yet better for you) to train at higher altitude until I moved over to Salt Lake City, just last week. I know the altitude in Salt Lake City is not thaaat high, but it makes a difference, trust me. My experiences so far inspired me to write this post so that I could help anyone who is struggling with how to workout in high altitudes.

Why is it harder to train in higher altitudes?

The reason it is so much harder to exercise in higher altitude is because of the lack of oxygen; the higher the altitude, the less oxygen there is. And as we all know, if you are working out, you need to supply oxygen to your muscles. Therefore, when you are at a higher altitude, you need to breathe at a faster rate to get the correct amount of oxygen to your muscles and your heart also needs to beat faster “to move more oxygen-carrying blood cells past the muscle cells.” So that’s why I end up on the floor, a big red mess, wheezing for air so quickly!!!

How can you overcome the difficulties of training in higher altitudes?

Still trying to figure this one out and sadly, there does not seem to be a quick fix. You basically just have to keep training and eventually, you will acclimatize and your body will adapt to the change in altitude. This NY Times article states that acclimatization will bring about chemical processed which will enable your muscle cells to better handle the lower oxygen levels. Also, the number of capillaries you have will increase (that is so crazy)!

What am I doing?

Considering that I am a health and fitness blogger, this is a great (yet annoying challenge) for me. I have been doing the following things to help me still workout despite feeling like an absolute beginner:

I have been going at a slower pace when doing circuit training and taking more breaks as needed
I have been doing more LISS (low intensity steady state cardio) to build up my endurance
I have been doing extra strength based moves (such as TRX push ups and ab exercises) to ensure that my body stays well conditioned while I build up my endurance to do more high intensity circuits
Not beating myself up when I get tired – I felt really bad the first time I worked out because of how weak I felt, but I realize that it is a process and that I will get stronger and faster again

Does anyone have similar experiences?

I would love to hear from you if you also moved to or are currently living in a place with higher altitude. What did you do to keep yourself motivated and how did you build up your strength and endurance again? It is times like this I wish I had a personal trainer to force me to workout haha, but luckily I have social media networks, such as Instagram, to keep me motivated and disciplined.

Honestly yours,
Alice Salt Lake City health and fitness blogger