At Fitness Focus, the goal is to offer a fitness center with a welcoming, fun and safe environment that all ages can enjoy. They are a forerunner in the fitness industry in Saskatoon . With the ever changing fitness demands of new and improved classes, training; and nutrition. They are your TRUSTED SASKATOON FITNESS EXPERTS!  

 
The change of seasons can throw off your fitness routine considerably. If you're used to running around your neighborhood after work, you may be hesitant to keep that hobby up once the sun starts going down at 5 p.m. Adjusting your fitness routine can take some effort, but your goals shouldn't disintegrate just because the seasons start to change. 
 

INSPIRE YOURSELF 
SUB IN WINTER ACTIVITIES 
Baggy clothing, unhealthy snacking and pushing back your bedtime will all conspire to land you on the couch during the winter months. Instead, look for small changes you can make to give your body a very different message. Wearing a fitted cardigan is a way to let yourself see the results that you've made after all your workouts. Going to bed earlier is the best way to wake up earlier feeling rested and refreshed so you can go for that morning run. Skipping the potato chips at your mid-afternoon break and substituting whole grains can give you the energy you need to stay on track. 
 
Ice skating, skiing and sledding are all great ways to burn calories while enjoying the new season. And while you may need to travel a few Kilometers to find a rink or trail the effort will be well worth it. Not only will you be testing and improving your physical stamina, but you'll also be learning or improving upon a skill. If you come back from an activity and your shoes are soaked through, put crushed up newspapers inside them and set them in a warm (but not hot) place. Too much heat can wear down the materials of your expensive shoes. 
 
Another option to keep up with your fitness plans during winter is to start using a gym. Fitness Focus provides all the tools for any person to pursue growth and empowerment through personal challenge. Working out a a gym offers you consistency so you're less likely to alter your routine no matter what season it is. Contact us today and see how we can help you maintain or achieve your fall winter goals!
 
Fitness Focus are TRUSTED SASKATOON GYM and Fitness Experts

This February we're beyond excited to present to Saskatoon, Puppy Yoga!  This is our first ever time offering this event which we've aptly called Mutts & Mats: Yoga for a New Hope. What could be more enjoyable than a relaxing Yoga class, surrounded by adorable 3-month old puppies? While this class is currently sold out, the initial response has been so overwhelming, we plan to provide this class again in the very near future.

If you've ever been to our gym you've likely met our Gym Dog named Dak.  Having Dak around, and the reception he's gotten from all of our member, we've realized what an admiration you all have for dogs.  We've also realized just how many of you out there all have a furry family member of your own. We figured it was only fitting to combine something as lovable as dogs with something so many of you are so passionate about as Yoga.  And hey, if yoga can be made more popular with the addition of cats or goats, then puppy yoga might just be the best thing ever invented.

Our friends at New Hope Dog Rescue in Saskatoon will be bringing their newest litter of German Shepherd cross puppies to explore and play around the Fitness Focus yoga studio while all the participants find their zen. All proceeds raised by Mutts & Mats will be going to New Hope Dog Rescue, which provides financial aid for emergency surgeries, housing, food and other expenses associated with the process of finding dogs a forever home. 

Take a minute to learn why our Trainers are so unique and among the best in Saskatoon. Team Wawryk Trainers are passionate for wellness, living a healthy lifestyle, have a drive for personal improvement and the desire to help their clients discover and reach their goals. 

Team Wawryk Trainer - JESS FRIESEN

Hard work, perseverance, motivation and determination are just a few of the traits that have fueled her passions throughout her life. From a very early age, she discovered her athletic abilities and excelled at many sports including volleyball, basketball, swimming, track and hockey. After high school however, the demands of post secondary education forced Jess to lose focus on sports and a healthy lifestyle and soon came face to face with the reality of not only being uncomfortably overweight and out of shape, but also dealing with an unhealthy relationship with food. Once realizing that she allowed herself to lose sight of something that she had been so passionate about for so long, she decided to embark on a journey down the path of health and fitness and has never wanted to look back. Her own experiences battling weight issues, self image and emotional eating, she understands the effort, energy and support that it takes to get the desired results. Jess' ultimate goal as a personal trainer is to motivate inspire and educate others about the benefits of exercising and living a healthy lifestyle. Results do not come over night, but with patience, persistence, and consistency anyone can achieve realistic goals.

Team Wawryk Trainer - DENISE KOMINETSKY

She completed the CanFit Pro Fitness Instructor Specialist Course (FIS) in 2013, and the Personal Training Specialist Course (PTS) in 2016. Denise has been a Figure Competitor with the Saskatchewan Amateur Bodybuilding Association since 2011. She placed well in each competition and qualified for nationals after only her first year competing.

Members' workout requirements are always changing, which means we need to add new equipment to the gym. A must-have was a third Squat Rack, the Atlantis Half Rack. More people are starting to incorporate functional (and fundamental) exercises like deadlifts, lunges and squats into their training which necessitated us to add another Squat Rack into the weight room. In the past people would stay clear of exercises like squats because were under the impression they were only beneficial in a competition setting with the sole purpose of lifting a maximum amount of weight.  Now people are starting to realize that squats are the perfect exercise for both shaping the legs and glutes while complimenting a variety of other body parts. It's great to see people are now challenging themselves with these types of exercises.

 The leg platform is a very diverse piece of equipment.  It looks very simple as it's just an adjustable step; but it would take more than your 2 hands to count the amount of exercises you can do with it. Step ups, lunges, reverse lunges, box jumps, box squats, stiff-leg deadlifts, incline push-ups, and the list goes on.  Get creative with the leg platform, it's durable and build for a serious workout.

Most machines work front-to-back. The Helix turns tradition on its side— literally. With lateral (or side-to-side) movement, you use more muscles, which means you burn more fat than during a traditional workout– in the same amount of time.  Plus Helix’s patented motion tones your butt, core and inner/outer thighs better than old-fashioned cardio machines.

Common Misconceptions about the weight room

So many people that are both new to the weight room or long time users become deterred from the gym because they haven’t achieved the results they had expected from their weight routine.  There are many common misconceptions about lifting weights that cause people to start on the wrong track and are then left feeling discouraged.

Lifting weights will make you big and bulky; false.  The primary benefit of lifting weights is increased lean muscles, but increased lean muscles doesn’t mean enormous muscles.  For men it is a lot easier to get big muscles, but still takes years of heavy training.  In the case of women, they just are not genetically programmed to build thick and bulky muscles.  Other benefits of weight lifting include increasing metabolism and lower body fat, a greater resistance to injury and improved overall health.  So don’t ignore the weight room, embrace weight training and use it to build the body you want.

Doing Ab exercises everyday will result in a flat stomach and well-defined 6-pack Abs; false.  Abdominal (Ab) exercises are resistance training and like weight training, are used to develop the targeted muscles.  We need to remember that muscles and body fat are two completely different things, so once we develop our Abdominal muscles it does not change the fact that there still might be some fat lying on top of them.  Spending a majority of a workout everyday training Abs will become very repetitive and boring; dedicating some time twice a week Ab exercises is lots. 

It is possible to spot reduce fat from one area of the body; false.  Repeating an exercise over and over will do nothing more than condition that particular muscles to perform that exercise.  To reduce body fat, we need to adjust what we eat so that the calories we ingest are slightly lower than the calories we burn, signalling the body to start burning fat for energy.  On the extreme end of this, when we begin to starve ourselves our body goes into survival mode and will begin to store fat in the body for future requirements.  We have no control over what area the body fat will accumulate; it is all genetically predetermined.  For some people it is in the stomach, for others it’s the hips or butt.  Just as we have no control over where it will end up, we have no control over where it will come off.  

The key to success in health and fitness is the understanding that it takes patience in the process and the willingness to always learn, to change old habits and adapt.

All too often in the gym many of us are performing our squats with improper technique, there are 2 causes for this.  The first and common reason is that we tend overload the weight and use more than we should causing us to sacrifice technique as well as depth on the downward part of the squat.  The second reason is that we are generally taught to limit our squatting is to lower our thighs to just below parallel rather than perform full ‘arse to grass’ squats, because it is a ‘safer alternative’. The argument for this is that a full squat places much more stress on our knees and ligaments.

While from a static anatomical standpoint, this argument is seemingly true, our body actually behaves different in a dynamic movement under load. For example, supporting structures like cartilage and ligaments work to dissipate the intensification of stress on joints. On sensing the increased load, stretch receptor cells in the joint alert the brain to increase the muscular and ligamentous stability in and around the joint capsule, thus preventing injury. 

It's not all black and white though, there are circumstances when a full squat would not be initially advised, such as people with damaged knee cartilage or post knee operation patients, also  individuals with disc bulges or spinal issues. In the majority of clients with knee issues though, it is ironically their years of half squatting, poor technique and the lack of full squatting that forms the root of their problem.

 So, if a full Range Of Motion (ROM) squat is not bad for us, what exactly are the advantages of performing such an exercise?

• Recent research has shown that full ROM squats help to strengthen the ligaments around the knees, and maintain the capsule integrity.

• Squatting through a full range of motion helps to minimise imbalances of the quadriceps muscles by forcing the muscles to work through the lower half of its movement capacity, as well as reduce imbalances between the quadriceps and hamstrings.

• It encourages optimal muscle recruitment and activation over a larger range of motion, leading to better quadriceps development.

• Deep squatting helps to activate the lower fibers of the Vastus Medialis Oblique (VMO), which serve a critical purpose of stabilizing the knee during movements like running and jumping.

• Full squatting is an instinctive movement pattern of the body, like walking or breathing. For example, perfect squatting techniques are best observed in children, who perform the exercise with ease and without instruction.

• It can help to eliminate knee pain caused by patella-femoral tracking syndrome which ironically can be caused by muscular imbalances and tight iliotibial band as a result of partial squatting.

Physical Benefits

Flexibility: Stretching your body in new and different ways will help your joints and muscles to become more flexible, giving you better range of motion. Over time, you will gain flexibility in your legs, back, shoulders, and midsection which can all prevent injury and aid in your resistance training.

Strength: Many poses in yoga require supporting the weight of your own body in new and different ways, including balancing on one leg or supporting yourself with your arms. The slow movements through the poses also develope strength.  You can also expect to see improved muscle tone, better shape and long lean muscles.

Pain Prevention: Increasing flexibility and strength will help prevent certain types of body pain. For example, many people who suffer from back pain can usually trace it back to spending much of their time sitting or high impact activity all day. That can cause spinal compression, which you can begin to address with yoga. Yoga will also improve your alignment, both in and out of class, which helps prevent many other types of pain.

Better Breathing: Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and don't give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has both physical and mental benefits.

Mental Benefits

Mental Calmness: Yoga asana practice is intensely physical. Concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing a calmness to the mind. Yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as watching how you breathe and disengagement from your thoughts, which help calm the mind.

Body Awareness: Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body. You are often called upon to make small, subtle movements to improve your alignment. Over time, this will increase your level of comfort in your own body. This can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.

Try adding a component of TRX to your training in the gym.  We offer TRX based group classes as well as one on one personal training.  TRX Suspension Training was born in the Navy SEALS, develops strength, power, endurance, balance, flexibility, mobility, durability, and core stability.  The TRX Suspension Trainer is a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity the user's bodyweight to enable hundreds of exercises that can be instantly scaled for any user to reach any fitness or training goal. whether you're young or old, out of shape or a beast, injured or at the top of your game, TRX Training meets you where you are and takes you where you want to be.

2011 has proven great for Team Wawryk Pro Trainers and Fitness Focus Health & Athletic Centre.  So far it has been an exciting and unique endeavor for the gym's personal training department; as Team Wawryk's professional level of experience has never before been offered at a fitness centre in Saskatchewan.  What sets Wawryk Trainers apart from traditional styles of Personal Training is their first hand knowledge of health and fitness; not only through study, but also through years of experience and application, that they pass on to their clients which range from beginner to advanced lifters seeking contest preparation....

Founder IFBB Pro Vince Wawryk (pictured below) has an extensive background spanning over 20 years in exercise & fitness, diet, nutrtion, and weight management; combined with the Wawryk Trainers they possess over 50 years experience.

To talk about your individual fitness goals and learn new solutions to reach them, a Team Wawryk Trainer can be contacted at the gym through the front desk, directly at teamwawryk.com, or visit them on Facebook

Vince Wawrk IFBB Pro  -  Head Trainer at Fitness Focus Health & Athletic Centre

The term meal replacement has become a very common (and overused) one; and with more products and advertisements coming out everyday, it's pretty obvious why.  It has also left people a little more confused about the purpose of them.  In reality, maybe they shouldn't really be called "replacements" at all.  The word "replacement" gives a sense that it is just as good as real food, very misleading.  There are no substitutions for real food.  Weather your goal is to lose weight or gain weight, things like meal replacements, bars and protein shakes are supplemetal and work best between meals and worst case senario if you absolutely have to miss a meal.

   PREPARATION IS EVERYTHING

Fitness Focus Health & Athletic Centre Saskatoon