| Fuel Up for Lunch |
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| Written by Deanna Pan | ||||||||||
| Wednesday, 26 August 2009 06:29 | ||||||||||
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Fuel Up for Lunch What's for lunch? How about a blood-pumping workout with a side of extra energy? These two exercise experts offer lunchtime workouts so you can return to the office — faster, stronger and more alert.  Today’s working woman certainly has a feast on her plate. She works. She cleans. She juggles family and friends. Stretched for time, women often fall victim to competing commitments and neglect their physical fitness. Their figurative smorgasbord of responsibilities and obligations quickly manifests as a hefty plate of pasta or a hulking, foot-long hoagie at lunchtime.
That’s why more and more women, crunched for time and deluged with work, exercise during their duty-free lunch break. For $20 a month, Fusion Studio in Newport offers a lunchtime special from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for busy women who are interested in getting their bodies busy. Fusion Studio trainers also can go on-site to local businesses to teach strength training, Pilates, yoga or cardio classes, says Jamie Hoffpauir, owner of Fusion Studio, a “boutique fitness center.”
Interval training is the most effective way to maximize a lunchtime workout, she says. This training features high-intensity spurts of exercise with intervening periods of recovery) “Ten minute warm up, 20 minute interval training, 10 minute cool down and you’re out the door in 40 minutes,” she says.
Among its amenities, Fusion Studio offers showers, towels, shampoos and hairdryers for customers to freshen up quickly and easily. With 15 to 20 minutes left for lunch, she recommends a healthy meal with protein and carbohydrates to “put back what you took out.”
On the other side of town, Doug Gibson, president of Sensible Fitness, a private personal training center in Blue Ash, provides a similar lunchtime fitness program: the Sensible Fitness Lunchtime Express. From noon to 12:30 p.m., class participants break a big sweat doing intense strength training and cardiovascular exercise on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The cost to participate is $25 for a single session or $120 for a four-week term. Sensible Fitness offers a full range of products so that customers can freshen up. These products include towels, shampoos, conditioners, shaving cream, razors, mouth wash, deodorant and even hair spray.
If your workout routine doesn't fit into your morning or lunchtime, exercise will be the last thing on your mind after a long day at the office. The temptation of collapsing in the arms of your living room sofa with a bag of chips and a bowl of ice cream will be too hard to resist.
“If [exercise] is done in the morning or at lunch time, before all these obstacles arrive, you’re successful. You have a higher gratification because you’re achieving things. You’re going toward your goals and feeling better about yourself,” Gibson says.
Besides the confidence boost and a fit physique that comes with a healthy routine, 30 minutes of physical activity during lunch even can increase job performance, keeping you on the edge of your pointy toed pumps.
“You’re more alert in the afternoon,” Gibson says. And a healthy employee is a better employee.
Employees who commit to physical fitness and make healthy life decisions not only use fewer sick days, but also have proven to be productive, Gibson says. Because it costs less for employers when employees are eating right and exercising regularly, Hoffpauir recommends employers implement incentive programs, point systems and team activities that encourage health and wellness in their employees.
For more information on Fusion Studio,visit it online or call (859) 802-354. To contact Sensible Fitness, check it out on the Web or call (513) 530-5326.
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 September 2009 03:12 | ||||||||||
